OMNI
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN
ACTION NEWSLETTER,
WEDNESDAY (2ND
WEDNESDAYS), MAY 8, 2019.
Edited by Dick Bennett
for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
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building south of Liquor World. More information: 935-4422; 442-4600. Or take College to Harold St
(at Flying Burrito), turn east (right if you’re heading north). Go one block to
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This Newsletter is about food and its
consequences in 3 categories: food, animals, and climate. Tell people you know who would like to know
about OMNI, our Veg Potluck, and Newsletter.
OMNI’s MAY VEGETARIAN/VEGAN POTLUCK (NEWSLETTER #58), is
Wednesday, MAY 8, 2019 (2ND Wednesdays), at OMNI, Center for
Peace, Justice, and Ecology. We start
eating at 6:00. All are
welcome.
CONTENTS, #58, MAY 8, 2019
HEALTH
Articles
in Good Medicine (Spring 2019) by
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
“Plant-based Whopper Sales to
Expand.” NADG (4-30-2019). Burger
King is expanding its popular plant-based burger “Impossible Whopper.”
Local
economical healthy eating: CiCi’s Pizza.
$12.02 for 2 seniors ($5 discount), soup, all you can eat vegetarian, soup,
pizza, salad bar, drink, dessert.
ANIMALS
Animal
Matters from The Intercept on animal
rights movement.
GMOs and pesticides in meat.
CLIMATE
Animal
Matters from The Intercept on animal
rights movement.
Statistics on ruin of Amazon rain forest
by cattle agriculture.
Philpott,
case against carnism.
CNN,
British call for significant cut in sheep and cattle production.
Contents
#57
TEXTS
HEALTH
Articles in Good Medicine (Spring 2019) praising plant-based eating.
“Vegan Diet Gives Athletes an Edge over the
Competition”
“Vegan Meals Are Beneficial for Gut Hormones”
“Time for McDonald’s to Break Up with
Bacon”
“’Bacon Is a Killer’ TV Ad Runs in States Hardest Hit by Colorectal
Cancer.”
“Dr. Barnard Headlines Australia’s
First Plant-Based Nutrition Conference”
“Native Americans Are Healing
Diabetes with Plant-Based Diet”
“’Go Vegan for Someone You Love’ Urge Billboards in India”
“Physicians Committee Is Top 10 Health
Influencer in China”
“Heather Shenkman, M.D.: “Healing
Hearts with a Plant-Based Diet”
Center for Science in the Public
Interest
“America’s Food Watchdog.” Publishes Nutrition
Action.
Examples of topics:
Useful vs. useless or harmful supplements
False or deceptive claims on food labels.
Evaluations of specific food products in
every number of NA.
“10 Superstars…For Better Health.”
“Plant-based
Whopper Sales to Expand.” NADG (4-30-2019). Burger King is expanding its popular plant-based
burger “Impossible Whopper.”
ANIMALS
|
70% of deforestation
in the Amazon rainforest is due to cattle agriculture. Here are 5 reasons why
cows have no business grazing in what was once a thriving forest.
Nov 2, 2014 - Friends of The Earth, October 31, 2014 -▷ HIGH STEAKS: THE CASE FOR ... The Guardian Environment, December 21,
2012- Tom Philpott.
Judd Tolson. “For
Helpless Animals.” LTE, NADG
(4-13-19). House Bill 1778, which
would strengthen penalties for cruelty to dogs and cats, failed to pass. No mention of the thousands of animals
slaughtered for food for the animal at the top of the chain.
CLIMATE
Tom
Philpott. “High Steaks.” Mother Jones (May/June 2019).
Philpott continues to make a strong case against carnism:
“…a spate of new studies have argued that cutting way back on meat can help our
climate enormously.” See if you have better luck than I in finding
the online text of Philpott’s MJ article.
Combat climate change by cutting beef
and lamb production, report says
By Tara John, CNN. Updated 9:58 AM ET, Thu November 15, 2018\
CNN)A new report a
British advisory body has called for a 20%-50% cut in the number of sheep and
cattle to help combat climate change -- adding to the growing international
consensus that eating red meat is not only bad for your health,
it is also bad for the environment.
Lamb, beef and dairy production accounts for the majority of
greenhouse gases emitted by farms in Britain, with sheep and cattle directly
responsible for around 58% of agricultural emissions in the UK in 2016, says
the report by the government's
Committee on Climate Change (CCC).
The advisory body suggests that a dramatic reduction in the
consumption of cow and sheep products could release up to 7 million hectares of
grassland, which could instead be planted to create forests and help store
carbon.
It recommends that the UK's land under forestry should increase
to 19% from 14%.
