Immediate and Long Term Approach to Shifting From an Animal Product Based Diet to a Pure Plant-Based Diet
The following are steps that governments can implement in order to shift to a plant based society:
Education – Healthy Choices |
The approach in educating children and young people on the negative effects of meat consumption is similar in its approach to other substances that society has deemed to be detrimental in its entirety. Awareness campaigns that promote critical thinking by presenting complete facts to children and young people have demonstrated to have effective results.
Programs can be supported & sponsored by the government, private sector, NPOs and other institutions.
In recognizing the multitude of consequences that animal production has in various areas of social interest, the financial burden would not have to be placed on a single department but respectively divided. State agencies and including those of national level of the government overseeing Health, Environment, Social welfare, Game and Wild Life share common concerns that can be tackled in unison through educational programs for children .
Philanthropists with a focus on social issues affecting individuals of 1st and 3rd world nations suffering from hunger, water scarcity, natural disasters and diseases may be unaware of the common culprit that in the case of this substance, livestock for human consumption contributes to their area of interest. therefore, they also may contribute to the dissemination of information at an international level.
A comprehensive program with set targets, Key program strategies , resource support( will vary based on local government or ), facilitator support (include training) and materials would be needed effectiveness just like any other awareness program.
School systems are not providing children with a fair opportunity. Young people are being deprived of the facts on the consequences of animals raised for food let alone nutrition. For example, according to the American Dietetic Association both a balanced vegetarian & vegan diet are advantageous and in fact aid in the preventing and treating certain diseases. (1)
With the education system and the health system being unsynchronized this creates a misinterpretation of information or in this case, children lacking the ability to make healthier food choices.
(1) http://www.eatright.org/About/Content.aspx?id=8357
Social Norms |
In addition, creating social norms is an approach that unravels in schools and has a
compelling influence among young individuals. In a report that extended over 30 years by the New England Journal of Medicine, it was observed how obesity spreads through a social network in a similar way an infectious disease might spread. (1)Even “free thinking and independent” adults cave-in to powerful social pressures, which have a measurable impact on our health and well-being.
According to Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator in the new study, said one explanation was that friends affected each others’ perception of fatness. When a close friend becomes obese, obesity may not look so bad. Therefore, the way we think is profoundly influenced by others.(2)(3)
Developing a social norm for a meatless diet is equally advantageous throughout the early years of childhood and on to an individual’s later years of adulthood.
(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/health/26fat.html?_r=1
(2) http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/ted-2010-nicholas-christakis-does-this-social-network-make-me-look-fat/
(3) http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/christakis/
Mass Media |
Providing children with the proper information and right eating habits will not ensure this much needed social change. Parents even more so need to be informed, and just how may this be accomplished? Complete and informative materials children bring home from school and public education through mass media.(1) An effective approach directed to adults is that of a mass media, according to a study from the American Journal of Public Health, the impacts of mass media were critical in reducing smoking. (2)
Another successful example of mass media campaigns reviewed is a project by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Smoking Media Campaigns From Around The World Recommendations From Lessons Learned”, this collaboration evaluated media cessation campaigns and other tobacco related statistics of approximately 20 different nations. It is appropriate to acknowledge these campaigns were aimed to individuals who did not wish to discontinue their use of a particular substance. In fact, according to the report the targeted individuals were fully aware of the probability of failing to discontinue usage that they would seek out reasons to disregard the messages about cessation. The report stated the numerous campaigns were successful in reducing usage of the product by means of providing a combination of messages and the risks to users and non users. In regards to the challenges faced in disseminating the message, they are similar, yet the consequences of this particular product, has by far greater effects on humanity. Therefore, organizations like the FAO have concluded for example that international emissions targets will only be reached once the world reduces farming emissions without harming food security or economic development. (3)
(1) http://her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/348
(2) http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/8/1443
(3) http://www.fao.org/climatechange/49361@139922/en/
Ban the use of advertising |
It would only be fair to have complete information to make a fair judgment call. On the 30th on May 2008 the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a ban on tobacco advertising to protect youth. Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia stated that both direct and indirect advertising clearly increased usage and that it posed a real risk of their targets on becoming regular users. Comparatively, meat consumers targeted under misleading or misinformed marketing will result in continuous consumption or even with a possible increase, in the case leading to individual health risks or its other direct and indirect negative effects. Dr Plianbangchang noted that,” “Studies before and after advertising bans have found a decline in tobacco consumption of up to 16%.” Likewise, properly informing the public on the realities of meat consumption would also have substantial effects on its usage. (1)
(1) http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Tobacco_Free_Initiative_tfinewsletter-vol1no2.pdf
Warning labels |
Why aren’t meats accompanied by warning labels? Some may argue that warning labels may become lost on a product and it would be significant and a financial waste. The fact is that although to many it may not influence their decision in avoiding the product it will give the consumer the facts and therefore, giving the RIGHT to make a fair choice. Take tooth paste for instance, it does come with a warning label and the vast majority still use the product but the key point to stress is that everyone is aware of the indicated hazards and that it looms in the back of our minds contributing to some caution regardless how minimal it may be. These are the immediate steps we can take in educating our society, gradually eliminating its demand , finally eliminating its production entirely.
