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unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Diet for a Small Planet
I'm reading Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Lappe. There are some startling facts in this book about the American meat-based diet and how it is contributing to hunger around the world. The US has been blessed as a very agriculturally wealthy nation, and most people think that our food exports go to third world countries to feed hungry people. In actuality, two-thirds of our agricultural exports feed livestock. Half of our harvested acreage feeds livestock, not people (and this figure is an old one, I'm sure the number is much higher now!) The livestock is raised for meat, which only the rich can afford to eat. Raising livestock is an incredibly wasteful way to use our land and our grain. It's a waste of land, water, oil, fertilizers, topsoil, and other resources. 50 out of 100 gallons of water consumed in the US goes to raising livestock, and since much grain is grown on dry lands that have been leached of minerals from the over-use of pesticides and fertilizers, it's wreaking havoc on the land, causing erosion, depleting our aquifers, and leading to dust-bowl conditions.
Like many other industries in this corporate-controlled world, control of farmland is increasingly becoming concentrated in the hands of the few, putting small family farmers out of business as prices are driven down. To illustrate the waste that goes into raising meat, consider this fact: it takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce just one pound of beef in the US. We are truly the land of wasteful excess, and our meat habit is hurting not only ourselves but everyone in the world.
I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the book, and so far it does an excellent job of illustrating the problems caused by the food and agriculture industries as well as our dependence on meat in the world. Lappe also offers possible solutions to this problem, most of which stem from education. The more people that know how wasteful meat production is, the more people will second-guess their meat consumption. The less demand there is for meat, the less grain will be fed to livestock and the more can be exported as food for hungry people around the world. We can support local and organic small family farms, pressure our leaders to pass legislation that reduces exports for livestock and increases food aid, and perhaps more importantly, cut down on meat by adopting a plant-based diet. If not for your own health, if not for the planet's, then for the world's poor and hungry... go vegetarian!
The average American eats twice the protien that they need, most of which comes from meat. Plant-based proteins are just as assimilable as the protein in meat, especially when various plant-based proteins are combined. Not to mention, meat is highly acidic! An acidic body leads to cancer, so by cutting out meat you are creating a more alkaline environment in which cancer cannot grow. I've been learning a lot about the acidity and alkalinity of various foods lately. Seneca has been researching the raw diet, which is the healthiest possible human diet since cooking foods kills important enzymes and nutrients in our food. I will be sure to post some information about a raw diet as I find out more about it, as well as more from Lappe's book. I urge you to pick up a copy of Diet for a Small Planet and check it out for yourself. There are so many reasons to be vegetarian, and it's amazing that something as simple as changing your diet can affect the entire world. So let's change the world, one tummy at a time! :)
Labels: animal rights, environment/sustainability