The committee also said a reduction in beef and lamb consumption
would lead to a rise in the consumption of plant-based food, as well as chicken
and pork.
The government's "Eatwell Guide" for a healthy and
balanced diet outlines the proportion of a person's diet that each food group
should provide. The report says that following these guidelines would lead to a
dramatic reduction in the amount of red meat eaten by the population, with an
89% reduction for beef and a 63% reduction for lamb. This would also see a 20%
decline in dairy products.
The target of reducing sheep and cattle numbers by 20%-50% also
relies on people following the recommended diet, with the 20% goal achievable
if people replace red meat with chicken and pork. The higher 50% goal would
involve people switching to meat alternatives or substitutes.
The report, which has an overarching goal to create a "a
new land use policy" that will help mitigate climate change, also includes
recommendations to increase Britain's forested area as well as the restoration
of the country's peatlands and the reduction of flood risks.
"This is a wake-up call for a complacent government that we
must completely transform the way we use land, to avoid climate breakdown and
make space for nature," Friends of the Earth campaigner Guy Shrubsole said
in a statement.
"As the Committee on Climate Change says, we need to free
up land from agriculture by eating much less meat and dairy, and stop
landowners burning and degrading peat bogs -- our single biggest carbon
store."
Animal farming is responsible for 14.5% of the world's greenhouse emissions,
according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, making it a
significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65% comes from
beef and dairy cattle.
|
A recent report by
the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized the need for people to
consume about 30% less animal products. Eating less meat is one of
a number of mitigation strategies suggested by the IPCC to overhaul
agricultural and land-use practices, including the protection of forests. A study last month predicted
that as a result of population growth and the continued consumption of large
amounts of red meat and processed food in the West, the environmental
pressures from the food system could increase by up to 90% by 2050.CNN's Meera Senthilingam contributed to this
report.
|
Asparagus – The
only vegetable on the list is also the most surprising entry. Asparagus creates
8.9 kilos of emissions per kilo produced, according to the NRDC. But how?
The problem is mostly in the air miles. NRDC's Sujatha Bergen explains: "Much of the asparagus in the United States is flown in from Latin America, which results in greater climate emissions than foods that are transported by trucks. While it's not the only produce item that is flown into the country, a higher proportion of it is transported this way than most other common fruits and vegetables (many of which we import from Mexico). In general, if people are looking to minimize their climate impacts, they should avoid air freighted foods as much as possible."
The problem is mostly in the air miles. NRDC's Sujatha Bergen explains: "Much of the asparagus in the United States is flown in from Latin America, which results in greater climate emissions than foods that are transported by trucks. While it's not the only produce item that is flown into the country, a higher proportion of it is transported this way than most other common fruits and vegetables (many of which we import from Mexico). In general, if people are looking to minimize their climate impacts, they should avoid air freighted foods as much as possible."
Pork – One kilo
of pork creates 7.9 kilos of carbon emissions. The NRDC estimates that changes
in the American diet avoided approximately 271 million tons of climate-warming
pollution between 2005 and 2014, roughly equivalent to the tailpipe pollution
of 57 million cars for one year. In the list of foods that contributed the most
to this reduction, pork is third behind beef and orange juice.
Veal – Another
entry that belongs to the beef and dairy cattle supply chain, veal has a lower
environmental impact than beef because the calves are slaughtered at a younger
age, typically at around 20 weeks versus 18 months. Each kilo creates 7.8 kilos
of carbon emission, according to the NRDC.
Chicken – Eating
less chicken meat is one of the contributing factors that have led to a
reduction in per-capita emissions linked to food in the US, but poultry still
ranks in the top 10, with just over 5 Kg of CO2 per kg of product.
Hide Caption
9 of 10
Turkey – Turkey has
the same carbon footprint as chicken, at around 5 kilos of emissions per kilo
of meat.
The NRDC has excluded from this list some foods that most people are not familiar with or are difficult to deliberately avoid, because they are often used in ingredients in other products as opposed to purchased directly by consumers in large amounts. These include: lard and beef tallow (11.92 kg of CO2 per kg of food), dry milk products (10.4 kg of CO2 per kg of food), and other added fats and oils such as palm oil (6.30 kg of CO2 per kg of food).
The NRDC has excluded from this list some foods that most people are not familiar with or are difficult to deliberately avoid, because they are often used in ingredients in other products as opposed to purchased directly by consumers in large amounts. These include: lard and beef tallow (11.92 kg of CO2 per kg of food), dry milk products (10.4 kg of CO2 per kg of food), and other added fats and oils such as palm oil (6.30 kg of CO2 per kg of food).