Simply considering the individual health risks that meat possesses, labels may allow consumers to make a more conscientious choice. Items such as alcohol, tobacco and a more recently debated in the United States, sodas(no warning label is used yet), are few items accompanied by warning labels but again none have the equally devastating repercussions to our health and that of the planet.
Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and on the Board of Directors for the Cancer project is in accord with deliberations of the World Health Organization, where it was determined that dietary factors are responsible for at least 30 percent of all cancers in Western countries and up to 20 percent in developing countries. Consequently, research on the subject concluded that individuals with a lesser chance of developing cancer were those that deterred from consuming meat. Other significant findings in developed nations such as England and Germany demonstrated that the numbers were as high as 40% less likely to develop cancer when maintain in a plant based diet in comparison to people who consumed meat. In addition, a study on a religious group with a predominantly meat free diet had an overall noticeable lower risk in cancer. Consequently, Harvard studies concluded that the risk of colon cancer was close to 3 times as much in individuals that consumed meat when compared to individuals that mostly abstained from meat consumption.(1)
Considering the undeniable facts of meat related mortality we should note that in some form its consumption is still contributing to some level of chronic illness and we should be warned with the use of labels.
(1) http://www.cancerproject.org/diet_cancer/facts/meat.php
Taxing Meat |
We can consider applying taxes on meat somewhere in the category of a sin tax or valorem tax, basically taxing meat because it is not a necessity (as mentioned previously by the American Dietetic Association) and yet it is considered physically harmful (World Cancer Research Fund UK(1) and equally morally harmful (as recorded in a number of religious scriptures).
Quran 55 :10,13 Sacred scripture of Islam
He created the earth for all creatures.
In it there are fruits, and date palms with their hanging fruit.
Also grains and the spices. (O humans and jinns,) which of your Lord’s marvels can you deny?
Genesis 1:29 Bible
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
I undertake the precept to abstain from killing living beings
Ist precept Buddhism
You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal
Jewish Proverb
Professor Peter Singer of bioethics from Princeton University in United States argues in an article of the New York Times that by increasing the prices and placing heavier taxes on meat, purchases & consumption will decline, consequentially having multiple benefits, reminding us of the significant calculations livestock is held accountable regarding greenhouse gas emissions – estimates range from 18 percent (Food and Agriculture Organization), to 51 percent (World Watch Institute).In the United Kingdom and like minded organizations such as World Wildlife Fund and Food Ethics Council, have expressed the need for government to install taxes, based on a food’s carbon footprint with an emphasis on meat.(2)
36 percent of meat packing employees are injured on the job each year. The meat packing industry still has the highest injury rate of any U.S. industry.
In actuality the animal based food industry has high invisible costs starting from machines that replace individuals creating additional job displacement affecting the economy, the consumer’s health to the employee’s health and safety , environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources. The proposed taxes can assist in ensuring a safer work atmosphere and restoration of the ecology. (3)(4)
What types of dangers do workers face in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs) and slaughter houses.
