Food Choices Page #11

We've got to double

our food production

in the next 40 years,

to feed the nine billion

that we'll have by 2050.

- When it

comes to global warming,

the production of

animals for food

currently contributes to

about 14.5% of the total

global warming effect.

A contribution larger

than the entire

global transportation

sector combined.

Livestock amounts to 53%

of nitrous oxide emissions,

44% of methane gas,

and 5% of the total

carbon dioxide

released in our atmosphere.

- Raising livestock

and eating fish,

and also producing dairy

is one of the largest

contributing factors

to climate change.

And the public

needs to know this,

and policies need to

be enacted to help

eliminate that.

It's one of the easiest

ways that we have

to not just adapt to, but

to mitigate climate change.

And it can be done as

easy as just changing

out what you have on your plate.

- Organic

grass fed beef

seems to be the new trend.

And the idea sounds

really appealing.

Cows that live off grass

don't take any antibiotics,

and therefore supposedly

provide a healthier

food source for us,

when compared to factory

farmed animals.

But is there a catch?

- It's a very large

movement today,

and I think what's

happening is that

there's been a shift

because of more and more

people being concerned

about the humane

raising of animals, and

moving away from factory

farms, they're moving

toward grass fed operations,

or pasture fed operations.

It's a complete fabrication

by the meat and dairy

industries to

continue perpetuating

the slaughtering of

animals, because even though

some animal might

be humane raised,

they're still not humane killed,

and all of the animals

that are still placed

on your plate have

to be slaughtered

in some manner, and

so there's still

a humane issue there,

but from an environmental

standpoint, in many aspects,

raising grass fed beef

is less sustainable than

factory fed animals,

and the reason is, because

it's so land intensive.

It may require eight

pounds of feed to produce

one pound of an animal

product, if it were beef,

but in a grass fed situation,

sometimes, it's 10 times

that much, it may be 70,

80 times from a grass fed

to a grain fed beef.

Additionally, from a

climate change standpoint,

grass fed cattle

produce 40 to 60%

more greenhouse gas

emissions, meaning methane,

carbon dioxide,

land use changes,

than a grain fed cow would.

- Another thing

often taken for granted

is the depletion of our oceans.

We often think of

fish as a never ending

self replenishing food source,

but the truth seems

to be quite different.

- Over 90% of all the

big fish in the oceans

are already gone.

80% of commercial fisheries

are over exploited,

or depleted.

The fishing fleets are

chasing the last of the fish.

And have to travel

further and further away

from the land and deeper

and deeper into the ocean

to catch them.

I've seen illegal

fishing in Antarctica,

and that's as far away

from land as you can get.

- When someone sits

down at a table,

to eat fish or seafood

on their plate,

what they're really

doing is they're eating

a target fish that's becoming

depleted to the point

of near extinction,

but they're also eating

baggage comes with it,

and typically it requires

about five to twenty

times more other seafood,

as by-kill, and

by-kill is the term

that relates to all

those other sea life,

living in the ocean that

are killed in the process

of trying to get that

target fish to your plate,

whether it's with purse

seine type of fishing method,

or long line or bottom

trawling, or middle trawling,

our oceans are expected

to be completely

devoid of all fish

that we recognize

commercially today

by the year 2048.

- The oceans are

dying, and nobody wants

to know about it.

And if the oceans die, we die.

It's as simple as that.

And if you start

destroying them,

you're basically

killing out the crew,

and the life support

systems going to collapse,

and there won't be

any air to breathe,

and there won't be

any food to eat,

and the climate'll

be out of control,

and, not a good thing.

But we have to humble

ourselves and recognize

that we need this diversity,

we need these creatures,

we need this interdependence,

and if we don't see that,

then our chances of

survival are quite slim.

My big concern is not

that we're going to wipe

ourselves out, out of

sheer ecological stupidity,

but that we're going to

take so much with us.

- So much confusion,

and so much debate.

That it just boggles

my mind that we can't

think like third graders,

and say, "why not

"just address the

number one cause here."

You know, we got ten

holes in the boat,

the boat's sinking, which

hole do we fill first?

Go to the big hole.

Fill that big hole first.

- I mean, so often we're

looking at just what

we would like to eat,

because it satisfies

our taste preferences.

Well, we're at a point in time,

in order to save

humanity essentially,

save our species, which

is not an overstatement

at all, we need to start

looking outside of self,

and start looking at how

our choices are fully

effecting those around

us, those species

that we share this planet with,

and especially

future generations.

- A couple

years back, I saw

a documentary

called, earthlings,

that exposed the

conditions in which

farm animals are slaughtered.

It made a big impact on me.

I knew that animals

got killed for food,

but seeing how it

actually happened,

and seeing the suffering,

pain and terror

that these animals go through,

put things into a new

perspective for me.

I was already eating

mostly plant-based foods

at the time, but after

seeing those images,

I decided I could not

contribute to the killing

of innocent animals any longer.

So I became a 100% plant eater.

I was not in a position

to judge anybody,

after all, I ate animals for

over 30 years of my life.

But I wanted to understand,

how come in this day and age,

such a massive

genocide was allowed.

And how come us, the

general population,

government and

corporations allowed

for this to happen?

- We love some

animals, and eat others

because we have been

born into a invisible

belief system that conditions us

to compartmentalize when

it comes to animals.

It conditions us to

think of certain animals

as edible, and other

animals as inedible.

And the invisible belief

system that conditions

us to eat certain animals,

is what I call carnism.

One way carnism

remains invisible, is

by remaining unnamed.

If we don't name it, we

can't even think about it,

so we can't question it.

When we don't see

something, obviously,

it becomes much

easier to maintain

this mythology that

there is no problem,

there is no atrocity.

- This is not

just something to eat.

This is beautiful love,

joy, work, action.

This is life.

- You're think

they're just animals?

They have intelligence.

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