Meat: the slavery of our time

Wed, 06/03/2009 - 6:24pm

How the coming vegetarian revolution will arrive by force.

By Jim Motavalli

I have a prediction: Sooner than you might think, this will be a vegetarian world. Future generations will find the idea of eating meat both morally absurd and logistically impossible. Of course, one need only look at the booming meat industry, the climbing rates of meat consumption in the developing world, and the menu of just about any restaurant to call me crazy. But already, most people know that eating red meat is bad for their health and harmful for the planet. It's getting them to actually change their diet that's the hard part -- and that's exactly why it won't happen by choice.

Going by the numbers, eating meat is pretty hard to justify for the even moderately health-conscious. A National Cancer Institute report released last March found that people who ate the most red meat were, as the New York Times put it, "most likely to die from cancer, heart disease and other causes." The biggest abstainers "were least likely to die."  Those who eat five ounces of meat daily, (the equivalent of one and a half Quarter Pounders or Big Macs) increase their risk from cancer or heart disease by 30 percent compared to those who eat two-thirds of an ounce daily -- a stark difference.

The environmental impact is also crystal clear -- and similarly appalling. "Livestock's Long Shadow," a 2006 report by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organzation (FAO), found that livestock is a major player in climate change, accounting for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (measured in carbon dioxide equivalents), or more than the entire global transportation system.

The obvious solution to both health and environmental disasters is to stop eating meat altogether. But this is easier said than done. Even the studies addressing the impact of meat on the planet downplay vegetarianism, as if the authors are nervous to press it on people. Going veggie is not even proposed as one of the FAO's "mitigation options" (which instead include conservation tillage, organic farming, and better nutrition for livestock to reduce methane gas production). Nor is it emphasized in "Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry," a report by Danielle Nierenberg at the Worldwatch Institute. The study's author is herself a vegan, but she told me, "Food choices are a very personal decision for most people. We are only now convincing them that this is a tool at their disposal if they care about the environment."

She has a point: Giving up meat is tough, and arguing people into it is probably a losing proposition. Even with all the statistics out there about the dangers of meat, there are fewer vegetarians in the world than you'd think. A Harris poll conducted in 2006 for the Vegetarian Resource Group found that only 2.3 percent of American adults 18 or older claim never to eat meat, fish, or fowl. A larger group, 6.7 percent, say they "never eat meat," but often that means they only avoid the red kind. Worldwide, local vegetarian societies report high participation in just a few places - for example, 40 percent in India, 10 percent in Italy, 9 percent in Germany, 8.5. percent in Israel, and 6 percent in Britain.

So how will we become a vegetarian planet? The numbers suggest that we won't stop eating meat simply because it's "the right thing to do." People love it too much. Instead, we'll be forced to stop. By 2025, we simply won't have the resources to keep up the habit. According to the FAO report, 33 percent of the world's arable land is devoted to growing crops for animal feed, and grazing is a major factor in deforestation around the world. It's also incredibly water-intensive. The average U.S. diet requires twice the daily amount of water as does an equally nutritious vegetarian diet, reports the Worldwatch Institute. Meanwhile, there will be more than 8 billion people on this earth, and two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed regions.

Sounds like a mess -- and one that doesn't bode well for our cattle cravings. Meat will disappear -- except as a luxury available to few -- and the ethical issues will evolve, too. In the way that slavery, once a broad social norm, later became an unthinkable crime, we can expect to see a similar shift once meat-eating disappears from our planet. Perhaps, some day, the very idea of eating animal flesh will seem as remote as the idea of owning humans does now. So if you're a carnivore, enjoy now -- before the inevitable vegetarian revolution begins.

Jim Motavalli is a senior writer at E/The Environmental Magazine and blogs for the Mother Nature Network.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Thanks for writing this. Oh,

by loofa on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 10:54pm

Thanks for writing this. Oh, and pay no attention to the crazy comments left by so many. They are misinformed. The idea that eating meat is what has saved the cow from extinction is silly. And of course, it takes 10 pounds of grain to create 1 pound of meat. Versus 1 pound of grain to create 1 pound of say, bread. In a world where people are starving it makes no sense to funnel the grain through animals, mucking up the enviornment on the way, only to end up with less food than we started with.

As a holistic health

by R Mankovitz on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 7:44pm

As a holistic health practitioner, I routinely treat vegans and vegetarians and those that follow the Standard American Diet (SAD), all of whom have a host of health problems. Years of research have shown me that neither a vegetarian diet nor one that incorporates grain-fed feedlot and caged animal products, is healthy, sustainable, or natural. What should one eat to help themselves and the planet? That’s easy - just follow what Nature intended, which is a diet of free-range grass and grub-fed animal products and ripe sweet fruit. The largest "clinical trial" in the history of our species (conducted by Nature over 100,000 generations) has proven that this diet is the healthiest and most ecologically sustainable. Of course, there are no recent studies based on this diet because virtually nobody eats this way as a result of having been brainwashed by the AgriGiants and feedlot meat production industries. For those interested in the unsustainability of planting annual monocrops such as wheat, corn and soy (all require huge amounts of fossil fuels and manmade chemical processing to produce), and the benefits of raising animals on perennial grass (no planting, no fertilizing, no pesticides), read:
"The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith and "Against the Grain" by Richard Manning (researches the ethical, political, ecological, and nutritional deficits of a vegetarian diet).
"The Original Diet" by me (researches what Nature intended humans to eat to provide a healthy life in harmony with our environment).