To understand dome of the direct dangers employees face, researcher Marlene Halverson of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy depicts the following 2 accounts taken from the report titled ,”The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs”
On July 26, 1989, five farm workers in one family died after consecutively entering a 10-foot deep liquid manure pit on their Michigan farm….. The farm owner’s 28-year-old son descended into the pit on a ladder and made [a] repair. While climbing out, he was overcome by fumes and fell back into the pit. Subsequently, the owners’ 15-year-old grandson, his 63-year-old cousin, his 37-year-old son, and the 65-year-old farm owner himself entered the pit and collapsed, each one having intended to rescue the others. The medical examiner cited methane asphyxiation as the cause of their deaths.
On August 8, 1992, a 27-year-old employee of a Minnesota hog farm and his 46-year-old uncle, who co-owned the farm, died after entering an outdoor manure pit. The employee entered the pit to repair a pump and was overcome by fumes. The uncle died when he attempted to rescue his nephew. They were pronounced dead from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. (4) (5)
The dangerous fumes from manure pools or pits mentioned above are 2 of the toxic gasses produced by CAFOs that affect the workers, local communities, natural resources and the planet’s environment.
(1) http://www.wcrf-uk.org/preventing_cancer/recommendations/meat_and_cancer.php
(2) http://negotiationisover.com/?p=3301
(3) http://www.fao.org/docrep/w2598e/w2598e04.htm
(4) http://business.highbeam.com/industry-reports/food/meat-packing-plants
(5) http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/indextoc.html
Government setting limit restrictions |
A long term approach can be initiated by limiting production of animals and setting aside land for establishing it as organic. Organizations and nonprofits with these special interests can assist aiding the transition additional workforce can be arranged with prisons where inmates give back to a community (an co-operation began with prison authorities in 2009,conducting farming training for prisoners with a special focus on vegetable farming noted an EXPERT from the Taiwan Technical Mission) or with war veterans (as in the U.S, Archi’s Acres Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program).(23)(24)
- Limit restrictions on animals produced in each CAFO. Restricting the number of animals that are artificially inseminated and bred can allow operators/owners to gradually shift to a more sustainable & alternative business, for example that of organic farming (crops used for human consumption)
- Concentration Animal Feed Operations CAFOs and the gradual shift to organic farming for human crops
(23) http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=140657%20
(24) http://www.archisacres.com/index.html
Industry Subsidies |
Industry (subsidies) reduce subsidies from meat industry to more local organic vegan farming for human crops
Subsidies for animal live stock were intended to be a temporary solution for collapsing farms of the 1930s (part of the “NEW DEAL” )which afflicted approximately 25 percent of the population living on farms. Today, farmers only account for a 1 percent of the population with an income of 200,000 thousand yearly, well over the national average. Farm subsidies should be assisting the small local organic crop family farmers and not the large agribusinesses.(25)
Many of these businesses receive conservation payments aiming to strike a balance between the needs of farmers and the reduction of the negative environmental effects associated with agriculture. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified agricultural runoff containing pesticides and fertilizers used on farm lands as the primary source of water pollution. This approach is intended to allow farmers to set aside lands for restoration or to practice no-till agriculture to reduce topsoil erosion.(26)(27)
By redirecting subsidies from the animal production industry and cooperate farming, it will allow organic farming for human crops to tackle the environmental and health issues found with commercial farming to name a few soil erosion, water contamination and air pollution. Organic farming is sustainable, therefore it’s not only healthier for the environment and land but also advantageous in producing healthier food and a safer jobs.
In the United States for instance, Farm subsidies are intended to alleviate farmer poverty, but the majority of subsidies go to commercial farms with average incomes of $200,000 and net worth of nearly $2 million.Farm subsidies are intended to raise farmer incomes by remedying low crop prices. Instead, they promote overproduction and therefore lower prices further. Farm subsidies are intended to be consumer-friendly and taxpayer-friendly. Instead, they cost Americans billions each year in higher taxes and higher food costs.
In addition farmers receive crop disaster compensation regardless if crops were destroyed or not.
