Veganism: Better for you and better for the planet

A thorough study by the Environmental Working Group on the most commonly eaten foods has revealed which ones are best and which ones are worst for global warming. From its beginnings on the farm to its ending on your plate, the most environmentally unfriendly food is lamb.

Lamb contributes 39.2 kg of greenhouse gas emissions. The second most damaging food is beef at 27 kg. The third and fourth worst foods are cheese, at 13.5, and pork, at 12.1. Turkey contributes 10.9 kg, chicken 6.9, tuna 6.1 and eggs 4.8. The list of foods that are healthiest for the environment is dominated by plant foods. Potatoes contribute 2.9 kg; rice 2.7; nuts 2.3; yogourt 2.2; broccoli, tofu and beans contribute only 2 kg; milk causes 1.9, tomatoes 1.1 and lentils only 0.9.

Unlike meat, most CO2 emissions from plant foods occur during processing after leaving the farm; for example, during the unavoidable cooking. Ninety per cent of potatoes’ emissions, 65 per cent of beans’ emissions and 59 per cent of lentils’ occur in the processing.

The study concluded that beef creates 13 times the greenhouse gas emission that vegetable proteins like beans, lentils and tofu do. It summarized by saying that if every person in America went vegetarian, as far as the environment goes, that would be the equivalent of taking 46 million cars off the road (Environmental Working Group 2011, What You Eat Matters).

Is environmentalism making veganism mainstream?

Suddenly, environmental concerns are accomplishing what ethical and health concerns have been unable to. They are pushing vegetarianism into the mainstream media spotlight. And it is pulling the health issues in on its coat tails.

On January 29, 2008, America’s flag ship newspaper, The New York Times, ran an article titled Rethink the Meat Guzzler. It begins with the warning that increasing global demand for meat is destroying the rain forest. It then quotes a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that says that “livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases–more than transportation.”

A May 27, 2008 article in Wisconsin’s The Capital Times says that the UN’s report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, “concludes that eating meat is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious problems . . . ” The report, according to The Capital Times, claims that “eating meat causes almost 40 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world combined.”

Both papers cite geophysicists who say that if Americans were to reduce their meat consumption by only 20 per cent, it would be the equivalent of all of us switching to hybrid cars.

The Boston Globe’s April 15, 2008 article, One Less Burger, One Safer Planet, reaches similar conclusions. It says that “[s]cientists are concluding that along with more fuel-efficient cars and curbing industrial pollution, the simple act of eating less meat could help slow global warming.”

It quotes a study in Britain’s medical journal, Lancet, that concludes that “greenhouse-gas emissions from meat eating warrant the same scrutiny as do those from driving and flying.” The study, The Globe says, found that “[a]gricultural greenhouse gases are about 22 per cent of all emissions around the world.”

The New York Times article crescendos with geophysicist, Professor Gidon Eshel, concluding that “when you look at environmental problems in the U.S., nearly all of them have their source in food production, and in particular, meat production.”

The papers also note the link between meat eating and soaring grain and flour prices. The Capital Times reports that the amount of grain being fed to animals is about eight times the amount going to the much-in-the-news biofuels. The New York Times notes that increasing meat consumption leads to more animal feed which, in turn, drives up the price of grains.

The New York Times article begins to turn to the health issues of meat eating by acknowledging that factory farming necessitates routine administration of antibiotics to the animals which contributes to antibiotic resistant bacteria. The article then goes on to say that meat contributes to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The Capital Times puts heart disease, cancer and obesity on its list of diseases that are “closely linked to our meat-heavy diets,” and The Boston Globe notes that “[t]here would likely be other benefits” to cutting meat consumption, “such as lower rates of heart disease, colorectal cancer, and obesity . . .”

Actually, vegetarian diets help prevent asthma, cervical dysplasia and cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and arthritis.

Linda Woolven and Ted Snider have been writing and producing The Natural Pathnewsletter for 15 years. Their natural health column has appeared in major Ontario newspapers.

Together, Linda and Ted are the authors of Healthy Herbs: Your Everyday Guide to Medicinal Herbs and Their Use and, most recently, of The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.