-info and links- Earth Cannot Sustain the Deamnds and Pollution from Animal Foods
Jon Janssen
...One very important fundamental point to note- there would be no animal
breeding,raising,and killing operations if there was not demand for animal
foods or fur. For instance, steric acid alone would not make it profitable
to raise, feed, and kill animals. Alternatives would be found, as has
already happened with plywood.
> The meat industry provides life for the animals that it
> slaughters, and the animals live and die in it as they do
> in any other habitat.
We could provide life for dogs for a few months and kill them and eat them
also.... there is some importance to your the emotions this likely raises in
most Americans. While we have grown to learn that dogs are animals and
have feelings, we have been taught by society that other animals are food,
and even have different names for many of them (veal, bacon, pork, ham, etc.
this is very similar to dehumanizing from a psychological viewpoint- it
makes the individual more of a 'thing'/'it' than an individual deserving of
emotions)
Veal calves do not live like natural calves, nor do caged hens, or
free-range hens, or pigs, or cows.
Animal farming is being made up more of larger confined-animal operations,
and fewer small farms
This is from the EPA http://tinyurl.com/2by6
> They also depend on it for their
> lives like the animals in any other habitat. If people
> consume animal products from animals they think are
> raised in decent ways, they will be promoting life for
> more such animals in the future.
Some may not think we can afford to use up our resources that allow us to
live,
or to pollute more than can be cleaned....
-Animal foods require many times more fossil fuel use than many plant foods
http://tinyurl.com/2bxv (note- the author reverses the ratio for the plant
foods and the animal foods)
-more water
http://tinyurl.com/2bwh (page 11)
which is important as many sources of underground water are actually being
depleted. Underground aquifers, like the famed Ogallala aquifer in the
western US is nearly depleted. http://tinyurl.com/2bwq
-result in deforestation
http://tinyurl.com/2bw8
((Note- There were 940 million acres deforested in 1990-2000 Not all from
cattle grazing but clearly it's not an issue that's preferable to make even
http://tinyurl.com/2bw7
-water pollution http://tinyurl.com/2by6
More water pollution (water borne diseases, water we can't healthfully swim
in), more air pollution, fewer trees to clean the air pollution, less
groundwater, and the faster global warming (even admitted by Bush who is
extremely opposed to measures to combat it, note after saying that it is
real and urgent, he also said he would take no actions to reduce pollution,
and has even cut funding for cleaner energy, and opposed energy efficiency)
http://tinyurl.com/2ohz)
Some might think that we can't simply breed some animals to kill and eat,
when noting the above consequences, even aside from the subjective issue of
if it's preferable to kill animals.
> From the life and death of a thousand pound grass raised
> steer and whatever he happens to kill during his life, people
> get over 500 pounds of human consumable meat. That would
> be 750 meals if each included 3/4 pound of meat. From a grass
> raised dairy cow people get thousands of dairy meals.
First off what has science found, over the vast majority of their studies,
world-wide, and over the course of several decades of research.... how do
animal foods affect health...
.. animal foods are also strongly correlated with several diseases and
health problems
Look at the new Unified Dietary Guidelines, byt these groups
American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee
American Cancer Society
American Dietetic Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
National Institutes of Health.
http://tinyurl.com/2bz2)
The same idea is concluded by long-term world-wide studies on peoples'
health
http://tinyurl.com/2bz4
Would grass fed beef provide more meals, since they are just eating grass
that people can't eat anyway? Not exactly if they are 'finished'
SOME FINISHED WITH GRAIN, PORTION OF STEERS ARE INEDIBLE
Some grass-fed beef, are 'finished' (i.e.. fattened up) with harvested grain
before their slaughter. www.feedlotmagazine.com v9, number 1 page2829
mentioned that finishing can take 10-18 months. The following PBS link
states
that they are only alive 14-16 months for grain-fed cattle.
http://tinyurl.com/2bw6
(the 'industrial meat' section follows a steer through it's 14 month life
and slaughter and packaging; grain-fed).
Not all of the cattle's weight is edible for people.
After the cattle is killed and inedible parts are removed, the edible
portion can be as little as 40% of the original weight
http://tinyurl.com/2bwa
http://tinyurl.com/2bw5 shows it at roughly
60%. It can vary with the cattle and the processing methods.
(lots of food go to create skin, bones, blood, organs, and expended energy
to power the cells&metabolism) Of course, these are turned into leather,
bone meal and blood meal for fertilizers. Conversely plant cloths do
exist, as do plant fertilizers.
Some of the food they are finished with may be inedible for people (although
it could be used as excellent fertilizers and soil improvers; compost; it'd
hold water better (resist draughts), resist erosion, and add minerals and
essential elements (nitrogen, carbon).
So how much human edible and inedible food might be used during finishing?