Subsidy eligibility is based on the crop. More than 90 percent of all subsidies go to just five crops-wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans, and rice- while the vast majority of crops are ineligible for subsidies. Once eligibility is established, subsidies are paid per amount of the crop produced, so the largest farms automatically receive the largest checks. Again, the small farmers manage to make it by while the subsidies benefit large corporations.
Corn and soy are produced at massive levels, in the U.S corn is used in animal feed for livestock, the U.S actually produces over 40 percent of the worlds corn.(28)
All the meanwhile, with over 1 Billion people today suffering from hunger major corn producing countries like United states , China and Brazil can find more efficient ways to use their lands and hep the hungry within their nation as well as in the global community. U.S. farmers were producing around 119 million metric tons of corn using 26 million hectares. Last year, they cranked out 334 million metric tons using 35 million hectares-a 180 percent increase, using only 34 percent more land.(29) (30)
The actual amount of land we need to feed ourselves is surprisingly small. All the vegetables grown in this country are produced on slightly more than 3 million acres of land. Fruit and nut production occupies another 5 million acres. Potatoes and grains are grown on nearly 100 million acres of land
Other unnoticeable subsides are directed in financing various parts of the operating expenses of the meat industry. Examples include research, meat inspection, environmental cleanup, predator control for ranchers, and the expediting of trade in meat. (31)
NOTE:
Some developing nations or poverty stricken regions require and additional approach due to the terrain or lack of natural resources. Although this may be the case sustainable organic farming for human crops is still feasible. Organizations like USAID and local partners in Ethiopia operate programs developing urban gardens bringing the opportunity of: knowledge of a trade, additional or basic regular food and improving financial income. (32)
(25) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal
(26) http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/economics/
(27) http://www.ehow.com/facts_5943152_conservation-payments-farmers_.html
(28) http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/06/how-farm-subsidies-harm-taxpayers-consumers-and-farmers-too
(29) http://worldofcorn.com/pdfs/WOC-Stat-Book-SinglePG.pdf
(30) http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31197
(31) http://www.navs-online.org/environment/cattle_ranching/welfare_ranching.php
(32) http://www.usaid.gov/stories/ethiopia/cs_et_urbangardens.html
Business – Tax breaks |
Providing plant based meals is Carbon offsetting
Europe has led the world in implementing carbon trading, renewable-energy subsidies and the other necessary legislation for getting the green industry moving. In the U.S a survey of 600 small business owners nationwide with a result of two thirds of businesses owners willing to go green and spend an additional amount to be environmentally friendly for services and goods.
A meatless meal can contribute drastically to the carbon footprint, businesses should take advantage of this as well. Considering that the process of an animal based food is highly carbon intensive, starting with the production to feed the animal, the slaughtering, the processing, refrigerating and transporting add up making it the highest green house gas emitting industry (33)(34)
Now, a business would not have a less of an incentive to spend on itself, even more so if it was favorable to the business and its employees.
For instance, Based on US Tax deductions business meals and entertainment are 50 percent deductible. Governments can encourage companies to provide a workplace wellness program with plant based meals for their employees, in turn providing an additional tax break based on a number of days green meals are provided ( may vary upon company).
A company would establish a simple but complete service for its employees, simultaneously relieving a significant financial concern for the employee, contributing to their better health, thus having a more productive worker and creating an additional green job in the food industry (by contracting a catering service).
(35)(36)
Vision of a sustainable plant based diet and its benefits|
The benefits for the world community sustaining itself on a plant based diet are numerous.