Beef – Beef
is widely recognized as the most
climate-damaging of all foods. A 2017study by the Natural
Resources Defense Council on food consumption in the US
calculates that each kilogram of beef produces 26.5 kilograms of CO2 emissions
-- the highest among all the foods observed in the study, and five times more
than chicken or turkey meat.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, making it a significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65 percent come from beef and dairy cattle.
Reducing beef consumption is an effective way of curbing global emissions. According to the NRDC, Americans now consume 19 percent less beef than just over a decade ago, in 2005. This is equivalent to a reduction of 185 million metric tons of emissions, or the annual tailpipe pollution of 39 million cars.
But why is beef so bad? "The feed is largely produced using lots of pesticide and fertilizer, which requires fossil fuels," explains Sujatha Bergen, one of the authors of the study. "Also, the digestive system of the cows produces methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And the manure emits additional greenhouse gases."
Animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, making it a significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65 percent come from beef and dairy cattle.
Reducing beef consumption is an effective way of curbing global emissions. According to the NRDC, Americans now consume 19 percent less beef than just over a decade ago, in 2005. This is equivalent to a reduction of 185 million metric tons of emissions, or the annual tailpipe pollution of 39 million cars.
But why is beef so bad? "The feed is largely produced using lots of pesticide and fertilizer, which requires fossil fuels," explains Sujatha Bergen, one of the authors of the study. "Also, the digestive system of the cows produces methane, which is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And the manure emits additional greenhouse gases."
Lamb – Another
ruminant, lamb, comes at number two -- confirming that red meat is particularly
resource-intensive and, as such, damaging to the environment. For each kilo of
lamb meat consumed, there are 22.9 kilos of emissions, the NRDC study
estimates.
Meat production also requires large amounts of animal feed, mainly the resource-intensive corn and soy. The synthetic fertilizer and the manure used to grow these also releases nitrous oxide, a climate-warming pollutant 298 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Meat production also requires large amounts of animal feed, mainly the resource-intensive corn and soy. The synthetic fertilizer and the manure used to grow these also releases nitrous oxide, a climate-warming pollutant 298 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Butter – The third
most damaging food, by some distance, is butter: one kilo of butter equals
nearly 12 kilos of CO2 -- about half as many as beef. It belongs to the same
supply chain, making dairy and beef cattle an environmentalist's nightmare.
While Americans have greatly reduced their consumption of red meat in recent years, the NRDC reports that butter and other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt actually enjoyed a surge in the observed period, from 2005 to 2014.
Butter is the most climate damaging of all dairy products because there are several steps involved in producing it that are energy-intensive: "For example, butter production requires separating raw milk into low-fat milk and cream, pasteurizing the cream, cooling the cream, ripening and churning," Sujatha Bergen told CNN.
While Americans have greatly reduced their consumption of red meat in recent years, the NRDC reports that butter and other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt actually enjoyed a surge in the observed period, from 2005 to 2014.
Butter is the most climate damaging of all dairy products because there are several steps involved in producing it that are energy-intensive: "For example, butter production requires separating raw milk into low-fat milk and cream, pasteurizing the cream, cooling the cream, ripening and churning," Sujatha Bergen told CNN.
Shelllfish – Shellfish
costs the environment 11.7 kilos of CO2 for every kilo of food produced, just
marginally less than butter. Along with milk, pork, and high-fructose corn
syrup -- widely used as a sweetener in soft drinks -- shellfish is among the
key foods that Americans are eating less of. Overall, changes in the American
diet since 2005 have led to a 10 percent decrease in per-capita climate
pollution related to food, according to the NRDC.
Cheese – Another
dairy product, cheese, comes in fifth place with 9.8 kg of emissions per kg
produced. "Our list is a an average of several common cheeses,"
explains Sujatha Bergen, "Cheeses that require refrigerated transport or
are flown in from abroad, however, tend to have higher climate impacts."
Contents #57, April 10,
2019
Health
Articles in Good Medicine (Spring
2015) by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Articles for Nutrition
Articles against Animal Testing
2 Progrressive Bills Pass in CA Lege
Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition
Action Health Letter
Healthline, EcoWatch, Vegan
Sources of Calcium
Burger King Expanding Plant-based “Meat”
2 Chemicals in US Food Banned in EU
Farm Animals
PCRM’s Campaign against Experimenting with
Animals
PETA v. Industrial Food
Production
Climate
Google Search: Climate Change, Global Warming, Cattle, Meat
Contents #56 March 2019
END VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,
WEDNESDAY (2ND WEDNESDAYS), MAY, 2019, #58.
