Today’s Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home will
be presented in French,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Japanese,
Korean, Malay,
Mongolian, Persian,
Portuguese, Russian,
Spanish and Thai.
Greetings,
dedicated viewers,
to this week’s episode of
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
featuring Canadian
eco-sociologist, author,
and fair trade pioneer
Laure Waridel, who
works to raise awareness
about consumer power
and how our purchases
can affect
the food industry,
our health and our planet.
She has long been
committed to promoting
responsible consumption
in her home province
of Quebec and beyond
through public awareness
campaigns and
has authored or
co-written several books
on sustainable living
including “The Other Side
of the Plate,”
“Buying is Voting,” and
“Coffee with Pleasure.”
The HEC Business
School, France
and La Presse newspaper
recognized the excellence
of the former two titles
with the Business Book
Audience Award
and the Communication
and Society Award.
In honor of
her tireless efforts,
Maclean’s Magazine,
a prominent Canadian
current affairs publication,
named her one of the 25
Canadian personalities who
are changing our world.
In 2005, the Honorable
Thomas Mulcair,
Quebec's former Minister
of Sustainable Development,
Environment and Parks,
awarded Ms. Waridel
the "Circle of the Phoenix"
prize, a tribute
to the province's
most prominent
environmentalists.
Past recipients include
such outstanding individuals
as Hubert Reeves
and Frédéric Back.
Laure Waridel is
currently a professor
at McGill University’s
Desautels Faculty of
Management in Canada
and teaches courses on
sustainable investments.
She is also a columnist
for two magazines:
one produced
by the University
of Sherbrooke, Canada
and the other being
Reader's Digest.
Laure Waridel emphasizes
the importance
of making eco-friendly
and socially responsible
consumer choices
to help surmount
the many challenges
Earth now faces.
The 3N-J is a concept
I developed in my book,
“The Other Side
of the Plate.”
And 3N-J stands for
“bare,” “not far,”
and “natural and fair.”
So, naked or bare is first
of all to focus on foods
that are in the least
packaging possible.
There’s a lot of
over-packaging,
and we generate
a lot of waste with that.
This packaging,
we need to recycle it.
As you know,
40% of our trash bag
is filled with
compostable materials,
which when composted,
enrich the soil
and restore the land
with what it has given us
through food.
But send them
to a landfill site,
and it will have
the opposite effect.
In fact,
it creates methane, which
is a greenhouse gas
20 times more potent
than CO2.
So it truly furthers
climate change
and all sorts of problems.
“Not far” means
to buy local goods.
Thus, favoring products
that come from an area
as close as possible
to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, in order to
also to support
the local economy.
“Natural” means
to try to buy the most
organic possible,
the least processed possible.
It also includes reducing
our meat consumption.
Because, we know that
meat requires much more
energy in production.
Not to mention the
greenhouse gas emissions,
which are also generated
at each stage of production.
“Fair” is a matter
of social justice.
So choose small businesses.
Favoring fair trade
is obviously among
the many things we can do.
So have the 3N-J in mind
when you do
grocery shopping.
It gives us
decision-making tools.
At least it gives us
some guidelines
which allow us
to find our way a little.
The term “food mile”
refers to the distance
that food travels from
its area of production
to the grocery store.
A 1997 study showed that
the average food mileage
in the United States
was 980 miles
or 1,577 kilometers.
This distance then
soared to 1,230 miles or
1,979 kilometers in 2004.
Our agricultural system
has become increasingly
dependent on fossil fuels.
Our food travels
from one end to the other
of the planet.
Often they are processed
in one country and
after that another step
and another and so on.
So, it requires
a great deal of energy.
It puts more pressure
on the demand for oil
for all these trips for food,
and the mode
of production too.
The fair trade movement
empowers consumers
and addresses inequalities
in the world.
Purchasing fair trade
certified products
ensures that small farmers
in developing countries
receive a fair price for
their eco-friendly crops,
such as coffee, tea, sugar
and cocoa.
In 2008,
fair trade-certified sales
expanded to
about US$4.08 billion
with a 22%
annual growth rate.
Now, over a million
producers and workers
in 58 developing nations
benefit from
fair trade sales.
I think that over a day
we have a range of
opportunities to take action.
As soon as we get up,
the clothes that we wear,
where do they come from?
How were they made?
Is it possible to
reduce our consumption
in the beginning?
By our food choices,
three times a day
we can take actions
towards reducing
the size of our
environmental footprint.
So what does it mean?
It means to choose
primarily organic foods,
local, fair and
the least packed possible,
reducing our
meat consumption,
(and) eating
less processed products.
So it requires
changes of habits.
We have the power
to do it and it’s
a very positive element.
You mentioned before
you have written a book,
“Buying is Voting.”
How is the choice
made by consumers
comparable to the choices
they make during
an election campaign?
Because it is often said
that money rules the world.
But if money rules
the world,
we must ask the question,
“What are we doing
with our money?”
We go to vote
every four years
but we consume daily.
So, how can we try
to steer the economy
to ensure and
reduce environmental
and social impacts
that are negative?