With current unstable climate change patterns and estimated predictions scientists and renowned experts tell us that a change in a meat free diet is important in reducing environmental problems. Experts like Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said, “In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity.” (37)Firstly, by reducing GHG emissions it would allow the directly affected Arctic marine ecology to stabilize. Some areas of the ecology are affected by the sea ice melting and other areas are affected by the warming temperatures. Marine life ranging seasonal phytoplankton and algae blooms which support the entire Arctic food web would have significant effects to the entire ecology. Additionally impacted would be large populations of Arctic marine birds, migratory whale species, seals, walruses and polar bears, some of which are entirely dependent upon and adapted to floating sea ice and ice edges. (38)
By lowering GHG emissions we may be possible to reduce the threat of the accelerated rate of sea level rising affecting millions of people on islands and cities around the world. Sea levels rise is due to thermal expansion(water warming) and melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Reports once predicted that the Arctic polar ice caps were thought to be completely free of ice by 2100. However, University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System study accompanied by more than 300 scientist from around the world stayed last winter on the coast guard research vessel studying the impacts of climate change and estimate the melting to be at a much quicker rate, somewhere between 2013 and 2030. Recently,Prof. David Barber shared at a student symposium on climate change at FortWhyte Alive that,”It’s happening much faster than our most pessimistic models suggested.”(39)
• According to a study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) the report states that global warming is unavoidable during this century. (40) Unstable climate weather patterns are related to increased heat, and heat drives increased water and turbulence in the atmosphere. NCAR scientist Warren Washington, the paper’s lead author stated, “we could stabilize the threat of climate change.”
Georgia Tech City and Regional Planning Professor Brian Stone determined that reducing the rate of forest loss around the world and allowing forests to regenerate where they have been lost could significantly slow the rate of global warming.(41)
A complete natural Forest regeneration is a long term process taking years.
Therefore, immediate action is necessary and favorable. Given the opportunity of Forest regeneration it would continue to serve life on this planet in a multitude of ways. These tropical forests are absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, approximately a massive 4.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions each year, never the less yet providing some stability to our changing climate. Regeneration of these forests for instance would divert the process of desertification, soil erosion, and much more. (42)(43) Nations rich in rainforest such as Brazil have been heavily stricken by floods, mudslides and droughts. Most of these occurrences would be prevented being that mudslides have often taken place in areas where hills have been stripped of vegetation. As for floods, excessive rain is pouring where it doesn’t rain but flourishing forests would serve to stabilize rainfalls and all the while other regions suffer from abnormal droughts, effects of degradation, as it too has been mainly destroyed by cattle farming . (44)
The world’s rainforests are home to about 50 percent of the world’s species, mutually aiding one another with animals serving in dispersing seeds.
Rainforests contain a botanical wealth and other resources, that if allowed to flourish once again, they will continue to serve humanity and their biodiversity.(45)
An organic plant based food system in our society would ensure that farming practices no longer contribute to expanding Dead zones. This invasive technique of farming would eliminate many of the contributing factors polluting our marine ecology, providing it with an opportunity to flourish once again. Organic crop farm lands would strive having no use of spreading toxic animal waste as fertilizer and other hazardous commonly used chemicals in today’s commercial farming. Rivers, streams and ground water which supply much of our drinking water would flow free of heavy metals, chemicals, pathogens and other pollutants produced by CAFOs or IFF intensive factory farms, therefore no harmful substances never reaching our vital oceans.(46)(47)
Consequently, a meat free diet (diet free of fish) would also prevent the devastating effects of commercial fishing and habitat loss in turn affecting the other areas of marine ecology. By abstaining from fishing immediately, some number of fish species may recover ,almost 90 percent have disappeared, while a fair amount may have partial recovery.(48)
(33) http://www.sustainability.govt.nz/forum/2008/who-has-lower-carbon-footprint-vegetarian-suv-driver-or-meat-eating-cyclist
(34) http://51percent.org/livestock-ghg-footprint/
(35) http://www.entrepreneur.com/money/taxcenter/taxpertisecolumnistbonnielee/article205654.html
(36) http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/01/08/global-carbon-trading-volumes-grew-68-in-2009/
(37) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2699173/Eat-less-red-meat-to-help-the-environment-UN-climate-expert-says.html
(38) http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/arctic99/reports/wildlife.html#fnB11
(39) http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/arctic-ice-melt-alarms-scientists-83704042.html
