1999 message (14 years old)
Both problems and real solutions are outlined in great detail within the following 2 links
Is there really such thing as "sustainable" animal agriculture at GLOBAL scale?
Some believe it is
but what's the TRUTH?
Following the growing trend of "sustainable" animal agriculture, the time has come for the sustainable animal farming MYTH to come to light and for all people and organizations promoting such myth, to be called on to taking a deeper look at what exactly it is that they inadvertently promote, at such a huge cost on our planetary ecosystems
Some believe it is
but what's the TRUTH?
Following the growing trend of "sustainable" animal agriculture, the time has come for the sustainable animal farming MYTH to come to light and for all people and organizations promoting such myth, to be called on to taking a deeper look at what exactly it is that they inadvertently promote, at such a huge cost on our planetary ecosystems
the links contained within this page will open up everyone's eyes and offer real sustainable solutions, before they continue to spread the myth of sustainable animal farming, at any scale
To grasp a bird’s overview on the fascinating mind, eye and heart opening materials below, is best to first read the TITLES and added paragraphs from the more in depth articles of each listed link below
BREAKING, absolutely unparalleled, HISTORICAL news!! The TIDE has already TURNED and our world will never be the same, and this is why: http://wholefed.org/2013/06/07/17000-reasons-to-eat-a-plant-based-diet/
Kaiser Permanente is a leader. I have never commented on a hospital system before but I constantly find KP behind initiatives I support. Kaiser Permanente, with some $50 billion in annual revenue, owns 37 hospitals and employs 17,000 doctors, all on salary. They have 9 million members!
So imagine my delight when I saw the headline; KP urging all their doctors to recommend a plant-based lifestyle. The tide is coming in and it is George Halvorson, current CEO and his successor, Bernard Tyson, leading the way.
The myth of sustainable meat
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/opinion/the-myth-of-sustainable-meat.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/opinion/the-myth-of-sustainable-meat.html?_r=0
Aren't "humane" animal products more sustainable?
The Myth of Eco-Friendly Animal Products
Sustainable
A way of living, which if adopted by the great majority of human beings, would allow for the continuance of a healthy ecosystem capable of supporting diverse forms of plant and animal life, and clean water and air.
A way of living, which if adopted by the great majority of human beings, would allow for the continuance of a healthy ecosystem capable of supporting diverse forms of plant and animal life, and clean water and air.
Common confusion: Those propagating the "humane myth" often refer to one form of using and killing animals, or one type of animal product, as being "more sustainable" than another, or simply as "sustainable." At current rates of consumption, no form of animal agriculture now known is sustainable. On the contrary, a recent study carried out by UN scientists demonstrated that animal agriculture is the number one source of greenhouse gas impact, making a greater contribution to global warming than all cars, trucks, buses, air planes, trains, and ships combined. Even if there were enough land available to raise the more than 50 billion animals now being used and killed annually worldwide on the idyllic "Old McDonald's farm," the result would still be a continuation of the ecological catastrophe now underway. Further, the production of food for a diet based on grains, nuts, vegetables and fruits uses several times less energy and water and creates vastly less pollution than a diet based on meat, milk, and eggs.
Sustainable animal products an oxymoron
It is impossible to allocate sufficient land to pasture-raise animals and feed the billions of people on the planet meat, dairy, and eggs. At current consumption levels, to feed all 7 billion people animal products, we have to cram farmed animals into tiny spaces and stack them on top of each other. Fifty-five billion land animals are raised and slaughtered each year world wide. They already occupy 80 percent of the Earth’s total usable arable land (See Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options). How much more can we spare?
Imagine a modern egg operation with thousands of hens crowded in a windowless warehouse occupying about an acre of land. Now imagine how much land would be needed to let all those hens have the room they need and deserve. How many acres would that take? We simply don’t have the space.
Loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction is already a considerable concern when it comes to animal agriculture. Globally, livestock production is one of the leading causal factors in the loss of biodiversity and a key factor in loss of species. Within certain regions in the U.S., livestock grazing is the number one cause of species being federally listed as threatened or endangered (See Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options). Shifting to a diet with local animal products has the potential to increase the damage to biodiversity as more community’s open spaces would be required for free-ranging animals (See “Green” Eggs and Ham? The Myth of Sustainable Meat and the Danger of the Local by Vasile Stanescu).
Free-range animal farming is not an ecologically viable method of food production. A global shift to a plant-based diet is the only solution to preserving our environment and having enough food to feed everyone.
