By: Athena S
28 March 2011
Now most of you are already probably thinking, "Oh dear God, here we go. Crazy vegetarian lady is going to tell us why we should stop eating meat." Well you can relax; that's not my intention. There are certainly ways that meat products can be sustainably harvested. Hell, when I decided to go vegetarian 4 years ago, I still ate venison for a while. I saw it as a good thing [environmentally]. We had an over abundance of deer in our fine state and the animal I was eating had been killed and cleaned and all that gross stuff by my own family members. Not to mention that venison is wonderfully lean. Anyhow, I wouldn't touch the stuff now, but that's beside the point. Its shocking to me how many people have this numbing disconnect with the food they eat - in terms of where it comes from and the impact it has. I think it’s really important to consider that the choices we make about the food we eat are also choices that we make about energy, land and water usage.
One of the first things that helped push me towards this lifestyle was when it occurred to me that having a plant-based diet is simply more efficient. Assuming our level in college, we should all know about how energy comes from the sun, and then goes into plants, and then works its way up the trophic levels - all the while energy is wasted traveling from one level to another. Eating lower on the trophic levels and/or consuming smaller animals in general will leave you with the least amount of wasted energy. Think about it...even comparing the needs of a cow versus a chicken. Cows require far more food and water than a chicken does. The cows also require a lot more land and put out a lot more waste. All of that extra energy, water, and land that is wasted could be used to grow crops to feed the 6.75 billion people on this planet (many of which are starving). Beyond this, these livestock operations come with an abundance of negative externalities. Run-off can get into out waterways, overgrazing degrades the land, and soils can be eroded among many others. I could also probably ramble on about the use of added hormones and antibiotics.
Please keep in mind that I am mostly referring to/attacking large scale factory farming here. As I said before, I know meat production can be sustainable; it’s just more than likely going to happen in a smaller scale operation (which far less common). However, it is our increasing consumption of animal products that is leading to the success of these factory farms. I'd also like to note that I understand that massive monocultures of soybeans are becoming more abundant as soy is sneaking its way into many areas of our diet. Similarly, these systems also have major drawbacks a can have a negative impact on the land. It would be absolutely absurd to expect everyone to give up meat in their diet. My goodness, we'd have riots here in Wisconsin. Ideally though, I think we could just make better use of our resources if we made better decisions in our every day lives. The root of the problem might very well be in the hands of the people who support industrialized agriculture and the politicians who subsidize them. Which leads me to ask: why are people so apathetic about the impacts their choices have? Do they even know what those impacts are? Is that Big Mac really worth it?
3 comments:
Have I ranted to your class about the proposed CAFOs in my neighborhood? Thanks for the thoughtful post.
No you haven't, but I would love to hear about it!
For being a non-vegeterian and loving eating meat I agree with you for the most part. THere is a lot of waste that goes on in our society and some could be curtailed by altering our eating habits (mcdonalds). I do believe though that factory farms have their own place and shouldnt be totally damned. They are in my mind a necessary evil to feeding america and are needed to sustain local communities that dont have the ability to farm on the small scale. Most family farmers are barely able to economically sustain themselves and parterening together to make a large "facotry Farm" is one way to survive. In some places though I would have to agree that they are not needed in some places due to soil and environmental impacts.
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