(40) http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/04/14/decline.greenhouse.gas.emissions.would.reduce.sea.level.rise.save.arctic.sea.ice
(41) http://www.fao.org/docrep/u6850e/u6850e09.htm
(42) http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0801.htm
(43) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/forests/4690299/Trees-absorb-a-fifth-of-carbon-emissions-pumped-out-by-humans.html
(44) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/01/03/2784418.htm
(45) http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0801.htm
(46) http://www.ers.usda.gov/amberwaves/november03/findings/deadzone.htm
(47) http://www.downtoearth.org/environment/organic-vs-conventional-farming/ocean-dead-zone-solution-buy-organic
(48) http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/05/14/coolsc.disappearingfish/
Health |
Countries spend a portion of their GDP on health care, the United States for instance spends almost double the average of any other economic developing country but yet its citizens live shorter than most other developed nations. Therefore, implementing plant based diets in schools at an early age as well as in their later years of education would be promising, they may more than likely will develop and maintain more positive dietary habits. The World Health Organization documented that healthy habits will encourage, motivate and enable individuals in losing weight while eating more fruit and vegetables, as well as nuts and whole grains. (49)
According to World Health Organization estimates are of 30 percent of all deaths globally are attributed to cardiovascular disease, that is 17.5 million people having died of CVD.(50)
With meat less based diets, millions or possibly even billions of dollars may be saved of the 1 trillion USD spent worldwide on heart disease, Colon Cancer 6.5 billion and 93 billion(51)
Consistently, in the UK both adults and children are increasingly becoming overweight or obese, children as young as 11 years old are also suffering from this epidemic.
It is clear to see individuals on a plant based diet poses less of a risk of cardiovascular disease, Diabetes, obesity, cancer to name a few. Furthermore, individuals that do suffer from such diseases when placed on a meat free based diet they chronic illnesses begin to reverse improving their quality of life.(52) According to the report Overall, 2.7 million deaths are attributable to low fruit and vegetable intake and there is a great need in cutting down on fatty, sugary foods; and dumping saturated animal fats in favor of unsaturated vegetable oils. (53)
By adopting a meatless diet the poor welfare, cruel and inhumane conditions animals of intensive factory farming (IFF)can be a concept of the past minimizing all together or possibly eradicating many illnesses and future pandemics that stem directly from raising, processing and consuming animal flesh. World communities are currently facing diseases from direct or indirect usage of animals today, to name a few: Swine flu, Blue Tongue Disease, E Coli, Salmonella , Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, Pig’s Disease (PMWS), Listeriosis (most deadly, and on the rise), Shellfsh Poisoning, Pre-eclampsia (complications in pregnancy), and other viruses of zoonotic origin (54)
As mention in here previously, pollutants from CAFOs and IFFs end up not only in our oceans but in our drinking water but in the air and land people live adding to the Socio Economic implications meat has in our society. With the absence of CAFOs and IFFs local rural communities will again bloom. First, the immediate health hazards to rural communities can be avoided due CAFOs and IFFs less than strict environmental regulations. The loss of property devaluation, As documented in a report by researchers Miguel Gomez and Liying Zhang of Illinois State University-Normal, models demonstrated how these facilities actually hindered economic growth in local communities.
In the business sector healthier employees relates to better performance and less days taken off from work. In addition, when a worker is healthier their immediate families also healthier maintaining a ‘family values’ concept; this minimizes even further family pressures in turn a better performing worker. A company that focuses on providing wellness solutions for corporations, Employee Wellness USA, they emphasize on employee incentives making it rewarding and fun. Providing at least one meal a week at the work place can be an attractive. (55)
Gradually reduction and elimination of FACOs and IFFs will relieve and achieve a significant amount of repeated animal cruelty incidents, high rates of premature death, accidents at work, stress, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and individuals suffering from psychological injuries (active participation of a the violent situation), officially named Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) resulting from the large scale violence and death encountered daily by workers of this industry.(56)
Furthermore, in her book book SLAUGHTERHOUSE, Author Gail Eisnitz, documented the links of violent work at the slaughterhouse to increased crime rates in the surrounding communities. (57)
As mentioned in an article of the New York Times, this unsafe and violent work atmosphere violates the basic human and labor rights. (58)
Therefore, the world’s absent demand for animal flesh would have the prospects of seeing this industry’s work force as productive citizens of these local communities with possible alternatives in learning some form of sustainable trade contributing to society rather then, being labeled a statistic of a violence.
