Diet for a New America

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As you may know, John Robbins was the heir apparent of the Baskin Robbins empire before he learned the truth about nutrition & ecology and decided to spend his life trying to make things better.  It all seems very simple to me now, as John Robbins summarized near the end of his book… “What's best for us personally as human beings is also best for other forms of life, and for the life support systems on which we all depend.”  Nature never errs!...Jim Hicks </I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Here is my Cliff Notes version of the most compelling information in </I><I><B>Diet for a New America</B></I><I>. (But you still should read the book!)</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Excerpts from </B><I><B>Diet for a New America</B></I><B>, by John Robbins,</B><B> </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Book Antiqua" >1987</FONT></div> <div> (Seven major categories of reasons other than vibrant health </div> <div> that support the plant-based diet for humans)</div> <bR> <div> <B>1.  World Hunger.</B> <I><B>Forty thousand children starve to death every day on our planet.</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Enough grain is squandered every day in raising American livestock (for meat) to provide every human being on earth with two loaves of bread.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">By cycling our grain through livestock, we not only waste 90% of its protein; in addition, we sadly waste 96% of its calories, 100% of its fiber and 100% of its carbohydrates.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The world's cattle alone, not to mention pigs and chickens, consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people---nearly double the entire human population of the planet.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2.  Depletion of Topsoil.</B><B> </B> <I><B>The U.S. Soil Conservation Service reports that over 4 million acres of cropland are lost to erosion in this country every year; </B></I><I><B>an area about the size of Connecticut</B></I><I><B>.</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Our annual topsoil loss amounts to 7 trillion tons…that's 60,000 pounds for each member of the population.  Of this staggering topsoil loss, 85% is directly associated with livestock raising.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">It takes 500 years to build an inch of topsoil; currently, we lose an inch of topsoil every 16 years.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Two hundred years ago, America's croplands had at least 21 inches of topsoil; today it is down to around 6 inches of topsoil and the rate of loss is accelerating.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">American farmers now apply more than 20 million tons of chemical fertilizers to our farmlands every year, more than the combined weight of the entire human population of the country.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">“We don't inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children” Pennsylvania Dutch Saying</div> <div> <B>3. Deforestation.</B><B> </B> <I><B>Since 1967, the rate of deforestation in this country has been one acre every five seconds.</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">And it's not because of parking lots.  For each acre of American forest that is cleared to make room for parking lots, roads, houses, shopping centers, etc., SEVEN ACRES are converted into land for grazing livestock and/or growing livestock feed.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Deforestation is occurring to make land available for meat production.  More than three times as much meat is derived from previously forested land as is derived from range land, and the ratio is climbing.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Of the 260 million acres of American forest that have been converted into land now used to produce the standard American high-fat, low fiber diet style, well over 200 million acres could be returned to forest if Americans were to stop raising food to feed livestock, and instead raise food directly for people.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">For every person who switches to a pure vegetarian diet, an acre of trees is spared every year.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">It is not only the American forests that are being cut down to support our meat habit, massive clearing of tropical rainforests has taken place.  In 1960, when the U.S. first began to import beef, Central America was blessed with 130,000 square miles of virgin rainforest.  By 1985, there were less than 80,000 square miles remaining.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Not only do the rainforests provide a substantial amount of the earth's oxygen, they are also the home of half of all species that on the earth.  Primarily due to the clearing of these rainforests, the current rate of species extinction is 1,000 new species per year.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Immediately after clearing, 2.5 acres of ex-rainforest land can support a steer; but within a few years, the land becomes so eroded, that a single steer needs twelve acres.</div> <bR> <div> <B>4. Depleting Our Water Supply</B><B>.</B><B> </B> <I><B>Over half the total amount of water consumed in the United States goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock.</B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Enormous additional quantities of water must also be used to wash away the animals' excrement.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">To produce a single pound of beef takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water, as much as a family of four uses for all of its combined household purposes in a month.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">To produce a day's food for one meat-eater takes over 4,000 gallons compared to only 300 gallons for a pure vegetarian.  