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| www.eatinganimals.com |
I'm currently reading
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Every single one of my friends who's read it has become a vegetarian, so I thought I'd give it a go. I've been trying to be convinced to become a vegetarian for quite a while now, but find myself quite set in my beliefs that it is natural to be an omnivore. In addition, it is usually more sustainable to be a conscious omnivore than a vegetarian or vegan - take for example soy, which is monocropped on industrial farms usually with large amounts of pesticide and is ravenously consumed by the two groups.
I'm up to page 100, so we'll see if I'm convinced in the last 100 pages of the book.
On the same topic, I seem to be very interested in food sustainability recently (as my Klout meter has also showed), so any suggestions to broaden my knowledge on the topic would be much appreciated :)
Hi there
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the actual statistics, eating meat and dairy is an incredibly destructive practice. There is no credible research that shows that eating meat or animal products is anything except incredibly destructive to our environment, to animals and to our health (another thing that is never discussed thanks to universities being funded by corporations). Check these out if you are more interested in learning about the impacts of eating animals and animal products as well as the USDA's influence in our food --
http://thedeliciousday.com/health/vegan/
http://thedeliciousday.com/environment/organic-farming/
Read "CAFO Reader" compiled by the Foundation for Deep Ecology. Different authors have contributed to this book on concentrated animal feeding operations which explores all aspects of the issue including animal awareness, cloning and breeding of GM animals. Essays include Michael Pollan's "Power Steer", which followed the life of a calf from grazing on pastures to filthy, crowded feedlots, the last stage before the slaughterhouse.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Linda. I am always interested in learning more about food production and have also read Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma. I believe that factory farmed meat and produce is extremely harmful but that locally farmed products raised without pesticides and in a small-scale, responsible manor can be great both for our health and the health of the planet. Unfortunately many alternatives to meat, like tofu and soy products, are farmed on industrial sized farms and can be even worse for the environment.
ReplyDeleteMeris - I'll add CAFO Reader to my list for sure!