Meathead Goldwyn, Famous “Barbecue Whisperer and Hedonism Evangelist” to Try Vegetarianism for 30 Days: I Say Thanks for Being Open-Minded

I wanted to bring this article to your attention as it gives me hope and also gives reason to remember that not all of those who are not vegetarian are non-thoughtful people. He’s a great example of a guy who probably will never give up meat, but that at least wants to consume meat in a more responsible manner. Yes, I agree, an argument can be made that a slight change is not much, but let’s be real here – meet people where they are.

In fact, I give him a great amount of respect for the following quote:

“I want to use my prominence in the food community and as a man whose reputation was built on cooking meat, to send a message to the factory farms that I think they can do better and that I am willing to pay more for my meat if it is grown better.”

Just prior to that he stated that he is aware of the horrible conditions in factory farms:

“The way most of our beef, pork, fowl, and fish are grown nowadays, in huge factory farms, can be inhumane.

These methods may be harmful to humans.”

For these reasons he’s giving vegetarianism a chance. I say thanks Meathead Goldwyn for being open-minded and for attempting to bring changes to an industry that yes, as you say, can do much better.

Article:

Meathead To Go Meatless: Call Me Potatohead

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/meathead-to-go-meatless-c_b_674962.html

Why on earth would a cook nicknamed Meathead decide to become Potatohead for 30 days?

Why would I violate my well publicized motto "No rules in the bedroom or dining room"?

I have decided I will not bore you with a blow by blow diary of everything I eat. Instead I have posted some notes about what I am eating and cooking, and the problems I encounter here, on my website.

I'll stick to the core concepts, events, and thoughts there. So far this has been easy. My standard breakfast is high fiber cereal with 2% milk and fresh fruit. My standard lunch is a sandwich, this month there will be a lot of tomato sammies with thick slices of homegrown tomatoes, fresh basil, on whole wheat bread. My standard afternoon snack is almonds or carrots. Fact is this is my usual diet, although often lunch has leftover meat from dinner the night before. No longer. Dinner is the only real challenge.

It is fascinating how so many of the commenters below think my mission is to further the vegetarian cause when I say plainly that my mission is to tell meat producers that a prominent meat lover is on strike for 30 days over their methods. This article is NOT about the merits about eating meat. It is about how meat is grown. If you would like to debate the merits of eating meat or not, Huffington Post has a lively ongoing discussion on the subject with an in depth discussion on the subject. Just click here.

8/12 Day 4

This just in: In today's New York Times there is a report from the front lines titled "Farmers Lean to Truce on Animals' Close Quarters". The dateline is West Mansfield, OH, in the heart of Ohio farm country.Here's the lead paragraph "Concessions by farmers in this state to sharply restrict the close confinement of hens, hogs and veal calves are the latest sign that so-called factory farming -- a staple of modern agriculture that is seen by critics as inhumane and a threat to the environment and health -- is on the verge of significant change."

The article goes on to state that the agreement in Ohio is expected to be a model for other states, but it directly addresses the concerns in my article. Some farms will be grandfatehred and will not be forced to change, but new ones will need to meet new regulations that require more physical space for animals in which to live, and reduction of antibiotics. Farmers say "they sense that they must bend with the political and cultural winds."Let's keep the wind up!

In June, in order to better understand the issues surrounding our dietary choices, I wrote an article on Huffington Post called "Meat or No Meat". It attempted to explain the pros and cons of eating meat and divided the arguments into six categories. I continue to edit it based on reader comments.

There have been more than 8,000 passionate comments from everyone from cattle ranchers to PETA members. People feel religiously about this subject. I invite you to go there, read it, and join the debate.

Some of the arguments against meat do not impress me. But two give me pause every time I reach for my tongs:

The way most of our beef, pork, fowl, and fish are grown nowadays, in huge factory farms, can be inhumane.

These methods may be harmful to humans.

I want to use my prominence in the food community and as a man whose reputation was built on cooking meat, to send a message to the factory farms that I think they can do better and that I am willing to pay more for my meat if it is grown better.

Notice that I did not say all of our meat concerns me. A growing number of farmers have proven that they can bring high quality meat to market at competitive prices, in a humane way, without use of hormones and preventive antibiotics, and that they can do so with far less an environmental impact than factory farms.

My readings tell me that:

The overuse of preventive antibiotics is probably fostering antibiotic resistant bacteria that can infect humans. Antibiotics are needed to treat sick animals so they cannot be banned. But they should not be used on all animals as prevention because they are kept in too close quarters.

