The 507 Effect

Manifesto for a New America pt2

     America consumes resources in a way that is unheard of in known history.  Modern refrigeration and processing technology allow consumption of meat like never before.  And the unprecedented consumption levels have led to petroleum guzzling, ecologically disastrous ,and inhumane techniques. *660,000 animals are slaughtered per hour for meat in the US alone.  It takes 3 to 10 kg of plant protein to produce 1 kg of animal protein.   As of the year 2002, approximately 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce every 1 calorie of food eaten in the US.  It takes more to produce less?!  The farming equipment needed to grow more for less ends up consuming massive amounts of petroleum. As the fossil fuel supply dwindles in the coming years, the resources devoted to factory farming meat will be much better allocated elsewhere.

    But even on a more personal level,  the human body is not evolved to consume so much meat.  The amount of meat eaten daily in America is out of balance with the human body, leading to unprecedented levels of food related illness and death.  *A heart attack kills someone in the US every 45 seconds. Also leading to unprecedented levels of obesity.  But only for people in developed nations.  Factory farms typically oppress workers of poorer nations.  Leading to the dichotomy of having fat, unhealthy people in one country, and *820 million malnourished people in the developing world.

    Factory farming is directly related to ecological disaster world wide.  By both destroying heirloom land and culture on a grassroots level, and subsequently dumping chemicals and waste onto the land.  *Currently,  1,000 species go extinct each year due to destruction of tropical rainforests, partly because of factory farming.   This practice is both unsustainable and unethical.

    The practice of factory farming is like a concentration camp for animals.  Stacked nearly on top of each other, these poor animals suffer for months eating chemical laced feed.  And are then systematically slaughtered.  Slaughterhouses are living scenes from a nightmare.  The waste (crap and leftover scraps of carcass) at factory farms is so extreme that it is leading to environmental disasters both local and global.  While at the same time, the amount of fuel and emissions released during factory farm amounts to 18% of Global Emissions!  *200 million people are  predicted to be displaced due to climate change by 2050.  Not only are we slaughtering our fellow creatures for pleasure.  We are also drowning in their waste and gluttonously wasting our precious Fossil Fuels!

    And now, as Moores law continues to thrust this Great Science Experiment forward exponentially, the rest of the planet are fast following in our footsteps.  Modern refrigeration and meat processing techniques are coming online globally at an alarming rate.  The Worlds resources simply cannot support Factory farming on this scale.  The costs both financially and ecologically to society and culture on a Global Scale are steadily growing greater.

    But where do we come in.  We begin with our personal eating habits.  “Vote with your dollar”.  If each and every American ate just 1/10 less meat.  it would free up grains and water supplies for the hungry children around the world.  If we all just ate 1/10 less dairy.  It would free up fossil fuels to run farming equipment and great granaries around the world to feed the starving and oppressed masses.  If we practiced “Ahimsa“, non violence in action, thought, and word, it would be easier to have compassion on animals and stop their slaughter.

“Spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.” -Gandhi

(*from ethicaleating.wordpress.com)

See also: Manifesto for a New America pt1

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