Roy Mankovitz, Director
www.MontecitoWellness.com

Meat: Slavery of Our TIme

by Joise on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 3:56pm

Great article!

Yes, as the horrid tentacles of hunger spread and fresh water becomes a scarce commodity, humans will be forced to eat vegetarian.

This is good for us, good for the animals, and good for the entire planet. Humans will be so much healthier, the animals will not have to suffer so horribly, and the planet will begin healing.

And being veggie is NOT a tough way to go in the least -- I made that decision 25 years ago, & it's the one decision I've never regretted!

Excellent Article!

by mklaurit on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 5:14pm

Thank you for writing this! Bringing reality to this topic. It is so easy for people to ignore the ethical implications by simply blinding themselves to it. Quite like historical mass misery of slavery. I have been a vegetarian for a few years now and I love it, I'll never go back to being a carnivore. Other people around me that were open to the information have tried vegetarianism, and some even stuck with it, as for the others they eat much less meat on a regular basis. I encourage everyone to just be open to looking at the information and the ethical implications. I challenge carnivores to give up meat for even a day, a week, or a month just to understand how much it really permeates our lives. http://www.goveg.com/

All the argument is CORRECT

by vuhannah1 on Wed, 06/10/2009 - 2:38pm

All the argument is CORRECT and well understood, regarding HEALTH, MORALITY, SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENT. One day, eventually, human will realize themselves that eating the flesh of others is not only harmful but also barbarous!

Factory farms cause the worst impact on global warming, because of their green house gases. So if humans continue to raise animals for meat like they're doing now around the world, green house gases from these factory farm animals will kill our world!! Every year, about 10 billion (billion) cows are bred and killed for meat in U.S.A alone! Can you imagine the impact?

So as soon as possible, MEAT SHOULD BE BANNED before our world is destroyed by green house gases through climate change.

Meat Out.

by ducvanvu on Wed, 06/10/2009 - 8:44pm

Thank you Jim Motavalli for writing an excellent article. And I share with you the Golden Age as many past spiritual masters and prophets predicted it will come. Just a matter of time, and also, the world has to go through a "cleansing" process, to move other humans (souls) who are "carnivore" (as you said) to another planet, which still in the progressing stage, like our Earth before, and we have to move on, to the next stage, the level of Sainthood, where love rules, not power, not war, not weapon, not violence, not force, i.e. any negative thing can not exist in the high level planet, or namely the Golden Age. It is not an imaginary thing, but even the Bible said that the Big Flood did come, and Noah was saved, and even his son would not believe his father to get on the ship with him. So I think individual human soul has to evolve, and wake-up his or her inborn goodness, in order to be worthy to live in the Golden Age. In life, no one forces anyone to go to college to study medicine, but if one want to be a doctor, he or she has to study hard and sacrifice a lot (time, effort, money, personal pleasures, etc...) in order to graduate. Similarly, no one forces anyone to be a Saint, but if one wants to be, he or she has to work hard and sacrifice, the first and foremost sacrifice is the taste of other being dead-or-alive flesh, in order to truly know how to love.
By the way, I am not a preacher or anything, but I have learned that we don't progress, unless we improve our soul, which is the real self.
Now, forget the spiritual aspect, if no one cares, then we talk about the scientific aspect. We don't have much time to save the Earth, if we don't reduce the greenhouse gases in the next couple of years. Meat (or animal raising for meat) causes so much methane, which is 72 times stronger than CO2, in terms of retaining the heat from the sun light, hence more global warming. In IPCC report in 2006, as you reported in your article, the scientists used the factor of 23 for the methane, as more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2), but now those same scientists figure that they used to low a factor, because methane is 72 or higher in trapping the heat than CO2. Therefore, the livestock is no longer responsible for 18% of the global warming, but rather more than 50% of the global warming. Therefore eliminating methane from the air, we can reduce at least 50% of global warming. Luckily for humans, methane only last about 8-10 years in the air, once we don't put in anymore, but CO2 last more than 1000 years before it dissipates from the atmosphere. You would see the movie ("HOME" as in YouTube) to find out how long it took to absorb CO2 in the air, in order for life to form.

Therefore, to eliminate methane from the air, we have to stop raising animals for meat. We also have to stop fishing to save the oceans from being out of balance, and cause many dead zones. So, practically, we have to be true vegan, no meat, no diary, no fish, and grow grains, vegetables, fruits, potato, etc. with organic method, with no chemicals which damage our waterways. It is our individual choice to save this planet. Probably, this is the only and last choice!
Duc Vu

This is just simply a

by sweetvegan on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 10:24am

This is just simply a WONDERFUL article....it has all the important facts...I hope everyone everywhere will read this...I posted it to my FB page and passed it around to others by e-mail...faboulous. :))))

Good article and keep up the

by emad964 on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 6:37pm

Good article and keep up the good work mate

UltraSurf

Maybe let's just wait and see

by emad964 on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 6:43pm

Maybe let's just wait and see the changes

UltraSurf