Earth Day, Food Choices, and Heads in the Sand

Many of the animal rights activists I know are already serious environmentalists; the two--respect for all animals and respect for this planet, for its air and waters and its mountains and forests and its inhabitants big and small, plant and animal, near to us and far--are both a part of who we are, and we see how it all interconnects. In my communities of friends and acquaintances, my animal rights-minded vegan friends tend to be the ones who, even aside from their food choices, live in the greenest ways, from commuting by bicycle to using handkerchiefs and recycled paper products (more on this soon) to backyard gardening and composting to making conscious environmentally friendly purchases across the board, and more. To those vegans who aren't extending their greenness beyond their veganism, who think veganism is enough by itself (it isn't), I obviously recommend some changes.

And to organizations and individuals who are promoting Earth Day today without putting the devastating environmental costs of animal agriculture--of eating flesh, dairy, and eggs--near the top of the discussion list: please, for your sake, for my sake, for future generations' sake, for Earth's sake, pull your head out of the sand, quit ignoring what's inconvenient because you don't want to make that big of a change, and start addressing the problem with the attention and seriousness it warrants.

How can anyone talk about the disaster of--and about stopping--deforestation without acknowledging that cattle ranching and the growing of animal-feed crops are a primary cause of deforestation, when 70 percent of the disastrous deforestation in the Amazon is a result of cattle ranching, and still more beyond that 70 percent happens so that crops for animal feed (not, for example, for food to feed the world's hungry and starving) can be raised? How can anyone talk about pollution of waterways and groundwater without pointing out that animal agriculture--and its 86,000 pounds per second of excrement in the United States, as the video below points out--is a primary cause of that pollution? How do we lament our dying oceans and ignore how we are causing that death with our fishing of the oceans for our food--with a large percentage of the catch going to feed livestock, in addition to what humans actually eat?

Campaigns today that don't shine a light on all this, that don't call on people to change their diets--significantly, now, and permanently, not just for the day or the week--I can't take seriously. If this is really Earth Day and not Make Ourselves Feel Better Day, then the problem of animal agriculture must be a significant, primary part of the discussion.

Please see the illuminating (but gentle) video below and links to related posts below that video.

A Life Connected: Vegan. For the People. For the Planet. For the Animals.

See also this compelling video from the other day.

Related posts and resources:

• NRDC on livestock farms and water pollution
• Harold Brown's series of posts (link directs to first post; other parts are linked to there) on how animal agriculture will be the death of this planet--and us--if we continue on our current path (and a thoughtful explanation of how free-range pasture systems aren't the solution people think)
• Researchers: Even “Organically Raised” Cows Are a “Climate Bomb”
• ALDF: Fix Global Warming the Easy, Low-Tech Way
• Let's Act Now
• Veg for the Environment from Bite Global Warming (a FARM campaign)

Image: From public art exhibit, Chicago 2007. Photo by Flickr user JohnLeGear.