Something I've been waiting for my entire life has just happened. I've been a huge Beatles fan for decades and, in fact, my very first display of activism was not on behalf of a cause, but on behalf of them. When I was 12, I was so obsessed with the Fab Four that I cut out advertisements for their new movie Let It Be from the local newspapers and tacked them up on every telephone pole within a mile of my house to do my part to help promote the film -- determined I could make a difference.
Okay, I digress. My lovely assistant, Dawn, just said to me, "Laurie, Paul McCartney's on the phone." After I retrieved my jaw from the floor, I picked up the phone and heard the trademark Liverpudlian accent: "Hello Laurie, it's Paul." I immediately told him I'd often dreamed of hearing those exact words. He laughed and got right down to business. He wanted to talk about vegetarianism and the environment, an important link he feels is being overlooked in the global warming discussion. Paul loves the Buddhist principle often cited by the Dalai Lama that we all must "reduce the pain and suffering of all sentient beings." Paul's own vegetarianism started 30 years ago, "simply out of compassion for animals." But it has become increasingly clear that there are other issues equally as compelling, including personal health and the impact our meat-eating ways have on the environment.
Vegetarians are often treated as a fringe group. "People think vegetarians are weirdos," Paul said, "but they aren't actually, and as time goes by they seem less and less weird." Paul then cited some pretty shocking statistics from a 2006 UN report entitled ""Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options." which backed up his concerns about factory farms, overgrazing, and water pollution.
The report found that 18 percent of global warming emissions come from raising cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys and other animals we eat. That's 40 percent more than all the world's cars, SUVs, airplanes, and other modes of fossil-based transportation, which combined account for 13 percent. For further comparison, every house, residential and office building in the world accounts for just 8 percent.
The UN report details how 70 percent of the Amazon rain forests have been cut down for grazing, and fully one-third of the planet's arable land is now used for growing feed for livestock. The UN predicts that global meat production will more than double by 2050 to keep pace with increasing demand.
Paul also talked about a big trend happening in Europe called "Meat Reducers" where, along with recycling and not taking plastic bags, people are eating meat at least one day less a week. A simple thing everyone can do to lower their own carbon footprint.
I made my pledge right there on the phone; I am now a meat reducer. But if Paul wants me to go all vegan, he'll have to take me out to dinner to discuss it.
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hope this tidies you over....
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hope this tidies you over until that dinner with paul or someone else....
Unfortunat
I don't care whether you abstain from eating animals out of your compassion for all living beings or out of your concern for our environmen
So, to all of you who want to bury your heads in the sand and resort to childish behavior such as calling vegans "weirdos", I say take a good look at yourself and ask what you're doing to help before putting others down.
Lionel Friedberg, in conjunctio
A synopsis of the film can be found at http://www
Rina Deych, RN
I use two chicken breasts, 6 -9 pealed potatos, 6 peeled carots, a bunch of celery, fresh garlic, about half of one white onion, and somtimes itlalian squash, and a bit of cabage.
It becomes more of a vegtable soup with some chicken in it.
Of course you must use Arrowhead Springwate
Get the loose carots not the packaged ones.
cook for 2 - 3 hours.
Perhaps the realistic answer really is a day of the week for vegetarian diets, as was suggested. Asking the impossible
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this can be a simple alternativ
i just finished a book on the horrible things that do happen to animals that have died due to "e-coli/ma
even oprah was sued then counter sued and won for the fact that she blew the whistle on this serious issue by saying "i'm never eating a hamburger again".
sadly, the government doesn't want mass panic over this and it truly is quite horrifying what will happen to a human. http://www
please do the research and like you'd ask of people to make 5 changes to help stop global warming i humbly say this to you to try to do as least 3 things to change those meat eating habits towards a healthy organic meat eating way or slowly like global warming, change certain things over time and constantly fine tune it to make the world a better healthier place. i've been a veggie for over 15 years and i'm 32 now. it's even better that paul's dearly departed wife linda has her own vegetarian
there is an old Buddhist saying that if you put a plate of meat in front of a Buddhist the Buddhist would eat it. being a vegetarian and all they would eat it out of respect for the dead animal in front of them. i say to all people who say "do you wear leather shoes, jackets and blah blah blah" i say that above quote. wear the leather well and until it falls apart, in honour of that dead animal and then not buy a leather jacket after that!
It is good to see that you have FINALLY ackowledge that eating less meat will assist in the moral imperative to stop global warming. It is an inconvenie
Now that Paul has given you permission and shown you it is cool to make the personal decision to not eat dead flesh, maybe you will stop labeling responsibl
Furthermor
Most of this veganazi stuff is just another form of religous moralism and fails to think through the obvious.
I am sure that Paul has nver thought about some of the consequenc
After years of grazing in the kitchen I find I cannot eat a lot of food at one sitting any more. Small portions several times a day is the only way i can function.
Some things I have learned from a lifetime of preparing food:
Fats do not make you fat or clog up ones arteries. Furthermor
Unfermente
Eat more fish and take fish oil (omega 3) supplement
I try to consume only 2-4 oz of meat every other day or so.
Cooked veggies are okay, but raw veg are much healthier since the plant enzymes are still alive. Plant enzymes aid tremendous
The AHA (Amer. Heart assoc.) has no clue now, nor have they ever known what causes heart attacks. But they do advocate the use of poly unsaturate
If you follow the USDA food pyramid as a lifestyle, you will become ill and die.
but the planet's biggest problem is US!
National Geographic magazine says our oceans are dying--50% of coral reefs dead from climate change and 90% of all table fish extinct from factory fishing.
We are far too greedy and sucessful as a species and are seriously fouling our own nest. We should all debate having more than one child--the earth simply cannot sustain it's growing human population
We are removed from the process and have no idea just how brutal it is. Humane is not a word I would use when discussing factory farming.
I rarely eat meat and am trying to go meat free. Its a personal choice and I feel physically better.
Cattle aren't meant to eat grain, but we force-feed them corn at industrial Cowschwitz troughs where the animals stand up to their knees in feces. So their guts get wrecked and we have to pump 'em full of antibiotic
There is, in a word, a world of difference between a steer, sheep, chicken or pig fattened on the family farm and one poisoned on the industrial food grid. You can even taste it.
Did you know, for instance, that almost every can of food containing cooked meat contains meat that has been exposed to e. coli 157H7? Betcha didn't!
Now, 8 years after he was saying that the president should go over to the OPEC countries and demand that they lower prices, he's over in the Middle East making these "suggestio
The latest from the FDA is the approval of cloned animals and their offspring for human consumptio
I like call for meat reduction and have been putting this into practice over the last few years. I'll have to see where I can trim down to 2.5 oz of meat a day.
Great article.
It's time to get the corporatis