In keeping with the planets’ limited natural resources as a result from contamination, pollution, climate change and scarcity proper usage and management is of great necessity. By actively participating in this reports suggested sustainable diet, society in turn can address many of the issues faced by both developing and under developed nations.
Considering clean drinking water shortages and a great majority of water used to feed and animal for human consumption, Half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow grain for cattle feed. Approximately less than 20,000 liters of water are used to make 1 pound of beef equivalent to leaving the water in your shower running for 7 minutes daily for an entire year.(59) An organic crop farming system would entirely avoid the contamination of nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides and antibiotics in fresh water. We can easily support and contribute to the 1.1 BILLION PEOPLE on the planet that do not have access to safe clean drinking water, by simply adopting a meatless diet. Similarly, the demand of meat supports world hunger, having more than one third of the world’s grain harvest used to feed animals for human consumption. (60)
Clearly with in such modern times and many of the world’s population living in unsanitary condition we can divert resources from animal raising to those that need it the most, individuals should have basic rights to healthy food and clean drinking water.
Embracing this nonviolent, environmentally friendly and sustainable method of supplying food to our society as well as cooperative assistance among nations, we can possibly resolve and limit many potential current and future global conflicts. As documented in various papers and reports such as Water and Violent Conflict, (61) Dehydrating Conflict(62), World at War Over Water(63) Pentagon Preps for Conflicts Sparked by Climate Change. (64)
Never the less an immediate and a cost effective solution is needed to mitigate rising temperatures through environmentally sustainable techniques diverting further environmental catastrophes and estimated trillions of dollars in costs tacking climate change. It cannot be stressed enough as it is documented in a Netherlands assessment report, in which it shows just on how the global community by adopting a plant based would save 80% of the cost of mitigating climate change. (65)
Equivalently, UN’s top climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that lessening our meat consumption to 1 day a week initially and decreasing it from there as a way of combating global warming and providing in a sustainable method, nourishment.(66)
In conclusion, the approach suggested here is simple enough that all nations are able to eventually partake in. By implementing this change in our eating habit we can eventually provide (every living being) all 7 billion plus inhabitants of this planet with some basic rights. Society has the right to make conscientious and healthier choices, the right to their fare share in having sufficient food, clean drinking water, and to live without fear of diseases and other arising threats related to climate change.
Again, a plant based diet is effective in mitigating the current crisis we face, as science has determined that immediate steps are required to avoid any further global temperatures from rising, affecting all life on this planet.
(49) http://blog.ctnews.com/kantrowitz/2010/04/23/25-eye-popping-infographics-on-global-healthcare-costs-and-quality/
(50) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/print.html
(51) http://meatthefacts.org/wp/category/diseases
(52) http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/guides/vplan01.html
(53) http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/en/
(54) http://wellnessblog.employeewellnessusa.com/
(55) http://www.vegetarianfriends.net/issue45.html
(56) http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-environment&tid=1673
(57) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/national/25cnd-meat.html?_r=1
(58) http://meatthefacts.org/wp/category/water/
(59) Lester Brown, Michael Renner, Brian Halweil Vital Signs 2000, (World Watch Institute) p. 34; Frances Lappe Moore, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset, World Hunger: 12 Myths, (Food First and Grove Press, Second Edition, 1998) pp.8, 180; Richard Robbins Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), p. 220
(60) http://www.globalpolicy.org/the-dark-side-of-natural-resources/water-in-conflict.html
(61) http://www.globalpolicy.org/the-dark-side-of-natural-resources/water-in-conflict.html
(62) http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198/40343.html
(63) http://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/dark-side-of-natural-resources/water-in-conflict/48900.html
(64) http://www.globalpolicy.org/security-council/dark-side-of-natural-resources/water-in-conflict/48559.html
(65) http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16573-eating-less-meat-could-cut-climate-costs.html
(66) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2699173/Eat-less-red-meat-to-help-the-environment-UN-climate-expert-says.html