So it is to see
how we can use our money
to go in that direction.
Often buying is voting;
it could also
be simply not buying.
Making this choice
is also a political choice.
So I'm not saying that
the power of consumption
should replace
the voting power,
far from that.
But it's one more way
that we have
as citizens to act.
After this brief message,
we’ll return
with more thoughts
from the eco-wise
Laure Waridel.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
I grew up
next to a piggery.
Pigs spent their life
on a concrete floor
with a metal fence.
The mothers gave birth
when they could not even
turn to lick their children.
They had no room even
to scratch or anything.
Welcome back to
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home,
here on
Supreme Master Television.
Our program today
features Canadian
eco-sociologist, author
and fair trade pioneer
Laure Waridel.
She is an advocate of
responsible consumption
- from the products
we choose to buy
to the amount of
natural resources we take
to sustain our lifestyles.
The severe effects
of climate change
coupled with humanity’s
wasteful use of water,
particularly through
livestock raising,
has led to a global shortage
of this precious resource.
According to a recent study,
the United States
has the largest
“water footprint”
in the world,
using approximately
2.5-million liters
per capita annually.
By contrast,
China uses less than
0.7-million liters
per capita each year.
The water issue
is a big issue
because water is so vital.
We cannot live
without water
and there is the problem
of water contamination,
but also simply
the absence of water.
Droughts
with climate change
are expected
to be a growing problem.
Already now there are
more and more droughts
in many parts of the world.
The desert is advancing
and it's extremely worrying.
It is not normal,
for example,
that there are
big golf courses
in deserts that pump water
while people nearby
do not have enough water.
We think of
certain tourism projects
where there is water
in abundance.
There is a waste of water
in major hotels
in very dry areas,
while right next door
there are families who
do not have enough water
to feed their children
or prepare food
or for very basic needs.
So, there is an issue
with the distribution of
water resources as well.
Livestock requires
lots of water.
There is waste
at this level too.
Livestock eat
80% of the corn and
95% of the oats grown
in the United States,
and to produce just
a half a kilogram of beef,
seven kilograms of grain
is required.
World hunger
can be easily addressed
if we choose
to redirect the flow of the
enormous amount of food
humanity produces
each year.
World hunger is
a problem of justice
and not how much food
is available.
Because there's enough
to feed everyone.
Cereals, for example,
if they go more towards
human consumption
than biofuels,
for example.
Once again,
if we reduced
our meat consumption,
we could feed
many more people,
so we must see
what kind of food choices
we make.
Currently there are over
a billion people worldwide
who are hungry.
That's one in seven,
it’s enormous!
I invite you to think about
the children that you love.
There are more than
six-million children dying
from hunger each year.
This is absolutely
unacceptable!
In a 2007 paper,
the Dutch Bureau for
Economic Policy Analysis
advocated for
a tax on meat
in the Netherlands
and projected
such a tax would drop
meat consumption by
two-thirds in the nation.
We asked Ms. Waridel
about her views
on taxing meat as one way
to protect our biosphere.
I think that eco-taxation
is a vital element
in developing solutions.
The eco-tax is to ensure that
the price of what we pay
corresponds more to
the environmental costs
and social costs
it generates.
Because at the time
meat is very cheap
compared to
the negative impact
that it generates
both at the environmental
and social levels.
In terms of eco-taxes,
meat should be
more expensive
compared to the others.
I absolutely believe
that reducing
our meat consumption
has a very positive impact.
I think we should
discover the pleasure as
we eat vegetarian meals.
Even the doctors say
people consume
too much meat
for their health.
So there is the health
of the planet
and also our health .
We all have to reduce
our consumption of meat
altogether.
Organic farming is
of great benefit
to the environment,
as organic agriculture
builds up the soil, thus
reducing both droughts
and flooding.
In avoiding
the use of pesticides,
organic farming also
helps to lessen
overall water pollution
and biodiversity loss.
The Rodale Institute
in the United States
estimates that if all the
world’s approximately
14 million square kilometers
of tillable farmland
were to be cultivated
organically,
the soil could store 40%
of current CO2 emissions.
There are tremendous
benefits to organic farming
and also
the human dimension,
because I believe in
production which is done
not only with respect
for the ecosystems
but also for workers,
such that each and
everyone can live in dignity.
So there are the benefits
of reduced use of pesticides
and chemical fertilizers.
Obviously also when we
speak of local agriculture,
we reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
In organic farming,
most of the work
being done is by hand,
except for cereals,
but in the vegetable
cultivation system
so there is less
greenhouse gas emissions.
Greater biodiversity too,
so it has value;
it has so much value
that we cannot even put
a number, a figure on it.
Our sincere gratitude,
Laure Waridel
for your dedicated efforts
to help us soon attain
an environmentally
sustainable world.
May we all make
the #1 choice in
responsible consumption
– the organic vegan diet,
which is the simplest
and quickest way
to stop global warming.
Books by Laure Waridel
are available at
www.Renaud-Bray.com
or
www.Amazon.com
Eco-conscious viewers,
thank you for joining us
on today’s Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May your days be blessed
with abundant love
from Heaven.