There is a small but significant quantity of valid, scientific, peer-reviewed research that calls into question the meat industry's claim that growth hormones are harmless. Even if there was no contradictory research, the levels that the US Government sets for some meats as "GRAS" (generally regarded as safe) are not thoroughly tested and are unacceptably high to many other countries, including the European Union.

The use of CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) create major waste disposal problems for soil and water that are significantly lessened by distributed farming.

There are many good books on the subject, but here is a free document from the Union of Concerned Scientists "CAFOs Uncovered". If you are busy, at least read the executive summary at the beginning.

I understand that we are addicted to cheap protein as much as we are addicted to cheap oil. I understand that cheap protein has helped the poor feed their families and kept school lunch prices down. I understand that improved animal husbandry will likely mean higher meat prices. If so, I think that we can absorb them. I think that we have alternatives. Those of us who can afford it will buy slightly more expensive meats. Or maybe we will buy less. Maybe some of us will buy other forms of protein and more fruits, vegetables, and grains. And this might not be bad.

In addition to my desire to send a message, I have two other motives:

I have read scores of testimonials from vegetarians about how going meatless made them feel great. I want to see how it makes me feel.

I love veggies and carbs almost as much as meat. I want to challenge my outdoor cooking skills and see if I can discover and create new dishes that will satisfy my meat loving readers. I will also use this as an opportunity to overcome my fear of flour. I will try to learn to bake on the grill.

So beginning August 9, for 30 days I will become an ovo-lacto vegetarian. That means I will forswear all animal flesh, but I will allow myself eggs and dairy. Why not go all the way and leave out the dairy and eggs?

Because I'm chicken. Ummm, I mean, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that my cooking skills will let me down, that the temptation to stray will be too great, and that nutritionally there are some pitfalls to the strict vegan diet and I am not knowledgeable enough to implement. I have learned that one must really understand nutrition to be a strict vegan.

How will this change me? Who knows? It is not likely that I will give up meat forever. I am already looking forward to my famous smoked turkey for Thanksgiving. But I may discover that I need much less meat than I thought. Meatless Mondays might become a habit (fact is there are usually two or three days a week that I don't eat meat already). Then again, after 30 days, I may need it more than ever. The scent of roasting ribs and sizzling steaks are as important to me as music or art.

Will I change the world? No chance. But this meatlover's voice is one more in a growing chorus and perhaps together we can change farming in the US. Perhaps you will join me this next 30 days and just say "no" as you walk past the meat case. After all, August is the easiest month to go vegetarian...

During the next month I plan to find sources for meat grown properly and hopefully locally for when I return to normal. I will share what I learn. I will blog about my experiences on this page and publish my best recipes on Huffington Post and on my website AmazingRibs.com.

I have already encountered a problem. A friend emailed me that he had found the most amazing artisan bacon and he want to bring me some. I told him it would have to wait. And I am also trying to figure out how I'm going to do a chicken grilling demo in late August without tasting what I'm cooking.

I invite you to share your ideas for how I can get through the next 30 days in the comments below. If you want to argue about why you think your dietary choices are superior, please go to my other article, "Meat or No Meat" and join the debate there.

HuffPost readers are pretty sharp. Share with me links to peer reviewed quality research that supports or contradicts my position.

I await your advice and brickbats.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & Columbia U School of Public Health & 27 Public Health Schools Start Meatless Monday Campaign

The direct link to the website for the Meatless Monday campaign is http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

The fact that it’s well known and respected schools of public health that are behind this shows that vegetarianism isn’t just an animal rights issue; it is a health issue as well. If you look at the website you’ll clearly see that the goal is to help people increase their level of health. And, quite simply, eating a meatless diet, even one day a week, will increase your level of health. As they state at their site:

“Our goal is to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

“Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.”

Here is an excellent video on the project and about the many people who have decided to pledge to go meatless on Mondays.

So check out the site. It also contains recipes and nutritional facts. The direct link to the website for the Meatless Monday campaign is http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Article:

Here’s an article about the Meatless Monday Campaign

Meatless Mondays: Do Something Good for the Earth and Your Health

http://www.alternet.org/immigration/140978/meatless_mondays:_do_something_good_for_the_earth_and_your_health/

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted July 6, 2009.

A new campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals -- just one day per week.

