Greetings,
green-minded viewers,
to this week’s episode of
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
featuring
an interview with
Dr. Richard Oppenlander,
a vegan, on how
animal agriculture is
destroying our planet.
Dr. Oppenlander is
an American
environmentalist,
wellness advocate
and dentist who
over the last four decades
has studied the effects
of food choices
on the environment
and human health.
He is also the president
and founder of an organic
vegan food production
and education business
as well as the co-founder
of an animal rescue
and sanctuary.
His research findings
show that animal
product production and
consumption is severely
harming our well-being
and decimating our world
by causing the substantial
global loss of land,
freshwater, clean air,
food supply, biodiversity
and energy resources at
a frighteningly rapid pace.
As the author of
“Comfortably Unaware:
Global depletion and
food responsibility...
What you choose to eat
is killing our planet,”
he has appeared
on radio shows and
written articles
for newspapers and
magazines to
raise awareness of
conscious eating.
We’re losing
our global resources
at an unprecedented rate.
We are producing
70-billion or more
animals each year
and it’s growing
in exponential fashion.
That number is a bit
difficult to pin down,
because on any given day,
there will be,
according to the
Food and Agriculture
Organization, 1.7-trillion
chickens in the world and
one- to two-trillion fish
in the world that are
on their way
sooner or later
to slaughter.
So, it’s a massive number
and all of our resources
are being deployed
for this purpose.
So in the other direction,
we’re using all these
resources and all of
our energies to
produce essentially food
to create animals.
It’s really not even food,
it’s animals
that we’re creating.
And then we’re eating
those and the end result
is we’re eating something
that’s unhealthy for us
too.
So it’s sort of
a two-bladed sword that
we’re dealing with
right now.
If we just did away with
all that unnecessary loss
of resources,
it would obviously
be better for our health.
Meat production is
inherently inefficient
compared to
growing plants for food.
Vast tracts of tropical
rainforests are destroyed
annually to create space
for livestock grazing
and cultivating crops
for livestock feed.
According to
a United Nations
Environment Programme
report,
animal agriculture-related
activities take up 38%
of our planet’s land.
Producing animal
products also consumes
huge volumes of water.
For example a person
uses up to 15,000 liters of
water per day
for a meat-based diet,
which is 15-times
as much water
as a vegan would use.
Water itself is the largest
concern of any scientist
that is studying where
we’re going in our future.
We are running out of land,
of course, but we’re
expected to deplete our
water systems by 40%
in just the next 19 years.
So if we didn’t use the
water for all of the aspects
of animal agriculture,
we certainly could be
applying it more frugally
to our own use right now.
They’re concerned about
water scarcity,
when in reality, it’s more
about water management.
Instead of technologies,
we need to start
looking at choices.
Instead of choosing to eat
animal products, which
uses massive amounts of
water, we could be
using water just to
sustain ourselves.
If you use your acre to
grow grass-fed livestock,
one acre isn’t
normally enough.
You would need 5, 10
even up to 20 acres
in most land in the world.
And when you do that,
after two and a half years,
which is what
it would take to grow
one grass- fed cow, you
would essentially end up
with about 480 pounds
of that type of
animal product that
people are calling food.
In the course of
that 2 ½ years, you would
create or produce about
three to four tons of
methane and
carbon dioxide.
And you would also use
minimally 20- to 30,000
gallons of water.
Minimally, that’s what
they would drink.
But in most cases,
they would use about
a million to two-million
gallons of water
because of all the alfalfa
or other aspects of water
use that they would need
to use to even irrigate
the land to produce
grasses for them to eat.
Whereas if you use
that same acre of land
to produce something like
a kale-and-quinoa
combination, you would
have the equivalent
on average after
2 ½ years of about
15,000 pounds
of food produced.
If you slithered off
1/8 of an acre,
and you threw in
some hydroponics,
you could grow about
30,000 pounds of tomatoes
during that 2 ½-year
period of time.
And you’d end up with
food that’s infinitely
healthier for you to eat
and for our planet
to grow
versus animal products.
The value of biodiversity
is inestimable.
Globally, a wide range of
plant species keep nature
in balance, feed
the world’s population
and improve
the quality of life
for humans and animals.
For example, over 70,000
plant species are sources
of medicine.
Plants also protect
water resources, soil and
support nutrient storage.
Due to the production
and consumption
of animal foods and
other hugely detrimental
human activities,
we have entered what is
being called "the sixth
great extinction event"
with the current rate of
biodiversity loss
of plants and animals
1,000 to 10,000 times
higher than
the natural background
extinction rate.
Most people don’t equate
their choice of foods
with the loss of a species,
like the Javan Tiger,
Tasmanian Tiger,
or Ridley Sea Turtle.