Here are some numbers:(or
http://tinyurl.com/2bw4
this is the Daily rationing for an 800 pound steer
Food...Pounds
Corn 14.7
Soybean meal 0.52
Corn silage 10.00
Limestone 0.17
Now consider that it takes more than 1 pound of food to create 1 pound of
muscle/meat.
The only academic estimate/figure I've seen on conversion of plants to beef
is 7:1 for beef
http://tinyurl.com/2bw2
So, the 25 pounds of food from the above list would be expected to make
about 3 pounds of beef.
Just take the human-edible corn and soybean meal (which would provide
near-complete protein, if not complete) and it'd be 15 pounds of food.
The 10 pounds of corn silage could be used as compost to improve future farm
yields, and the limestone could remain unmined.
> Due to
> the influence of farm machinery, and *icides, and in the case
> of rice the flooding and draining of fields, one meal of soy or
> rice based product is likely to involve more animal deaths than
> hundreds of meals derived from grass raised cattle.
I have yet to see a single source of information on the number of collateral
deaths, and as someone could guess a high number, or a low number, there's
no value in guessing.
There are collateral deaths for sure with some crops, such as farmers who
put poison out for rodents, in the fields, and where grains are stored. How
many deaths, please post any source you might see for this.
The lives of animals who died collaterally in plant farming live a much
better quality of life than the majority of farm animals live. They are
free to live how they desires and instincts, get to live with their mothers
as long as it instinctual (some farm animals are removed within days of
birth (cows/calves). They also are free to act on their instinct to avoid
death, whereas farm animals are killed forcefully by being restarined and
then having their throats slit, a bolt shot into their head, and other ways.
http://tinyurl.com/2oim
Temple Grandin http://www.grandin.com/ has introduced techniques to reduce
the stress, and hopefully have animals killed unknowingly. They are filed
down a shaft, and are taken into the kill area, one at a time, to be
killed.... kind-of sounds like the gas chambers in the holocaust, if you'll
excuse the analogy
Maybe the analogy pales in some regards since there are more than 10 billion
farm animals killed each year in the US
http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr01/acro01.htm
> WATER
> It takes more water to produce animal foods (meat/eggs,milk) than it does
> plant foods
> http://www.cfwc.com/FACTBOOK.PDF (http://tinyurl.com/2bwh) (page 11)
> However water can be supplied by streams, although water taken from
streams
> cannot replenish the destination of the streams. And water that is pumped
> from underground can deplete the underground supplies of water faster than
> they are replenished. This is water that has slowly seeped into the
ground;
> it is not the same as the ocean where there is just loads of water; it can
> be depleted, and this is why people sometimes need to make their wells
> deeper when their water pressure drops... the level of the water in the
> ground is dropping faster than water is being added.
> Underground aquifers, like the famed Ogallala aquifer in the western US is
> nearly depleted.
> http://wmc.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/tech.dir/droughtmgmt.htm (or
> http://tinyurl.com/2bwq)
> Overall, the largest consumer of our ground water is agriculture, and
animal
> foods require more water.
>
>
> Transporting the water would cause, directly or indirect deaths.
> Or transporting about anything, for that matter.
> Anything that is operated by oil/gas, contributes in demand for new oil...
> and to all the results on searching for oil (which uses oil itself),
digging
> for oil (which uses oil), transporting it (uses oil), processing it (uses
> oil), and transporting it to the end destination (uses oil).
> 2 quick ways how deaths are caused by use of oil, and the process of
getting
> and making it.... Exxon Valdez
> http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/facts/status.html (for specific details),
> and realize that oil spills are not uncommon http://tinyurl.com/2bxe.
> ...and disease and death caused by air pollution (and the growing issue of
> global warming, which even Bush states is an urgent issue needing
immediate
> action) (air pollution http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t020903.html (or
> http://tinyurl.com/2bxk)) (US gov't National Academy of Science's report
on
> global warming http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/global/climate/01121201.htm
> (or http://tinyurl.com/2bxp)
> ... and then there's animals run over by trucks, trains, and cars.
animals
> killed as land is cleared.
>
>
> Well, How much oil is required for animal foods, or plant foods?
> Here are some figures:
> http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highway/english/energy/live.html (or
> http://tinyurl.com/2bxv)
> Source for the data is Pimentel and Pimentel, 1996
> (http://ipmworld.umn.edu/vitae/dpvita.htm One of David Pimentel's
> focuses is energy flows in the agriculture and food systems)
>
> Fossil fuel energy used to produce food : energy provided by food (both in
> Kilocalories)
> > > > Range beef 10 : 1
> > > > Chicken 16 : 1
> > > > Range lamb 16 : 1
> > > > Milk 19 : 1
> > > > Eggs 28 : 1
> > > > Beef 35 : 1
> > > > Pork 68 : 1
> > > > Lamb 188 : 1
>
> http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highway/english/energy/grain.html
> > > > Corn 1 : 2.5
> > > > Wheat 1 : 2.2
> > > > Soy 1 : 4.2
>
> > > http://collections.ic.gc.ca/highway/english/energy/veg.html
> > > Apple 1 : 1.1
> > > Potato 1 : 1.4
> > > Spinach 1 : .2
> > > Tomato 1 : .6
>
>
> I changed the ratios to compare the same exact ratio, as the author used
an
> opposite ratio for plant foods and animal foods.