I love a practical solution, especially when it's good all around -- for personal health, the environment, and for living consciously. So when I received an email from Chris Elam, the director of the Meatless Monday campaign -- a project of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Columbia University School of Public Health, in association with twenty-seven other public health schools -- I was thrilled.

The campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals -- just one day per week (on Mondays, as you may have guessed).

Since it's sponsored by a slew of public health schools, the campaign was set up to promote health, and since I've already written extensively about the fact that eating meat leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and lethargy (for example here), I'll skip extended analysis of these facts, other than to say: When Johns Hopkins, Columbia, the American Dietetic Association, and dozens of other health organizations argue that the less meat you eat, the better off you'll be, it's worth listening to them.

Chris wrote to share the fact that Michael Pollan had just argued in favor of the campaign on Oprah, saying, "[w]e don't realize it when we sit down to eat, but that is our most profound engagement in the rest of nature... To the extent that we push meat a little bit to the side and move vegetables to the center of our diet, we're also going to be a lot healthier..." I wasn't surprised, since Pollan's most recent book calls on all of us to eat "mostly plants," and his new movie (Food, Inc.) offers a stomach-turning look at factory farming and slaughterhouses (I highly recommend it).

As an aside on Food, Inc.: The scene that I found most interesting is the one where Joel Salatin, proprietor of Polyface Farm, was slaughtering chickens and talking a mile-a-minute through the process. He was talking about treating the animals with respect, but in the theater where I saw the film, this scene elicited perhaps the most audible shock of the entire movie because you can actually see the animals being slaughtered (contrast this with the secrecy of factory farms and slaughterhouses -- no one is allowed because, as Paul McCartney likes to say, the process would turn everyone vegetarian). Anyway, this scene seemed to shock a lot of people, even though this is poultry slaughter at its most humane. Actually, the scene reminded me of that Sarah Palin interview that she conducted in front of the turkey slaughter; it's worth remembering that most chickens and turkeys have a far more horrific experience in the factory farms that process more than 98% of the birds we eat.

Chris also wanted to share their new video, in which their scientists tell us that if all Americans switched from eating chickens and pigs to eating beans and grains for just one day per week, that would stop as much global warming as if everyone in the U.S. shifted to ultra-efficient Toyota hybrids (which is the weekly equivalent of using 12 billion fewer gallons of gasoline). Of course I have to point out the obvious: If we all stopped eating animals completely and shifted to vegetarian foods, that would save 84 billion gallons of gas per week (and all the troubles that go with that kind of consumption).

I know that some readers will argue that the issue is not the meat industry, but factory farmed meat. But in fact, environmentally, all meat requires exponentially more resources to produce than eating grains and beans, as eloquently discussed in the Audubon Society's magazine a few months back. And all meat contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. Some meat may be "less bad," but according to the science, no meat is good.

And I know that some vegetarians pooh pooh Meatless Monday as not enough. I'm sympathetic to that view, but I think it's unnecessarily strident. For people who think that going totally vegetarian is too challenging, the Meatless Monday campaign offers a gentle entrée into the idea of eating without eating animals. My hope is that people will use the campaign as a stepping stone -- first one meatless day per week, then three, then five, then seven. As we lean into meatless eating -- switching out more and more meat meals for meatless meals -- we end up feeling better, both physically and ethically.

And another point for those who might think that Meatless Monday is not enough: The first family of vegetarianism -- Sir Paul McCartney and his daughters -- recently launched the campaign in the UK. Stella and Mary have been vegetarian since birth, and Paul has been a vegetarian for more than two decades.

For recipes and cooking information, check out the Meatless Monday site. And for tips on making the transition to vegetarian eating, please click here. http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro Tight End - Ninth Consecutive Pro Bowl - Tony Gonzalez, Promotes Vegetarian Diet: Smashes Stereotype of Vegetarians

I wrote about Tony a few months back -

http://geari.blogspot.com/2008/05/

strong-fit-tough-guys-mac-danzig-and.html

As I said before, I’m so glad this stuff is coming out in the open. I too break the stereotype of the skinny, wimpy vegan, as I work out and am nearing 200 lbs while in shape. I love it when people hear that I’m vegan, as they’re pretty surprised. Yes, not all vegans have long hair, a long beard and are hippies. And, even more, as you’ll read below, a vegetarian diet WILL increase your performance and longevity.

