[SustainableTompkins] Fwd: [ClubVegSouthernTier] United Nations urges people to "Eat Less Meat"

[senecajean at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Amie Hamlin <clubveg at gmail.com>
To: clubvegsoutherntier at yahoogroups.com; clubveglongisland at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:23 pm
Subject: [ClubVegSouthernTier] United Nations urges people to "Eat Less Meat"






Care about the environment? Eat less meat

PETER FRICKER

Special to Globe and Mail Update

January 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

Last week, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the United Nation's Nobel 
Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, asked the world to 
"please eat less meat." Speaking at a press conference in Paris, he said 
meat was a very carbon-intensive commodity, a fact established by UN 
research showing that livestock production creates more greenhouse gases 
than all forms of transport combined.

So the top man at the world's most important agency dealing with climate 
change (the planet's biggest problem) is urging us all to cut meat 
consumption to address the issue. Is the Prime Minister ordering 
Environment Canada to draft guidelines for Canadian consumers? Is 
Parliament debating the matter? Are environmental groups demanding 
immediate action?

Unfortunately, Mr. Pachauri's plea will cause barely a ripple in 
political, media or environmental circles. Even being chair of the 
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) doesn't guarantee many 
people will want to hear this particular inconvenient truth. It's 
interesting to note that he followed his statement by saying: "This is 
something that the IPCC was afraid to say earlier, but now we have said it."

What was the IPCC afraid of? This hasn't been reported, but one could 
speculate that the global livestock industry and others with a vested 
interest in meat production will not take kindly to Mr. Pachauri's 
remarks. Neither will the politicians they lobby, who also hate having 
to tell citizens they need to make lifestyle changes to save the planet.

Even environmental groups are shy about touching this one. Some don't 
even mention limiting meat consumption as a means of combatting global 
warming. Others relegate it to a list of minor energy-saving actions 
consumers can take, just below keeping your car's tires properly 
inflated. The suspicion (especially among animal-welfare groups) is that 
environmentalists are afraid they'll be open to charges of hypocrisy if 
they raise the meat issue and get caught wolfing down a Wendy's burger 
after the press conference.

Then there are the dreaded V-words: vegetarian and vegan. Few 
politicians or environmentalists want to face the jokes, media backlash 
and libertarian "consumer freedom" zealots who will accuse them of 
forcing Canadians to eat only salad and lentils. The same sort of people 
who fought against mandatory seatbelts and restrictions on tobacco would 
shift their public relations and spin machines into high gear.

Yet all the IPCC is asking for is a reduction in meat consumption. A 
recent study in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet called for a 
10-per-cent cut in meat consumption, which it said would slow global 
warming considerably. It would also slow the growth of factory farming, 
which is alarming animal welfarists around the world. Global demand for 
meat is projected to double between 2001 and 2050, meaning billions more 
animals will be raised in intensive, inhumane conditions. While many 
animal activists are "abolitionists" and want a meat-free world, others 
would welcome anything that would put the brakes on a trend that is 
resulting in animal suffering on a mind-boggling scale. For example, the 
international farm-animal welfare organization Compassion in World 
Farming is calling for meat consumption and production in developed 
countries to be cut by a third by 2020. This would mean someone who eats 
meat every day would cut back to eating meat five days a week ? not 
exactly a hardship.

Encouraging the public to cut back on meat would also have major health 
benefits. The World Cancer Research Fund recently urged consumers to 
limit consumption of red meat to 500 grams per week and to avoid 
processed meats completely. (Vegetarians and vegans figured out the 
health advantages of a meatless diet long ago. That's why they have 
lower rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, 
hypertension and other diseases.)

Cutting down or cutting out meat is a win-win-win policy. Not only does 
it help the fight against global warming, but it saves countless animals 
from factory-farm suffering and it's good for you.

It's just too bad so many people are afraid to talk about it.

/Peter Fricker is the projects and communications director of the 
Vancouver Humane Society./



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