“Side of Greenwash”

By Jasmin

If you read one article this summer, make it Stewart David’s “Greenwashed.” And then forward it to everyone you’ve ever met in your entire life.

The locavore movement has started to make serious and cogent arguments (many of which are reaching the mainstream) that factory farming is devastating for the animals and the planet. At the same time, the industry is quite persuasively arguing that you can’t feed the world on “sustainable, humane” small-farm animal production.

David puts these two realities together to draw the obvious conclusion: A plant-based diet is the best answer for a hungry, overcrowded world. He ponders the question: “how can something that uses so much land and other resources ever really merit the ‘sustainable’ label?” and comes to the conclusion that “feeding food to animals and then eating the animals is an extremely inefficient use of resources. More than half the grain grown in America is fed to animals who, like humans, expend most of the calories consumed living their lives.”

I could go on and on – and I will, in a future entry – but for now, read the article.

Comments

[Casey]

Absolutely. It's amazing how much effort many "conscientious omnivores" put into saving the planet in a million little ways that don't add up to much, at least compared with the BIG impact made by going vegan. If you're taking care to recycle every piece of paper and always bring your own bag to the grocerty store, yet you still eat animal products... Well, that's a bit like blowing out some candles in your house when the whole place is burning down. Put out the big fires first, THEN see what's left to do!