Why Meatless? Emily J. Bielecki

Did You Know?  The meat industry is responsible for nearly 1/5 of the man-made greenhouse gasses (“Urged…” 2010)

Lets Talk About Energy  40 calories of fossil fuel energy = 1 calorie of beef  2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy = 1 calorie of plant-based protein

Energy Wasted  Ratio of energy input to protein output:  Lamb 57:1  Beef cattle 40:1  Eggs 39:1  Swine 14:1  Dairy (milk) 14:1  Turkeys 10:1  Broilers 4:1  (Pimentel 2003)

Lets Talk About Water  643 gallons of fresh water = 5.2 oz hamburger  143 gallons of fresh water = 5.2 oz tofu  Irrigation is sucking up our H2O resources  Animal waste contaminates fresh water  (“Meatless” 2010) & (“Issues” 2009)

Lets Talk About The Planet  Deforestation  Topsoil erosion  ENDLESS CYCLE!  Endangered or near endangered long-lived fish

Lets Talk Health  2/3 of America is overweight anyway!  Diets full of red meat  cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension  Diets that are filled with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains lead to a lower risk of heart disease, ADHD, asthma, and diabetes  Antibiotics used in food animals  Other health concerns

And Where Is The Logic?  We are producing food to produce less food.  Legumes are nitrogen fixing – animal feed crops are not

Societal Implications  Meat consumption affects 3 rd world countries in a distinctive way  Animals are part of the environment too  UN reported: 1992 food supply could have fed 6.3 billion people on 100% vegetarian diet (Soares 2009)

What About Vegan?  No animal products at all  Traditional vs. Environmental

So How Can We Help?  THE SOLUTION IS CLEAR

Sources  “Why Meatless” The Monday Campaigns  “About Vegan” Vegan Action  “The Reasons To Adopt A Meatless Diet” Suite  “Obama Urged…” Johns Hopkins School of Public Health  “Five Steps To Sustainable Eating” Lime  Christine Soares. “The Low Carbon Diet” carbon-diet carbon-diet  “The Issues” Sustainable Table  Kreith, M., Water Inputs in California Food Production. 1991, Water Education Foundation: Sacramento, CA.  “A Healthy Way To Live” Vegan Outreach. July  Pimentel, D. and M. Pimentel, Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. American Joural of Clinical Nutrition, : p. 66S-3S.