-info and links- Collateral Deaths- data, figures, how to reduce them
Jon Janssen
From what sources I've seen, collateral deaths come from several sources.
CDs are unnecessary deaths caused by food production.. some deaths are
intentional (rodent poisons) and others are unintentional (plowing
harvesting, air pollution)
Animals and people are killed by pesticides, plowing, harvesting, storage
(pesticides used), processing and transporting. And from the acquisition
and burning of oil to do all these by machine (air pollution).. and even
people are killed from air pollution. Thousands of people are made ill from
pesticide exposure each year. Water pollution also kills fish and aquatic
animals, as well as make people ill.
GRAIN to MEAT RATIO
the lowest ratio of grain:meat is poultry (with a conversion ratio of grain
to meat of about 2-to-1), while at higher levels of income, pork (4-to-1)
and then beef (7-to-1)
http://tinyurl.com/2bw2
OIL USED TO PRODUCE FOODS
(there are thousands of people who become ill and die contributed to by air
pollution. Oil exploration, drilling, and processing, and burning it in
engines also produces pollution, and oil spills can have large consequences)
Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel
energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that
is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of
plant protein, according to the Cornell ecologist's analysis.
Tracking food animal production from the feed trough to the dinner table,
Pimentel found broiler chickens to be the most efficient use of fossil
energy, and beef, the least. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a
4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input
to protein output ratio of 54:1. (Lamb meat production is nearly as
inefficient at 50:1, according to the ecologist's analysis of U.S.
Department of Agriculture statistics. Other ratios range from 13:1 for
turkey meat and 14:1 for milk protein to 17:1 for pork and 26:1 for eggs.)
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html
WATER NEEDED TO GROW FOODS
Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram
of food. Raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a
kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for
kilogram of food produced; rice, 1,912; wheat, 900; and potatoes, 500
liters.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html
and http://www.cfwc.com/FACTBOOK.PDF (page 11)
Some underground aquifers are being depleted, and the very large Ogallala
aquifer in the mid-west is being depleted, and some farmland has disappeared
because of the disappearing water
http://wmc.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/tech.dir/droughtmgmt.htm
**note,some sites misrepresent the energy figures (this site reverses the
ratio of "energy
input:calorie output" for animal foods and plant foods, in a way which make
animal foods appear more efficient)- when they are looked at correctly, they
hold that farmed animal foods use more calories of energy to provide less
calories of food.. than do many plant foods- this holds for all the foods
analyzed at this site
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highway/english/energy/live.html
they have 10 : 1 (Kcal *input* : Kcal protein *output* for range beef) and
then say for wheat (next page)
"even if yields are greatly increased, the efficiency ratio is still
relatively low: overall, 10.9 million kJ/ha energy *input* is needed to
*produce* 24.3 million kJ/ha of wheat energy, giving a 2.2:1 ratio."
WATER POLLUTION &
TREND TOWARDS FACTORY FARMS
EPA- trend is smaller farms being replaced by fewer larger farms
(Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
http://tinyurl.com/6aqb
10 billion farm animals killed in the US each year
http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr02/acro02.htm
(general numbers)
96 million cattle and calves
58 million pigs and hogs
6.5 million sheep and lambs
9.4 Billion chickens
265 million turkeys
9 million cows
So, there will be more deaths from farmed animal foods, than from farmed
plant foods, because they require more grains to be grown, require more oil
to be acquired and burned, and result in more water being taken from limited
sources, and cause more water pollution.
Generally factory farms reasonably have the most CDs per calorie of food,
next is large scale plant farming, then hunting, and then hand-gardening.
Some guidelines to reduce food CDs:
-Shift your food intake towards the end of the above list, as you can.
If you eat meat, consider eating more grass-fed or hunted animals, if you
eat plants consider eating more gardened and hand-grown plant foods
-Buy local when you can
-Garden if you can, no matter your exact diet- surely everyone likes fresh
tomatoes or potatoes... and simple self-watering boxes such as the
www.earthbox.com make growing food easy as taking 5 minutes every other day
to water them. Your food will be the freshest food you can have.
