Taking the heat for what we eat by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris
Earth Day just ain’t what it used to be.
Forty
years ago, when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson called for a day to
“force this issue onto the national agenda,” the
environmental problems on his mind were things like air pollution and
toxic waste, according to the website of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal entity that his efforts helped create.
These
days, Sen. Nelson would have a few more things to worry about. It
wasn’t until a decade or so after his original 1970 push that
scientists began warning of another problem—the bizarre and
alarming phenomenon now known as global warming.
And it
wasn’t until another a decade or so passed that we started
hearing much about how the heat-up of the earth’s atmosphere
could be connected—through a twisted chain of links—to, of
all things, what we eat.
Whereas early Earth Day gatherings generated considerable excitement
over such innovations as recycling bins, today, what we do with our
trash has become, at least in some circles, almost passé
compared to the Big Question: What on earth do we put in our mouths?
And then there are the complicated corollary questions, like: Do we have to go vegan to save the polar bears?
In the coming months, Animal Beat will be taking a look at the connections between our planet’s heat and what we eat.
Meanwhile, today there’s the following message from Hope Behanec of In Defense of Animals...
“In Defense of Animals is celebrating Earth Day 2010 with a new video revealing the environmental impact of animal agriculture.
“We also created our Eco-Eating webpage to help educate our members and others on this important issue.
“Earth
Day is the perfect day to make a commitment to eating ecologically, as
well as compassionately and healthy. Producing animal products wastes
enormous amounts of energy and fossil fuel, and emits greenhouse gasses
in the process. Throw in deforestation for cattle grazing, and you have
a recipe for serious impact on climate change.
“Cutting
back or eliminating the consumption of animal products is one of the
most powerful ways an individual can reduce his or her carbon
footprint, reduce animal suffering and reduce the risk for chronic
degenerative disease all with a tasty plant-based diet. Educate
yourself on this important issue for Earth Day by going to IDA’s
new Eco-Eating web pages and watching our new video today.”
Whether you’re vegan or not, the IDA’s recipe for Fabulous French Toast and other items makes their new pages well worth a look.
Bon appétit from Animal Beat!
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for
publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and
hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a
teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor
Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog (The Lyons Press). Holding a
B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and a lifelong interest in animal
issues, she spends a lot of her time battling a severe addiction to
dogs.