Just check out this quote from the article below:

“A year-and-a-half after swearing off most dairy products and meat, the
6-foot-5, 251-pounder is laying waste to the stereotype of the scrawny,
wimpy herbivore.” Very nice. Unfortunately, they should have used the real term – vegetarian.

The story goes on to show that his performance actually increased after his move to a vegan diet:

“Coming off a stellar campaign that included 99 receptions for 1,172 yards
(leaving him 179 yards behind Shannon Sharpe for the NFL's all time lead
among tight ends) and earned him a ninth consecutive Pro Bowl invitation,
the 32-year-old Gonzalez insists he's at his physical peak, with no sign
of a decline.”

"It's unbelievable how good I feel," Gonzalez said. "Seriously, my
recovery is so much better than it's ever been, and my endurance is
tremendous. The best part is that during games I really don't get tired.
I have more focus, too. I'm even staying awake in meetings."

Finally the truth of vegetarianism and vegetarians is acknowledged all because a man with courage, intelligence, compassion and fame dove right into a diet that most would never even consider. Because of this, stereotypes are crushed and the “haters” and detractors lose their ammunition.

The same can be said of another hero of mine, Mac Danzig. He also stands out, as he actually won Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter." Everyone counted him out due to his diet, but he proved them wrong. As you’ll see below, “[l]ast month, on a diet of brown-rice protein, beans, soy, nuts and vegetables, Mr. Danzig defeated the last of his challengers in Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter."” As you’ll read on his website at http://www.macdanzig.net/ “Mac is featured in the new July issue of Men's Fitness magazine (in stores now) as one of the "25 fittest men in America".” Also, stated – “[a] vegan, naturalist, animal lover and serious photographer, Danzig transcends the typical stereotype of a combat athlete.”

So, Tony and Mac, you both are real heroes to me and an inspiration to men everywhere to break the mold and prove that vegan doesn’t equal wimp.

Article:

Gonzalez gives Chiefs steady diet of lectures

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-

thegameface081508&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
August 15, 2008

RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Tony Gonzalez heard the
frantic screams – "He can't breathe! He can't breathe!" a woman sitting
behind him in a Southern California restaurant was yelling last month –
and whisked around to see a man turning blue. Within seconds, the Kansas
City Chiefs' perennial All-Pro tight end was standing behind the stricken
diner and administering the Heimlich maneuver, a lifesaving technique for
which he'd never received any formal training.

As a chunk of filet mignon shot out of 45-year-old shipping company
manager Ken Hunter's mouth and onto the restaurant floor, the first
thought Gonzalez had was, "Thank God he's alive."


His second thought?

I'll bet that beef is full of antibiotics.


An exaggeration? If so it's only a slight stretch. Of all the NFL stars
who could've saved a man from choking, he may have been the only one
who'd be quite so grossed out by the food he managed to dislodge. Just
ask Gonzalez's teammates, who've grown so accustomed to his neo-vegan
diet and the accompanying lectures that they sometimes shy away from him
during meals.


"Eating with Tony is a great way to ruin your appetite," veteran
quarterback Damon Huard said last Saturday from the team's training camp.
"You'll be biting into a piece of meat, and he'll say, 'You know that cow
was probably corn-fed. And because of that, they had to give it
antibiotics, and that probably gave it ulcers. I don't even want to think
about what might be in there.' By then you're pretty much ready to clear
your plate."


An hour later, as he sat in the cafeteria at the team's University of
Wisconsin-River Falls headquarters, Gonzalez expanded upon the carefully
crafted dietary approach that has fueled his second decade of excellence.
A year-and-a-half after swearing off most dairy products and meat, the
6-foot-5, 251-pounder is laying waste to the stereotype of the scrawny,
wimpy herbivore.


Coming off a stellar campaign that included 99 receptions for 1,172 yards
(leaving him 179 yards behind Shannon Sharpe for the NFL's all time lead
among tight ends) and earned him a ninth consecutive Pro Bowl invitation,
the 32-year-old Gonzalez insists he's at his physical peak, with no sign
of a decline.



AccuScore on the Chiefs
The Chiefs defense allowed 20.9 points per game last season and is
forecasted for an identical 20.9 points allowed this season. The team
lost Jared Allen, but added Glenn Dorsey to the defensive line. The good
news offensively is the Chiefs are forecasted for 25 percent more points
in 2008 with the combo of Larry Johnson and rookie Jamaal Charles
generating more than 120 rushing yards and 16 rushing TDs this season.
However, a 25-percent increase only results in a 17 point per game
average (up from 14 last season) and an average margin of victory of
nearly negative 4 points per game. The Chiefs are winning an average of
6.5 games per season simulation, up from 4 last year, but it is still
only good enough for third in the AFC West.