...just some ideas
http://www.nass.usda.gov:81/ipedb/
5 year average 1998-2002 bushels/acre (b/a)
Oil -food kcalories output :to: kcalories of oil input (2.5 equals 2.5:1)
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highway/english/energy/live.html
US averages
in pounds Oil
potato 383 cwt/a 38,000 lbs/acre 1.2
corn 135 b/a 7,560 lbs/a 2.5
med grain rice 7,200 lbs/a
short grain rice 6,200 lbs/a
long grain rice 5,800 lbs/a
soybean 59 b/a 3,540 lbs/a
sorghum 60 b/a 3,360 lbs/a 4.2
barley 58 b/a 2,784 lbs/a
winter wheat 44 b/a 2,640 lbs/a 2.2
spring wheat 35 b/a 2,100 lbs/a 2.2
oats 60 b/a 1,920 lbs/a
durum wheat 31 b/a 1,860 lbs/a 2.2
rye 27 b/a 1,512 lbs/a
millet 24 b/a 1,200 lbs/a
cwt=100 lbs
http://www.eas.asu.edu/~nfapp/commodities/table/potatoes.htm
--
(in response to a post)
Nice to meet a reasonable person. I agree that suffering doesn't have to be
looked at as either all or nothing.
Good points.
One exception are wild animals, that you have some idea of the relatively
'free' quality of their life. Also, depending on how you feel about
thinning deer populations in park (so there aren't too many causing
depletion of the winter food causing starvation for many)
We're best off to continue building our understanding of where the
collateral and direct deaths come from. It's plowing of fields, intentional
and unintentional deaths from pesticides and poisons, harvesting, storage
(poisons for rodents), and transporting (roadkilled animals).... and the air
pollution from combustion engines of the machines used also sicken and kill
animals and also people. air pollution kills about 70,000 people yearly,
just in the USA http://www.niehs.nih.gov/centers/2000news/ctrnws4.htm
Similarly, pesticides are responsible for the illnesses of thousands of
people who use them.
Water pollution due to manure run-off and fertilizer run-off and pesticides
can also kill fish, as well as make our water les safe to drink or use
recreationally.
Water depletion of our groundwater supplies is also a threat. Already many
acres have been made un-farmable because the groundwater has been used up.
Deforestation reduces the 'Earth's' ability to sequester CO2, which is
agreed upon by virtually all countries as being largely respopnsible for the
reality of global warming (yes even Bush says this). While deforestation is
done to some degree to raise beef for exort to wealthy countries, I haven't
found as specific data on deforestation as on the other aspects. Any solid
data on it would be good to have.
Confidently we can know that factory farmed animal foods cause about the
most deaths (direct and collateral) and also the most polllution, and the
most energy, and the most water
Next come farmed plant foods
Then hunted animals
Then gardened and hand-grown food
http://tinyurl.com/76z2 (lots of other credible info)
If you eat meat, consider replacing farmed meat with hunted meat. I have
some issues with actually efforting to kill, but the idea stands by
itself... hunted meat will be less harmful than farmed meat.
If you eat meat consider grass-fed beef, to replace grain-fed meats.
And also buy locally, and from small farmers, when possible for animal
products. Rick Etter may be able to provide helpful ideas on this
Garden as much as you can. If you own any land, a simple fence can keep
most critters out. You can grow food without the use of any pesticides or
oil (except for a smaller amount of energy to have seeds shipped to you, and
possible have a pump provide hose water (unless you have a rain-collecting
barrel using gravity to provide hosed water).
If you have very little time, or little trust in your gardening abilities...
containers such as the www.earthbox.com make it very easy to grow larger
than average crops. It's a container that automatically feeds water to the
plants, eliminates weeds (without any chemicals), and only needs about 3
minutes of work every day or 2 days to refill the water compartment. I used
them last summer and had the largest tomato crop ever using it. I now trust
that all the pictures on their site are real.
