Conscious Consumers Network blog

Originally published on The Conscious Consumers Network: ( 07/12/04 )

“The earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.”
- Thomas Jefferson

America could be the breadbasket to the world. Instead the Standard American Diet (acronymed as S.A.D.) which kills us with one of the world’s highest rates of heart disease is also contributing to planetary problems as it spreads to other parts of the world. The core of the problem is the vast amount of natural capital it takes to produce a meat-centric diet. According to the Worldwatch Institute, “Perhaps the greatest potential for increasing food use efficiency lies in reducing consumption of meat, a grain intensive food…[R]educing consumption of [livestock], especially beef, could free up massive quantities of grain and reduce pressure on land.

Nobel prize winner Dr. Alexis Carrel warned that soil is the basis for all human life. Indeed, the great civilizations of history have fallen when soil depletion took hold. Excessive Livestock farming contributes greatly to soil erosion and depletion. (more…)