The big question in fantasy football is what kind of year can Johnson
have. AccuScore expects Johnson to average nearly 4.5 ypc in 2008, which
is significantly higher than his 3.5 in eight games in 2007. If Johnson
struggles and averages under 3.8 ypc, the Chiefs average season win total
falls to 4 and their chances of making the playoffs plummet to 2 percent.



Projected Record: 6-10
Playoff Probability: 12%
– AccuScore

"It's unbelievable how good I feel," Gonzalez said. "Seriously, my
recovery is so much better than it's ever been, and my endurance is
tremendous. The best part is that during games I really don't get tired.
I have more focus, too. I'm even staying awake in meetings."


There were times last season when Gonzalez felt like closing his eyes
during film sessions, especially during Kansas City's nine-game losing
streak to complete a 4-12 campaign. Frustrated by the motion-laden yet
inflexible schemes of offensive coordinator Mike Solari, Gonzalez chafed
as opponents such as Packers linebacker Brady Poppinga correctly called
out his routes before they were run.


"Sometimes we'd do all that shifting and defenses wouldn't move,"
Gonzalez recalled. "They'd just sit there and wait, and we'd run the ball
into an eight-man front and get stuffed. Even when we had a mismatch, the
quarterback didn't have the freedom to change the play at the line. It's
dumbfounding that we didn't do that."


With Chan Gailey having replaced the fired Solari and an influx of young
players that includes rookie left tackle Branden Albert, the 15th overall
pick in the 2008 NFL draft, the rebuilding Chiefs have reason for
optimism. If star halfback Johnson comes back strong from the foot injury
that short-circuited his '07 season, wideout Dwayne Bowe builds upon the
breakout flashes he showed as a rookie and third-year quarterback Brodie
Croyle justifies the faith coach Herm Edwards has shown in him, Chiefs
fans could at least experience some offensive excitement.


It's a given that Gonzalez, fresh off his fifth consecutive season with
at least 900 receiving yards, will do his part. "He's not slowing down at
all," Vikings safety Darren Sharper says of Gonzalez. "Plus he's such a
crafty tight end – he knows all the little push-off moves, and how to use
his body and post you up."


Another standout Vikings defender, recently acquired All-Pro defensive
end Jared Allen, says his former Chiefs teammate is "one of my biggest
role models in the NFL, because of his work ethic. A lot of people don't
see that – they see Tony Gonzalez, superstar pretty boy, the guy who has
to be dressed just right and have his hair done before he does anything.
But the guy works – he's out there catching 100 balls a day; he never
drops a ball in practice and never lets up. He's an absolute machine."


For Gonzalez, it all goes back to nutrition. When he decided to eliminate
dairy and red meat from his largely organic diet – he still eats fish and
the occasional chicken dish – Gonzalez's peers were highly skeptical.


"They'd tell me, 'You're gonna get crushed. You're gonna get your ass
kicked,'" Gonzalez recalled. "They still think that, too, because I look
so skinny, but I weigh what I've always weighed."


Gonzalez is currently collaborating with a nutritionist on a book
detailing his dietary philosophies, though not necessarily from a vegan
perspective, that will tentatively be published toward the end of '08.
Gonzalez, who was so moved by scientific tome "The China Study" that he
met with author T. Colin Campbell, has spoken to children about the
benefits of maintaining proper nutritional habits, something on which he
wants to expand in the coming years.


In the meantime he is more than willing to lecture his teammates.


"Anything I eat, he'll tell me what's in it," Croyle said. "I tell him,
'Man, I'm from Alabama. I just eat. Leave me alone.' When I hear him ask,
'Could you cook that in olive oil instead of butter?' I say, 'Dude, if
you went to Alabama and said that stuff, they'd ask you to leave.'"


Said Edwards, the Chiefs' third-year coach: "Tony and (veteran linebacker
Donnie Edwards), they both get on each other. They're each on diets, but
different kind of diets, and they argue about which one is better. I walk
by and go, 'You guys are like two women.' "


Bowe, who caught 70 passes for 995 yards as a rookie in '07, is
well-acquainted with The Lecture. "At least twice a week he'll be like,
'Man, what are you eating?' " Bowe said. "I'll look down and say, 'Fried
chicken? Cheese?' and then he'll stop eating his big ol' salad and give
me the talk. He'll say, '1 or 13? You can eat like that and play one year
or eat like this play 13.' And you know what – I listen."