I get organic seeds from www.seedsofchange.com
I get organic vegan fertilizer from my homemade compost (also reduces
landfill waste and the amount trucks need to transport to landfills (I
worked for a garbage collection company and know first hand how far the
trash travels by truck, and how enourmously much trash there is every single
day)
http://gardenshoponline.com/blendfert/dtevegan.html Or
http://www.abundantearth.com/store/veganfertilizer.html for a larger amount
but not organic. Personally, I've found compost provides excellent
nutrients alone.... and composting is easy, I just throw my food waste on
the ground and cover it with dirt... it takes longer than a few months to
produce compost but the convenience is worth it, plus I'm in no rush.
--If you want to garden, or container garden, but have no land, your
community might have a community garden, where you can get a plot for a
small cost. Just search for "community garden" and the name of your
town/city/state at www.google.com
When buying foods- understand which ones require the most deaths, resource
use, and pollution... and avoid them when possible. The link from above
http://tinyurl.com/76z2 provides figures on the amount of energy needed to
produce farmed plants.
Buy locally when possible, to support smaller farming practices, and reduce
transportation harms.
Buy hand-grown when possible
Have troble finding 'good' food? There might be a food co-op or food
distributor near you. I get my food from Neshanimy Valley 215-443-7087
n...@orgfood.com . I get it for about 20-30% less cost than supermarkets sell
the same food for. They distribute for CT to MI to the VA's. There are
other distributors around the country. Some may want you to be part of a
co-op, but they allowed me to just make up a name and have 2 other members
in order to get food
Consider sprouting. Sprouting seeds increases the amount of food and
increases nutrients, and makes it more easily digestible. You can increase
the food amount by 5 times within 2-3 days.
A sprouter that makes it very easy is www.sproutamo.com. It takes me about 1
minute of effort total time to unfailingly produce sprouts- their site
explains why pretty well
Seeds and excellent info are here
http://www.sproutpeople.com/seed/leafy.html
and bulk seeds are here http://www.sprouthouse.com/bulk.htm
Very related to harm is energy use. Living while using less energy will
reduce the collateral deaths and illnesses from air particulates. It's more
abstract than collateral deaths from food, but air pollution kills people
also, 70,000 in the USA alone.
Reducing your energy use will reduce the pollution caused by providing the
energy, and it will also make for lower energy bills.
Here's some ideas to reduce energy-related harms:
-Replace some regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent
bulbs.
Compact fluorescent provide the same amount of light for 25-30% of the
energy a regular bulb uses. They also last more than 10 times as long, so
you'll buy them less often. Fluorescent bulbs no longer flicker, and can
provide light of an even better quality (closer to the sun's natural
spectrum) than regular bulbs. A house can use about 20% of it's energy for
light
-Turn your fridgerator to what it needs to be at 37-40*F for fridges and 5*F
for freezers. Measure by putting a thermometer in a galss of water, and
wait 24 hours to read it. A fridge can use 25% of a home's energy. Also
if your fridge is older than a decade you might replace it. My current
fridge is from 1987 and it uses $110 of energy a year, a new fridge uses as
little as $35 a year. Tips...top-freezer models are the most efficient,
moisture-controlled models make more efficiency, allow an inch of air space
all around your fridge.
This device will let you know how much any appliance in your home uses
http://www.ccrane.com/kill_a_watt.asp
-Reduce the amount you need to heat/cool your home.
Plug leaks around your doors and windows. Plug leaks in your central air
vents; my central air ducts running through my basement had some big leaks,
and they were colling and heating my unlived-in basement. I plugged them up
and now all that cool/warm air is going to the living spaces.
Close/partially close the vents in unlived-in rooms.
Allow sunlight to come in your windows during the day in the winter, and
close the blinds at night to keep the heat in.
If you have an unused firepace, cover the doors with insulation. I put a
fiberglass ceiling panel inside the door of mine, and it made a big
difference.
-Use rechargable batteries. One $15 Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery
will last as long as 400 disposable batteries, which would cost more than
$800. A battery charger costs about $100. NiMH batteries have no memory
effects (if you know about the past disadvantages) and can be used for
high-draw uses
-Support less polluting sources of energy. www.powerscorecard.org has info
on your area of choices you have. Some people have the choice to get their
energy from 100% wind power. I get my energy from Green Mountain who
provides most of it through landfill gas, and are building the amount from
wind and solar.