It takes up to a hundred times more water to produce a pound of meat as it does to produce a pound of wheat.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The true economic costs are hidden from us due to government subsidies; if the cost of water needed to produce a pound of beef were not subsidized, the cheapest hamburger meat would cost more than $35 a pound.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Energy issues:  In the Pacific Northwest, not only do livestock producers deplete the state's electrical power capacities through siphoning off water that would otherwise generate power, they also use enormous amounts of electricity to pump the water from the rivers to the point of use.  All in all, economists calculate that the three-state area loses 17 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year to the gluttonous water use of livestock production…enough to light every house in the entire nation for a month and a half.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The Ogallala Aquifer is the single source of water for the high plains region of the U.S., where half of the nation's grain-fed beef is produced.  At present, over 13 trillion gallons of water are being taken from this enormous aquifer every year, and the vast majority of that is used to produce meat.  More water is withdrawn from the Ogallala Aquifer every year than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the entire country.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">It took nature millions of years to form the great Ogallala Aquifer, and she still holds as much water as any of the great lakes.  But the American meat habit is taking its toll on this priceless wonder of nature.  Water tables are dropping precipitously.  Wells are going dry and water resource experts are estimating that at the current rate of water consumption, the Ogallala Aquifer may be exhausted in 35 years.  If that happens, the High Plains of the United States will be completely uninhabitable to human beings.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives”</B><B> Buddhist Proverb.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>5.  Water Pollution.  </B><I><B>Every 24 hours, the animals destined for America's dinner tables produce 20 billion pounds of waste.  That is 250,000 pounds of excrement a second.</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The livestock of the United States produce twenty times as much excrement as the entire human population of the country.  Over half this staggering production---over a billion tons a year---comes from confinement operations from  which it cannot be recycled.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">And since the residents of feedlots do not pay taxes out of which sewage systems can be constructed, the result is that their waste tends to end up in our water.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Animal wastes account for more than ten times as much water pollution as the total amount attributable to the entire human population.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6. Waste of Energy.</B><B>  </B><I><B>The value of raw materials consumed to produce food from livestock is greater than the value of all oil, gas and coal consumed in this country.</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The same study revealed the equally startling fact that the production of meats, dairy products and eggs accounts for one-third of the total amount of all raw materials used for all purposes in the United States.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">In contrast; growing grains, vegetables, and fruits is a model of efficiency, using less than 5% of the raw material consumption as does the production of beef.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Fossil Fuels:  If the whole world were to eat according to U.S. agricultural practices, the planet's entire petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 13 years.</div> <bR> <div> <B>7. Respect for Life & The Inhumane Horrors of Factory Farming.</B><B> </B><I><B>The time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men...Leonardo da Vinci</B></I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">After a life of suffering in overcrowded inhumane conditions, the animals destined for our dinner tables get to experience the slaughterhouse, described by one writer as “infernos of nauseous smells, pools of blood, and screams of terrified animals”. </div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Each day in the United States; nine million chickens, turkeys, pigs, calves and cows meet their deaths at human hands.  In the time it takes you to have your lunch, the number of animals killed is equal to the entire population of San Francisco.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c800000000.png" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">What happens to male chicks upon birth at an egg factory?  They are literally thrown away; the “chicken pullers” weed the males from each tray and drop them into heavy-duty plastic bags, where they suffocate.  Over a half million baby chicks are “disposed of” in this fashion every day of the year in the United States.  In the time it takes you to read this bullet point, over 2,000 newborn male chicks will be thrown by human hands into garbage bags to smother among their brothers, without even the slightest acknowledgement that they are alive.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" ><I>You might also enjoy reading another John Robbins' book on the same topic,</I></FONT><I><B> </B></I><I><B>The Food Revolution</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" ><I>, which was first published in 2001.  The data is updated, but the story is still very much the same, only worse.  </I></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B>Eating for Health and Ecology on Planet Earth</B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>