Perhaps, but Gonzalez isn't close to satisfied. As he paused to inspect a
piece of tortellini to ensure that no cheese was inside, the tight end
noted that two nights earlier in a preseason victory over the Bears, the
Chiefs had moved 81 yards in 16 plays in the game's first 8:45.


"I wasn't tired at all," Gonzalez said, "but Dwayne Bowe is out there
tapping his helmet saying, 'Come get me.' And he's in his second year! I
was like, 'Bowe, you're killing me.'"


Spoken like a true lifesaver.


Take it to the ATM

Poignant Article and Accompanying Heartbreaking Photo Speak to the Truth of Diet and Famine: Meat Production and World Hunger

If you view the photo in the story and you don’t feel absolute sadness and sickness then there’s no hope for you anyway. If you view the photo with shock and an internal question of “what can I do to prevent this?” then there is hope for you.

I’ll let the article speak for it’s self, but it comes down to this: “Nutritious plant-based food that could feed humans instead goes to feed animals in a very inefficient use of resources…. The USDA and the United Nations state that using an acre of land to raise cattle yields 20 pounds of usable protein. If soybeans were grown instead, that same acre would yield 356 pounds of protein. Animal agriculture also wastes valuable water resources. Population biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich note that a pound of wheat can be grown with 60 gallons of water, whereas a pound of meat requires 2,500 to 6,000 gallons.”

So, again, it comes down to selfish motives trumping a truly real problem. If one cares about other humans going hungry, then the reality exposed below should be taken to heart.
Before you read this, please see the photo at http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/71230

Article:

Feast or Famine: Meat Production and World Hunger

Mark Hawthorne

August 12, 2008

Hanging in the Newseum in Washington, DC, is a photo that is about as heart-rending an image as you´re likely to find anywhere. Taken by Kevin Carter for The New York Times in 1993, the photo depicts a starving Sudanese toddler crumpled on the ground, as if her stick-like legs could no longer bear the weight of her large head and swollen stomach, bloated from the malnourishment disease called kwashiorkor. While that alone is disturbing, what makes the tableau truly haunting is the vulture patiently waiting just a few feet behind the emaciated child. This photograph earned Carter a Pulitzer Prize and epitomized the toll famine is taking on developing countries around the world.

Tragically, of course, hunger has only become an even graver issue in the last 15 years -- a point made clear in a report released July 29 from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Recommending urgent action for long-term relief, the CSIS report calls for "a strategic U.S. approach to the global food crisis."

"Food crisis," however, implies some recent, short-term cause and effect, when in fact the "perfect storm" of rising energy costs, grain hoarding, government subsidies, drought and the demand for biofuels diverts attention from an entrenched industry and a remedy neither the CSIS nor many social activists want to contemplate: eliminating meat production.

"Whoa!" you say. "Don´t take away my steaks and cheeseburgers." Meat-eating is such an ingrained aspect of Western culture that proposing its demise, even to save the world, deserves some discussion. Fair enough.

The United Nations estimates that 854 million people -- nearly 13 percent of the world´s human population -- go hungry every day. And the problem is only getting worse. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN´s World Food Program, says, "The world´s misery index is rising."

So is our hunger for meat. As Gene Baur observes in "Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food," in 1950, 50,000 farms produced 630 million "meat" chickens in the United States. By 2005, the U.S. had 20,000 fewer farms -- but they were producing 8.7 billion chickens for meat. That´s a lot of chicken feed. In fact, every year industrial animal factories in the U.S. feed 157 million metric tons of legumes, cereal and vegetable protein to livestock, resulting in 28 million metric tons of animal protein for human consumption. Nutritious plant-based food that could feed humans instead goes to feed animals in a very inefficient use of resources.

Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC, states it succinctly: "People go hungry because much of arable land is used to grow feed grain for animals rather than people." He offers as one example the Ethiopian famine of 1984, which was fueled by the meat industry. "While people starved, Ethiopia was growing linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rapeseed meal for European livestock," he says. "Millions of acres of land in the developing world are used for this purpose. Tragically, 80 percent of the world´s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses which are fed to animals for consumption by the affluent."


The demand for meat has been especially dramatic in developing countries. "China´s meat consumption is increasing rapidly with income growth and urbanization, and it has more than doubled in the past generation," says Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. As a result, land once used to provide grains for humans now provides feed for chickens and pigs.