-Check into solar cells, solar water heaters. These tend to require a bit
more money up front, and the gains after pay-back are also larger.
Also, there are some huge grants and incentives by states and the federal
gov't http://www.dsireusa.org/
-Consider the gas efficiency if you are looking for a new vehicle. You can
get either 50mpg or 20mpg for a very similar vehicle. There are
gas-electric hybrids that are priced similar to other cars. The Honda
Insight has the lead within the US so far, and the second place winner
Toyota Prius rides more smoothly if you likely a very cushiond ride. And
all-combustion cars also have difference in efficiency
-Something as easy as planting a tree on the south side of your house, can
shade it from sun/heat in the summer, and let the winter sun/heat through
after it drops it's leaves
www.realgoods.com/ is an incredibly thorough resource for more
energy-efficient living products. They have lights, solar panels, solar
attic afns, etc, and much more. You can get a free catalog by asking at
800.762.7325 ser...@realgoods.com
Jon
"Cornelius Murphy" <corneliu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:f6f69e55.03030...@posting.google.com...
> G'day all,
>
> I have a few observations (related to diet, specifically):
>
> A) Anybody with a bit of compassion surely wants to prevent animals
> from suffering at the hands of humans to whatever extent is possible.
>
> B) Images and accounts of factory farming presented by vegetarians are
> indeed horrific, and to the extent that this kind of abuse *actually
> happens*, should not be allowed. At very least, one should not condone
> it by buying from the abusers. I don't, personally, have a problem
> with eating dead cow, but starving, beating, and freezing them,
> slaughtering other cows in their presence, boxing them up in tiny
> crates for months on end, etc. seem clearly unacceptable to me.
>
> C) It's virtually impossible to tell if your food has been raised in
> such a way that the animals involved had a good life and a relatively
> painless death (for example, the unregulated nature of the "free
> range" label for eggs).
>
> D) We've got to live. We humans have as much right to live as any
> animal. We have to eat something. Furthermore, the food has to be
> cheap enough that we can reasonably be able to afford it. This is a
> fact of our existence.
>
> E) Collateral deaths are absolutely unavoidable until we all start
> eating food made by replicators with energy directly extracted from
> the Sun. Sam's glass idea wouldn't work because you still would need
> earthworms for the soil (which you would chop in half by accident even
> if you harvested with a spade), bees for pollination, all kinds of
> critters for composting (which die by roasting, freezing, or getting
> pulverized by tools, depending on what part of the cycle you are in).
> You would still need some kind of pesticide because gnats, aphids,
> scale, and what all else can *not* be excluded unless the proposed
> farm is in orbit. Besides which, nobody is going to cover Saskatchewan
> with glass.
>
> I can't accept that I should do nothing just because I can't do a
> perfect job.
>
> So what, finally, actually *can* be done?
..........
http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/MorePeacefulDiet.html (CDs compared to
farm animals, and how to reduce the harms of anyone's diet ((omnivore,
veggie, or vegan))
http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/FarmAnimalLives.html (credible info on
how they live and die)
http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/PlantFoodNutrition.html (excellent
plant-based nutrition, recommendations of most respected nutrition groups,
protein, B12, etc)
http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/GMOharms.html (actual harms of GMOs, how
to easily avoid them)
-The person who does a little to help, when they can't help completely -is
wiser than- the person who does nothing to help, when they can't help
completely
-Live your life as you wish, while preserving the same ability for all
others- JaJ
-Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which there is
suffering. But we can lessen the number of those suffering (and the degree
of their suffering). And if you do not help us do this, who will?
-from Camus
---
!Go here and click each tab, free help that takes you only seconds, and can
be done once every day!
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
http://tinyurl.com/ibx9
(explains what your clicks actually accomplish:)
---
"One purpose in life is to reduce suffering, and increase happiness, for
yourself and for others, whenever possible"
"While perfection may be impossible, improvement is almost always possible"
---
My Reference Websites, to make the world a more comfortable place
http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/menu.html