But in fact,
the largest component of
loss of biodiversity is
due to loss of habitat,
according to numerous
scientific organizations
like the World
Conservation Union.
The documentation that
they’ve seen will show
very clearly that most of
the land is being used by
livestock, not agriculture.
So 30,000 animal species
are going extinct per year.
In just one day,
there will be another
82 animal species
gone forever.
Most of those animal
species are affected
in one way or another
by the food we’re eating,
by either unsustainable
fishing practices
in our oceans, or
the animal agriculture
that we’re seeing on land.
By eating fish, we’re
contributing to loss
of biodiversity,
we’re contributing to
global warming, because
it’s affecting the amount
of oxygen that’s
in our oceans right now.
We’re also affecting
our own health because
fish in fact
have cholesterol.
They have many other
issues that affect us.
Obviously, if we’re
moving entirely over
to a plant-based diet,
we’re going to be true
stewards of our planet
by not creating such
loss of habitat and
destructions in our oceans.
So species will be
preserved.
Dr. Oppenlander
estimates that
meat consumption leads
to a minimum of
US$150 billion
in healthcare costs
in the US annually.
He now explains how he
arrived at his conclusion.
What I usually do is
I try to frame it
slightly differently.
I try to point out that we
have a US$2.1- to 2.3-
trillion healthcare cost
in America.
Last year (2010) it was
US$2.1- to 2.3-trillion.
Now the minimal amount
that you can quantify
as applied to eating
livestock is somewhere
around US$150 billion.
That’s minimal.
That’s because if you add
up the US$88- billion
from food-borne illnesses
from livestock or
the US$180 billion
from hypertension,
the US$300 billion
a year from heart disease
or cardiovascular
concerns and then there’s
diabetes for another
US$100-120 billion.
And eating livestock or
animals is minimally
between 20-25-30%
risk factor of all those.
So it is at least
US$150-billion dollars.
I feel that this should be
taken into account with
our national healthcare
plan and insurance.
I feel like the title of
my next book should be
“Why Should We
Be Paying for
What Everybody else
Decides to Eat?”
Livestock raising is
the single largest
human induced source
of methane emissions,
a highly potent,
heat-retaining greenhouse
gas, which has 72-times
the warming potential
of carbon dioxide
over a 20-year period.
Scientists know that
we are in an escalated
global warming period
with more greenhouse
gases in our atmosphere
than at any other time.
So we have to do
something to solve it.
We can’t continue on
with what we’re doing.
The United Nations 2006
report called Livestock’s
Long Shadow stated
it was 20% of all of
our greenhouse-gas
emissions, which is
more than all of our
transportation sector,
all our airplanes, cars,
trucks and trains that we
drive and fly every day.
Some researchers that
were also looking at it
on the side very carefully
since then
have demonstrated that
livestock is responsible
for 51% of all
greenhouse-gas emissions
found in our atmosphere.
It’s an issue of
raising animals to eat.
And that’s not going to
change unless we get off
of eating animals entirely.
Vegan organic farming
improves the quality of
our planet’s soil, water
and air and thus
enhances biodiversity.
The practice can also
tackle climate change by
absorbing and storing
carbon dioxide.
The Rodale Institute’s
farming trial in the US
verifies that
organic agriculture, if
practiced on our planet’s
3.5 billion tillable acres,
could sequester nearly
40% of current
CO2 emissions.
There are many food
movements, as you know.
There’s slow food,
real food, organic food,
and being a localvore.
There are so many food
movements right now.
The issue is that
they all are like a barge
going down the river, and
they’re carrying behind it
this long line that is
attached to animals,
all of them are.
So they’re not
getting anywhere.
In fact, they’re dragging
more resources with it.
So we need to clip
the line, essentially,
get the animals
out of the equation.
So real food, slow food,
organic food and
buying local food are all
extremely healthy
without the animals.
So you can say that
whether it’s organic
or not organic,
it doesn’t matter
if it applies to animals,
because it’s not going
to be healthy
for our environment,
our planet or ourselves.
Now, if you’re talking
about organic or
non-organic or inorganic,
vegetable sources and
plant sources, sure.
Our respectful salute,
Dr. Richard Oppenlander
for your dedicated efforts
to study the tremendously
harmful impacts of
the livestock industry,
and convey the message
about the virtues of the
organic plant-based diet.
May your benevolent
work touch many more
lives in the future.
For more information on
Dr. Richard Oppenlander,
please visit
www.ComfortablyUnaware.com
His book
“Comfortably Unaware”
is available
at the same website
Honored viewers,
thank you for joining us
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
May we always
experience abundant love
and bliss from Heaven.