HOST: Greetings, courageous viewers. With the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark taking place in less than a week, the world’s attention has turned to the urgent threat of global warming and solutions. Global press coverage has focused on the need for an agreement between countries to massively and quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, we’ll examine a representative sample of recent reports by international mainstream media on the necessity for a dietary change, namely a vegan diet, as the most practical, effective, economical solution for a sustainable global future.

In the United States, The New York Times is one of the most respected newspapers in the nation, with over 100 Pulitzer Prizes and 18 million visitors to its website in one month alone.

The New York Times attracted the attention of its large readership with the special report titled, 『Looking for a Solution to Cows’ Climate Problem,』written by Fiona MacKay and published on November 16, 2009. The article highlighted the recent Worldwatch Institute report which stated, 『livestock (like automobiles) are a human invention and convenience, not part of pre-human times, and a molecule of CO2 exhaled by livestock is no more natural than one from an auto tailpipe.』

In Ms. MacKay’s article for The New York Times, she wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/global/17iht-rbofcows.html By Fiona MacKay November 16, 2009
VOICE (ENGLISH): 『A 2006 report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization attributed 18 percent of the greenhouse gases produced each year to livestock.
But a more recent report for the Worldwatch Institute, by Robert Goodland,
former environmental adviser to the World Bank, and Jeff Anhang, environmental specialist at the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp., estimates this
figure to be much higher: 51 percent, when the entire life cycle and supply chain of the livestock industry is taken into consideration.

『Meat and dairy analog [alternative] companies have been working on continuous improvement of their products, and further improvement can be expected,』 Dr. Goodland said.

『This contrasts with meat and dairy companies, which sell products whose quality is practically impossible to improve, and which many believe has deteriorated
in recent years with decreased regulation and increases in zoonotic diseases.』