Meatless Monday

Green Patriot Posters

Reader Mari, fellow Friedman student and author of the cool blog Projects to Finish Someday, brought a cool site to my attention.

It seems the old propaganda posters are gaining traction as a mechanism for rallying people to help fight global warming and create energy independence. You can see people's new poster submissions at Green Patriot Posters or get inspired by some of the old WW2 posters on their site. It is interesting to me that many of the same themes of decreasing consumption, self reliance, and sustainability are the same issues we are facing today.

My favorites so far are:

Mellow Your Yellow by pocktlynnt -Conserve at home by reducing water wastage on unnecessary flushes.

Change by BPaulR -Human contribution to global climate change now appears irrefutable. We now know that humans can affect global climate for ill, but we can affect it for good too. We have changed the climate before, we can do it again. Make better change now.


And this one, which really encompasses the theme of a propaganda poster:

Use Less by iheartjavelinas -Uncle Sam reminds us we've tightened our belts before and we can do it again.


I would encourage any creative foodies out there to create some food and agriculture related posters. I collected some interesting facts from Sustainable Table and the Take a Bite out of Climate Change page( a project of the Small Planet Institute) that may help get your creative advocacy juices flowing:

• If 10,000 medium-sized U.S. farms converted to organic production, they would store so much carbon in the soil that it would be the carbon-saving equivalent to taking one million cars off the road. -Rodale Institute

• With one-third of the world's cereal harvest and 90 percent of the world's soy harvest being raised for animal feed, the energy required to grow those crops are a major factor in these on-farm emissions. -Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Speech at Compassion in World Farming, London, September 8, 2008.

• The sheer number of animals being raised for meat on the planet is another reason livestock production accounts for nearly one-fifth of all the globe's greenhouse gas emissions. In 1965, 8 billion livestock animals were alive at any given moment; 10 billion were slaughtered every year. Today, thanks in part to confined feeding operations that have spurred faster growth and shorter lives, 20 billion livestock animals are alive at any given moment, but nearly five times that many—55 billion—are slaughtered annually. -United Nations FAO- The Global Food Economy: The Battle for the Future of Farming Tony Wies.
  

To see more or vote on your favorites, visit Green Patriot Posters.

UN says less meat an approach for global warming

I knew it was only a matter of time when the meat industry would hear the knock from the global warming man. This has been something I have pointed out for awhile.

From Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:

"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,' said Pachauri. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian

Animal welfare groups are calling for governments to lead campaigns to reduce meat consumption by 60 per cent by 2020.

Americans have shifted from the SUV gas guzzling addictions, I wonder if they have it in them to change more of their comforts. It will be interesting to see the meat industry's defense.

Full Guardian article here

Beef...it's not for dinner anymore!

Yesterday, in the Austin American Statesman, I read an article about a research scientist at A&M(a strong Ag school) called Aggie Finds Healthy Fatty Acids in Brisket.

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/05/26/0526brisket.html

I was appalled to see a biased school touting more reasons to consume beef. I wrote a letter to the editor.

Editor,

As a Registered Dietitian working in the field of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, I am appalled and concerned of the implication of this story. In the midst of energy, food, and global warming crises, finding more reasons to eat beef is dangerous and irresponsible at best.
Americans have started the trend of eating meat at every meal and the movement has now spread to China and India. We are growing more corn to feed cows and cars, than to nourish starving humans in order to supplement our overly extravagant and calorie dense habits. People need to realize that eating lower on the food chain (grains, fruits and vegetables) is the answer to better health and to our food and energy crisis.
If you are going to eat beef, make sure it is certified organic and grass fed. Raising cattle on pasture, improves animal health, and reduces antibiotic usage, and lessens environmental damage. If you are concerned about human nutrition, Greener Pastures, a scientific literature review has shown that grass-fed beef is higher in “good fats,” lower in “bad fats,” beta carotene and Vitamin E.

The grass-fed concept is a step toward environmental stewardship: it doesn’t rely on petroleum-guzzling corn fields, it helps sustain the ecosystem and clean water, and it forces us to eat mindful and in season. Even still, beef should only be eaten once a week, if at all.

Ashley Colpaart, RD LD

Along the same lines, Amanda gave me a link that is super neat, where you can score your diet on its environmentalism. Enjoy!

http://cspinet.org/EatingGreen/