> The author was using a ratio of the amount of energy needed to produce an
> amount of protein (amount of energy needed to produce : amount of energy
> the food provides) for the animal foods section
> and used the opposite ratio for the plant foods (amount of energy from the
> plants : amount of energy used to grow/harvest them)
>
> so while the best efficiency for the animal foods was 10 Kilocalories
used
> in order to produce 1 kilocalorie of range beef, the author states for
> wheat, "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."
> Requiring .45 kilocalories, instead of 10, which is 95% less energy, is a
> lot more efficient.
>
>
> Then add in the harms from manure waste run-off.
> While some is used as fertilizer (think about eating plants grown in
> manure-enriched soil?), run-off into streams, and hence rivers, and bays
is
> a common problem resulting in unhealthy water to drink, unhealthy to swim
> in, unpleasant to boat in, and fatal to marine life. An estimated 60% of
> the pollution in rivers comes from agriculture which includes the manure
> The amount? 128 billion pounds of manure each year, and this is just in
the
> US.
> (EPA link http://tinyurl.com/2by6)
> 10 billion farm animals killed each year in the US
> http://www.usda.gov/nass/pubs/agr01/acro01.htm
> Worldwide there are 40 billion animals killed yearly
> http://apps.fao.org/page/collections?subset=agriculture
>
> The waste of plants foods, again, is purely compost, which is
non-polluting,
> smells much better (for people near hog farms), and helps the soil in many
> ways.
>
>
> As for the difference in the quality of life of accidentally killed
animals,
> please see the MorePeacefulDiet link below.
>
>
>
> Some Useful Ideas, other than continue to learn more and more deeply, and
> continue to expand your care to a wider audience:
>
> To reduce food harms... replace animal foods with plant foods. Replace
> inefficient animal foods like chicken (a few meals for each death) to
larger
> animals which require fewer deaths to provide the same number of meals.
> -Read about health and diet, and environment and diet, to be more
interested
> in plant foods
> It's what the vast majority of nutrition groups recommend:
> http://www.ph.dhr.state.ga.us/epi/news/jun99/06_16_99.shtml (or
> http://tinyurl.com/2bz2)
> and concluded by long-term global studies
> http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/learn/nutrdguide.htm (or
> http://tinyurl.com/2bz4)
> -Plant a garden, best quality food you can have. http://www.earthbox.com/
is
> a very easy way to grow food, as long as you can spend 10 minutes to fill
it
> with dirt, and water it every 2 days.
> -Buy organic, less poisons and run-off, less energy used for chemical
> fertilizers. Some organics still use natural poisons, so look for
companies
> who are sincere about food quality. BTW, studies have consistently found
> much lower levels of poisons on organic foods, than non-organic foods.
> -Replace rice, and other very wet foods, with more dry foods (wheat, corn,
> etc). Wet landscapes support more animals, and can result in more animals
> deaths during plowing, spraying, and harvesting.
> -Look for Kamut and Quinoa grains, and Hemp seeds. Near complete proteins
>
>
> To reduce the harms involved by oil: be as efficient with energy as
> possible, this can also save money as well.
> -Today's average refrigerators use 1/4 of what 15-year old refrigerators
> use. Extreme efficient ones can use 1/6-1/8.
> -Compact Fluorescence lights can use 1/4 and their quality is now
equivalent
> or better than regular light-bulbs.
> http://www.realgoods.com/renew/index.cfm (amazing for energy efficient
> stuff)
> -Turning off your computer at night, turning off lights in empty rooms,
can
> also reduce energy use greatly.
>
> Live simply; buy more of what you need and less of what you don't, reuse
> things and repair things. Remember that each thing you buy had to be
> acquired,built,and transported, which all require oil energy. Simple
> things like combining errands when going out in the car do add up (vehicle
> pollution is the second largest source of air pollution, second only to
the
> production of electricity).
>
> If you have reduced the amount of harm caused, then you have helped.
This
> help can be improved on infinitely; there is no goal to reach, only a path
> to proceed on. I strive to leave the earth's inhabitants in a better
> quality of life, than they'd be in otherwise... and to as great a degree a
s
> possible. What might be important to all? Ability to do what one
wishes,
> access to healthy water and food, clothing, and shelter. and living in
such
> a way as to maximize these things for all other inhabitants. (p.s. I
feel
> strongly about not trying to put clothing on non-human animals though ;)
>
>
> http://www.geocities.com/holist2002/FarmAnimalLives.html (credible info on
> how they live and die)
> 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/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. They are NOT all safe, and NOT equivalent)
>
> Jon
>
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