[Tampa, FL 07/12/04] You humans could feed the world & stop the one child who dies of starvation every six seconds on your planet. While you read that last sentence, somewhere a child died an agonizing, yet completely preventable death.

    America is consuming, by far, most of this meat, therefore mostly creating this 'meat market' & its problems. The good news for the rest of the world may be that meat-centrists are eating themselves into their own early graves. So if they're not going to change for the rest of the world or to help save God's gift of this green earth, then maybe meat-centrists will do it for themselves... (although I doubt that as well. This is America, where when we refuse to quit something we want to do even though we know it is bad for us, we just wait for the pill to come out that allows us to do it anyway.)

   Here's some help if you want to change yourself without filling the coffers of some pharmaceutical corporation. Consider these figures from "Beyond Beef" by Jeremy Rifkin:

• How frequently a heart attack kills in U.S.: Every 45 seconds.

• Amount you reduce risk of heart attack by reducing consumption of meat, dairy products, and eggs by 100%: 90%

• Leading source of pesticide residues in the U.S. diet: Meat—55%

• Second leading source of pesticide residues in the U.S. diet: Dairy products—23%

• Total pesticide residues in U.S. diet supplied by vegetables: 6%

• Total pesticide residues in U.S. diet supplied by fruits: 4%

• Total pesticide residues in U.S. diet supplied by grains: 1%
• Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing dangerous levels of DDT: 99%

• Pesticide contamination in breast milk of meat-eating mothers compared to pesticide contamination in breast milk of vegetarian mothers: 35 times as high

• Main reason for sterility and sperm count reduction in U.S. males: Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides (including PCBs, dioxin, DDT, etc.)

• Only man to win Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)

• Food choices of Dave Scott: vegetarian

    ”Robert Goodland, Senior Environmental Advisor to the World Bank & author of several books on ecological economics, sums it up thusly: "Cattle have arguably caused or are related to the most environmental damage to the globe of any non-human species (e.g. soil erosion, desertification, tropical deforestation for ranches)."

    Goodland also found: "Cows are conspicuous consumers of water, food & space. Beckett & Oltjen (1993) estimate that 108 gallons of water is funneled into each quarter pound of beef, counting what the animal drinks & what goes into its feed. (Other estimates range much higher. Ryan & Durning (1995): 616 gallons; Pimental et al (1997): 3000 gallons.) Meanwhile, range cattle in the Western U.S. trample & pollute sensitive riparian areas, while feedlots are responsible for fouling ground water drinking sources." 1

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Deforestation & soil erosion are probably the most tragic losses with perhaps the most serious future consequences. "It is estimated that for every quarter pound hamburger that comes from a steer raised in Central & So. America, it is necessary to destroy approximately 75 kilograms (165 pounds) of living matter, “including some of twenty to thirty different plant species, perhaps one hundred insect species, & dozens of bird, mammal, & reptile species.” 2

   The rain forests of So. America along with the great forests of the American northwest are the "lungs" of the world. As we destroy rhese "lungs" we deplete our oxygen supply, not to mention the cures for disease we may be loosing as we destroy trees & plants known only to exist only in the So. American rain forest. (See quote at left for ancient enlightenment on the danger of killing our cures.)

America has been exporting meat madness worldwide. According to the McDonald’s i1997 annual report, a new set of golden arches pops up somewhere on the globe every 4 hours. Mcdonald’s is but one chain among many now spreading around the globe. we've become planet of the cows. According to United Nations statistics from 1989, 1.28 billion bovines walk the earth, their combined weight exceeding that of the human population. Tthese cows weigh even heavier on the environment. A hefty percentage of these earthlings abecome all-beef patties.

    Meat production is the crucible of the many problems confronting the agriculture & forestry resource base. There are also problems of pesticide pollution/pesticide resistance, and an array of other diseases caused by chemically assisted food production. Add to that the growing population, & the struggle of the independent American farmer against the corporate factory farms. The conscious consumer mission is to search for & present individuals & businesses who are breaking away from these unhealthy practices. I hope our readers will support these leaders.

P.S. I suppose I could have named this article, "How The Atkins Diet Could Simultaneously Kill You & The Planet"

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Sources
1. Goodland, R., Environmental Sustainability in Agriculture: Bio ethical and Religious Arguments Against Carnivory in Humans, J. Westra L. and Goodland, R. (eds) Ecological Sustainability (Kluwer Academic 1988), 235 - 265.

2. Rifkin, J., Beyond Beef, (dutton 1992) 96, quoting Denslow, J. and Padoch C., People of the Tropical Rain Forest (University of California Press 1988), 168.

3. Gardner, G., Shrinking Fields: Cropland Loss in a World of Eight Billion (Worldwatch Paper 1996), 46.