While locavores imagine all factory farms eventually turning into more sustainable small-scale family farms, that ideal is simply not physically possible given the world’s current rate of meat consumption. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s recent report Livestock’s Long Shadow, over fifty-five billion land animals are raised and slaughtered every year worldwide for human consumption. This rate of slaughter already consumes thirty percent of the earth’s entire land surface (approximately 3,433 billion hectares [8483.128 acres]) and accounts for a staggering eighty percent of the total land utilized by humans.[10] Even when the land currently used for feed crop production is subtracted, as theoretically it might be in a fully local farm system, the total area currently occupied by grazing alone still constitutes, in the words of the report “26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet.”[11] And this number is only expected to grow as both human population and human consumption of meat and dairy continue to rise.[12] Therefore, in addition to problems of sustainability, meat consumption also entails a massive loss of biodiversity which, ironically, would actually be increased by a shift to a locally based diet, as even more land would have to be set aside for free-range grazing. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization report, “306 of the 825 terrestrial ecoregions identified by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)…reported livestock as one of the current threats.”[13]
In other words, shifting from beef to vegetables for even a single day a week would in fact be more helpful in reducing greenhouse gases than shifting the entirety of one’s diet to exclusively locally produced sources. This conclusion makes sense when we consider the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change findings that meat production contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation industry, including all automobiles, combined.[8] In fact, recent research suggests that organic free range animals may, in specific cases, be more harmful to the environment than animal raised “conventionally.” As the Audubon society recently reported…
The Death of the Myth of Humane Farming
“Supporting alternatives to the industrial production of animal products serves the ultimate interest of industrial producers. The decision to eat animal products sourced from small, local, and sustainable farms might seem like a fundamental rejection of big business as usual. It is, however, an implicit but powerful confirmation of the single most critical behavior necessary to the perpetuation of factory farming: eating animals. So long as consumers continue to eat meat, eggs, and dairy — even if they are sourced from small farms practicing the highest welfare and safety standards — they’re providing, however implicitly, an endorsement of the products that big agriculture will always be able to produce more efficiently and cheaply. And thus dominate.” (9)
“Humane” Farming is Not Environmentally Sustainable
In spite of the intensive confinement model that presently dominates Western and, increasingly, global farming of animals for food, livestock now use 30 per cent of the earth’s entire land surface. If we humanely pastured all 100 million cows in the United States on grass, cattle would require (using the conservative estimate of 10 acres per cow) almost half the country’s land–and this excludes the land we would need in order to raise all of the pigs, chickens, sheep and goats free range. (2)
In addition to land, there is the issue of greenhouse gases. First, it is an unavoidable fact of ruminant digestion that methane is released into the atmosphere, trapping heat with alarming efficiency. Secondly, livestock make manure that produces nitrous oxide, an even more efficient heat trapper. U.S. livestock generate a billion tons of manure per year, contributing a whopping 65 percent of the planet’s total human-caused nitrous oxide emissions. (3) So if we sent all those cruelly confined cows out to pasture? It is estimated that pasture-raised cows produce 4 times more greenhouse gases than cows raised in confinement. This is because cows subsisting on grass, as nature intended, grow much slower than cows fed on grain. Therefore it takes them significantly longer to reach slaughter weight. The longer it takes cows to grow, the more methane and nitrous-oxide they are emitting. (4) Free-range chickens also have a 20 percent greater impact on global warming than conventionally confined chickens. (5)
HOW EACH of our meals affect OUR VERY HOME PLANET? KNOWledge is POWER
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/11/meat-and-environment.html
Foods that KILL or foods that HEAL our planet
“HUMANE” MEAT, dairy, eggs and fish FOOD myth debunked
SOLUTIONS, and PLENTY of
The FUTURE is already HERE
MEAT, DAIRY and EGGS of the FUTURE are HERE
NEW food industries are born while OLD ones go extinct
Growing Winter Organic Produce
ORGANIC SOIL nutrients and products
Astonishing, EXPONENTIAL, tsunami like changes are taking place overnight all over the world, in this vital direction:
We KNOW our world is massively EVOLving when
KNOWledge is the TRUE SELF SELFsustainability (independence, FREEdom)
DEBUNKING our FOOD MYTHS
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/12/debunking-our-food-myths.html
FOOD, the most dangerous weapon of mass control
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/08/food-most-dangerous-weapon-of-mass.html
Animal farmers awakening and healing
Veganic agriculture/permaculture
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/12/veganic-agriculturepermaculture.htmlPLANT or ANIMAL based foods?
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2012/01/plant-or-animal-based-foods.html
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/12/cruelty-free-holidays-traditional.html
WHO else is immensely benefiting from these changes?
FARM ANIMALS beauty, intelligence and consciousness in VIDEO http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/06/farm-animals-beauty-intelligence-and.html
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/12/animals-true-purpose-on-earth.html
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/07/free-will-and-food.html
The NATURAL foods for humankind TEST
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-natural-foods-for-humankind-test.html
How to make a smooth, natural transition to a vegan lifestyle
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-make-smooth-natural-transition.html
STORIES that change the WORLD
World saving most powerful truths
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.ca/2012/08/world-saving-most-powerful-truths.html