The USDA and the United Nations state that using an acre of land to raise cattle yields 20 pounds of usable protein. If soybeans were grown instead, that same acre would yield 356 pounds of protein. Animal agriculture also wastes valuable water resources. Population biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich note that a pound of wheat can be grown with 60 gallons of water, whereas a pound of meat requires 2,500 to 6,000 gallons.

Here´s another way to look at it. According to the aid group Vegfam, a ten-acre farm can support 60 people growing soybeans, 24 people growing wheat, ten people growing corn and only two people producing cattle. Reducing meat production by just ten percent in the U.S. would free enough grain to feed 60 million people, estimates Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer. Sixty million people -- that´s the population of Great Britain, which, by the way, could support 250 million people on an all-vegetable diet.

Not surprisingly, the meat industry has a beef with these statistics. They say, for example, that the grains and soybeans fed to farmed animals are not of the high quality that humans would expect to eat (tell that to a starving child). Yet it´s difficult to dispute the fact that animal agribusiness uses land and water that could be used to grow plant foods for human consumption.

As Rifkin observes, it is ironic that millions of consumers in developed countries are dying from diseases of affluence such as heart attacks, diabetes and cancer, brought on by eating animal products, while the poor in the Third World are dying of diseases of poverty caused by being denied access to land to grow food grain for their families.

"We are long overdue for a global discussion on how to promote a diversified, high-protein, vegetarian diet for the human race," says Rifkin, whose book "Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture" addresses the moral paradoxes of eating meat.

Are those steaks and cheeseburgers really worth all the lives they take -- human and non-human? It would be naïve to think the world will go vegetarian overnight, or even in a few decades. But looking at Carter´s powerful photograph, I can´t help but believe we have been woefully mistaken in how we treat those with whom we share this planet. If we hope to bequeath a sustainable world to future generations, we´ll have to shake loose this meat-produced disaster and embrace a kinder way of living.

Mark Hawthorne is the author of "Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism" (www.strikingattheroots.com).

In Relation to World Vegetarian Week: Top Ten Reasons To Go Vegetarian

A great article that really quickly sums up the benefits of vegetarianism.

I like this quote from Sir Paul McCartney found in the article: "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."

Article:

Top Ten Reasons To Go Vegetarian

http://www.alternet.org/environment/85828/?page=entire

By Bruce Friedrich, AlterNet. Posted May 19, 2008.

It's World Vegetarian Week and here's a few reasons to kick the meat habit.

Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux-meats like bacon and sausages and an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants, vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Week here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

4. Avoid Bird Flu

The World Health Organization says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming -- from foot-and-mouth to SARS -- can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.

5. If You Wouldn't Eat a Dog, You Shouldn't Eat a Chicken Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens and people think I'm talking about monkeys."

6. Heart Disease: Our Number One Killer Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the United States' three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Drs. Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn -- two doctors with 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart disease -- have used a vegan diet to accomplish it, as chronicled most recently in Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, which documents his 100 percent success rate for unclogging people's arteries and reversing heart disease.

7. Cancer: Our Number Two Killer Dr. T. Colin Campbell is one of the world's foremost epidemiological scientists and the director of what The New York Times called "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease." Dr. Campbell's best-selling book, The China Study, is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about cancer. To summarize it, Dr. Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein."

8. Fitting Into That Itty-Bitty Bikini Vegetarianism is also the ultimate weight-loss diet, since vegetarians are one-third as likely to be obese as meat-eaters are, and vegans are about one-tenth as likely to be obese. Of course, there are overweight vegans, just as there are skinny meat-eaters. But on average, vegans are 10 to 20 percent lighter than meat-eaters. A vegetarian diet is the only diet that has passed peer review and taken weight off and kept it off.

9. Global Peace

Leo Tolstoy claimed that "vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism." His point? For people who wish to sow the seeds of peace, we should be eating as peaceful a diet as possible. Eating meat supports killing animals, for no reason other than humans' acquired taste for animals' flesh. Great humanitarians from Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi to Thich Nhat Hanh have argued that a vegetarian diet is the only diet for people who want to make the world a kinder place.

10. The Joy of Veggies

As the growing range of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants shows, vegetarian foods rock. People report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a center-of-the-plate meat item to a range of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables that they didn't even know existed.

Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."

So are you ready to give it a try?