Although invited write this blog from a vegan perspective in response to George Monbiot’s recent Guardian article. I don’t think I can put it much more succinctly than Graham Land when he says the argument seemed to miss the point somewhat.
The individual action of cutting down on meat and dairy – or ‘going the whole hog’ and becoming vegan if you like – shouldn’t be confused with revamping livestock farming into a more sustainable industry. They are different, albeit related, points.
Debate over the perceived right and wrongs of meat eating and veganism in blogs and on message boards can border on religious zeal at times – just delve, if you dare, into the comments board after Monbiot’s article online, certainly a far cry from Mary’s considered and rational blog post last week.
On Monday evening this week, I attended The Peter Roberts Memorial Lecture – “Beef, bread and water: ethical food in a warm and thirsty world” The growing crisis faced by the meat industry outlined there might be the most productive use of this blog space. John Parker the globalisation editor of The Economist magazine, not usually noted for its stance on ethics over profit, at the outset clearly stated the world can not cope with the way we currently feed ourselves – but what is the trade off?
One of the world’s leading experts on water usage and creator of the water footprint concept, Prof. Arjen Hoekstra then highlighted practical factors. World water scarcity and pollution from pesticides and industry are of concern but also hidden globalisation and commoditisation of water from crops grown and exported for animal feed from poor countries to rich ones, effectively exporting water too. He urged each of us to look at their personal water footprint. It certainly is hard to estimate how many kilos of potatoes I eat each week but I’ve had a go on the slightly clunky calculator and come to a rough personal figure of: 576 cubic meters per year. Hoestra estimates only 3% of our water usage is at home with 97% of the water footprint residing invisibly in our food (60-65% of this coming from abroad).
His current calculations on water use are:
1kg wheat = 1,300l water
1kg (factory farmed) beef = 15,000l much of this imported as grain to feed the cow and what he called servicing the animal, not just what it drinks.
Developing countries use much less but it is on the increase due to industrialisation and the worldwide cultural aspiration that higher meat intake = sign of prosperity. Therefore a universal rise in meat consumption would be highly unsustainable as water becomes scarcer. His proposals include more efficient irrigation of crops, product transparency for consumers, coherent targets from government and ultimately all environmental, agricultural, energy, trade and foreign policy sectors to work together – a big ask.
Host of the event, Phillip Lymbery Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming, reminded us of stark facts. 2 out of every 3 animals eaten are factory farmed, 1 in 3 food grains go to feed factory farmed animals and that half of the world’s antibiotics are fed to these animals. More people mean more animals 67 billion currently and expected to double by 2050 but this earth is finite.
Which will we reach first: peak oil or peak land? Even the most conservative estimate that global temperatures will rise by 2 degrees centigrade, this will mean a rise in sea levels and a loss of valuable agricultural land. Meat and diary in the west are massively under priced compared with their true impact.
According to philosopher Kate Rawles ethics are not soft options or luxuries held by individuals but embedded in all our systems, structures and institutions. Our food system is part of a flawed, detached anthropocentric world view – where the magical assumption of indefinite growth is ingrained. Reality is that economic goals are prioritised over everything.Our fast growing highly unsustainably current system of meeting our needs in general lead Rawles to assume that we must be in deep denial citing the UN Millennium Development Goals not being met as a prime example.The radical ethical factor she proposed was not seeing food as just another business. This as opposed to the option of tweaking the system with more consumer choice, labelling for example leading only to a short term impact.
A model of sustainability has for some time been represented by a triangle with environment, society and economics at the corners, Rawles proposed extending down to include ethical issues such as animal welfare that do not fit in to any of the other categories.Her way toward change is not only to set positive goals but to actively prohibit unethical practices and set an ethical bottom line which cannot be crossed in food production.
Next up the man from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. Dr Samuel Jutzi intoned unending dry figures from the 2009 SOFA report. Yet, he recognised the problems of excessive meat consumption and clearly stated the UN has never advocated factory farming. He also made an interesting point about the boom in meat production in Asia – leading to a large percentage of it being exported to… – you guessed it - the west. Something people in the west can do something about as consumers.
A large UN study has looked at reasons for meat consumption and worldwide the answer was less often for nutritional value but for taste, diversity and convenience. 70% of the world is expected to be urbanised by 2050 the study shows meat consumption goes up when populations move to cites. He touched on a growing awareness within the UN that livelihoods, food security and environmental issues are intrinsically linked and had grave concerns about human health and disease citing that 70% of emerging illnesses come from animals.
Damage to society and the environment caused by food issues are now not just talked about but actively anticipated by the UN. Recent food riots in India and Mozambique are a case in point. These examples illustrate what happens when the unrestricted free market speculates on food prices.
The disparity between to poverty and hunger and wealth and obesity was undeniable when presented by Prof Tim Lang a few years ago. 1 billion malnurished, 1 billion obese - I was very moved by the demographic chart looked like two mountains with a deep ravine in between.
There is no magic bullet to this massively complex issue , Jutzi seemed to drop his faceless beaurocrat mask and appeared visibly shaken when talking later, a man who has undoubtedly seen much, appeared ground down by the global slow progress to act on food issues and seemed exasperated when talking about Copenhagen He claimed to feel hopeful as the event had in the room all the people who should be talking to each other apart from obvious exception being major politicians. He also reported the intense pressure on himself and colleagues from a very strong industrial meat lobby funded by large corporations as opposed to small farmers.
My original concern was that Monbiot’s article could be divisive amongst groups who could just as easily pull together under a common goal. Let’s consider the urgent call to action from Phillip Lymbery, toward a worldwide re-think. Our current intensive farming system has only been in place for 50 – 60 years, let’s hope it does not take that long to bring it to an end or to convince people to eat less meat, and put a sustainable food system in place.
Further Links:
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/
http://www.outdoorphilosophy.co.uk/
Kelly is an active volunteer at the Sustainability Centre with the Green Beans toddler group. She also organises vegan events at the Centre with delicious catering from the Beech Cafe. Thanks for your post, from Mary x
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