Why Paul McCartney Wants Me to Eat My Veggies

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.

Comments

[belladawna]

laurie, for your research to an organic meat life here are 5 web links for you to consider:
http://www.mad-cow-facts.com/
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse/index.html
http://www.drday.com/madcow.htm
http://www.the-natural-path.com/organic-meat.html
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/hormones/

hope this tidies you over....

[belladawna]

laurie, for your research to an organic meat life here are 5 web links for you to consider:
http://www.mad-cow-facts.com/
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse/index.html
http://www.drday.com/madcow.htm
http://www.the-natural-path.com/organic-meat.html
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/hormones/

hope this tidies you over until that dinner with paul or someone else....

[enveg01]

Laurie - Thank you for shedding a light on this very important issue. It's really disheartening that so many people profess to be environmentalists yet never discuss the number one cause of global warming: animal agriculture. It's like speaking about lung cancer and never mentioning cigarettes!

Unfortunately, I've read a lot of people's comments on here putting down vegetarians/vegans. To those people I'd like to say grow up. Stop hating on others for trying to make a positive change in this world.

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 environment. The fact is if you're vegetarian/vegan you're doing a hell of a lot to make a difference and should feel wonderful about it. The University of Chicago released a study last year that said a vegan in a Hummer leaves less of a carbon footprint than a meat-eater in a Prius.

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.

[rrrina]

Kudos to Laurie David for her excellent piece on Paul McCartney and his environmental activism.
Lionel Friedberg, in conjunctions with Jewish Vegetarians of North America, has just released an extraordinary film entitled A Sacred Duty. It discusses the connection between animal agriculture and global warming and can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9RxmTGHZgE .
A synopsis of the film can be found at http://www.asacredduty.com/

Rina Deych, RN

[Guitarsandmore]

You can become a meat reducer by using more vegtables in your home made chicken soup and less meat.

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 Springwater 6 - 8 bottles.

Get the loose carots not the packaged ones.

cook for 2 - 3 hours.

[JonathanDS]

When one speaks of getting the public to dramatically alter their diet, one is speaking of a movement that would take a, well, a Paul McCartney to spark. Okay, but even then I don't see it really happening. I see a lot more feelings of guilt, leading to a lot less singleminded resolve against corporations and government to expedite changes to cars and other things, owing to feelings of shared guilt regarding addressing global warming. We're not taking our eyes off the ball - we just can't go vegetarian.

Perhaps the realistic answer really is a day of the week for vegetarian diets, as was suggested. Asking the impossible, though it may seem physically possible, is just plain counter-productive.

[belladawna]

laurie i hope that if you choose to alter your eating habits then i hope you consider some organic meats. copy/paste link:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/poop080702.cfm
this can be a simple alternative until you have that dinner with paul or someone whom can change that mind of yours!

i just finished a book on the horrible things that do happen to animals that have died due to "e-coli/mad cow disease" and these farmers take their dead animals and grind them up into pellets and then feed them right back to their "healthy" animals! it's a vicious cycle that needs to stop.
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.msnbc.msn.com/id/22397321/
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/healthy foods!

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!

[buffalo soldier]

Laurie:

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 inconvenient truth for an activist to recognize that making a personal sacrifice that might be "weird" and "uncool" could help the cause.

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 responsible, ethical vegans as weirdos who you do not want to be associated with. Your website has certainly never ackowledged this or responded to any of my inquiries on this issue.

[Sumocat]

Paul is wrong - vegetarians are weirdos. Normal people (in the U.S.) eat hamburgers, fried chicken and pepperoni pizza. That's normal. Not eating that stuff is weird. On the other hand, mindless normalcy is what's ruining the environment.

[RadioResearch]

I find all of this vegan vs carnivore nonsense to be just that - non-sense. Remember, we share our DNA with cabbages also. Personally, I belong to PETPV, people for the ethical treatment of plants and vegetables. They are after all, sentient beings as well.
Furthermore, an archeological survey of deforestation for the past 8,000 years shows that it is not grazing, but plant agriculture that has led to global warming. When Lewis and Clark crossed the plains they encounterd thousands, perhaps millions, of bison along the way. While it is true that animals produce more CO2 than automobiles it is also true that a great deal of carbon sinking vegetation has been destroyed in the name of housing, urban sprawl, and agriculture. Paul should give up his big houses and big money and go back to a hunting and gathering environment. Likewise, he could buy as much open land as possible and plant trees. Think of all of the carbon we could sink if we merely planted trees in the medians of our intersate highways (another source of deforestation.)
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 consequences of his own dietary choices or those that may affect others. I have an extraordinary number of allergies to fruits and vegetables which have their own chemical defenses to protect themselves from being eaten and have nearly died an a number of occasions from these defenses. If it were not for a meat and fish diet I would not have survived to the age of 61. Apparently Paul would rather that I died for his ethics. Moreover, he does not address the issue of pets. Keeping a pet is not only wasteful to the environment but is a form of slavery, i.e., it is the keeping of an animal against its natural will for the personal pleasure of a human and is no differnt than raising animals for food in confinement conditions - perhaps worse.

[yossarrian]

As a chef for years I have found that the human body is an amazing machine. The biggest mistake people make is overeating.
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. Furthermore non-hydrogenized saturated fats (animal, coconut, palm) are good. Poly-unsaturated fats (vegetable, seeds, corn, soy, rape-seed, etc. are unhealthy.
Unfermented soy products are unhealthy, avoid them.
Eat more fish and take fish oil (omega 3) supplements.
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 tremendously in digestion. The enzymes die at about 115 degrees.

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 unsaturated fats, and lo-fat diets. Both unhealthy dietary regimens.

If you follow the USDA food pyramid as a lifestyle, you will become ill and die.

[cindysundancer]

I hate to be a gloomy Gus--
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!

[nammy50]

Having worked as a young man in what was then called the meat industry I can tell you its not a pretty business. Slaughter houses were nicknamed "fly houses". Guess why.

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.

[BobKincaid]

It's not the meat. It's how we make the meat.

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 antibiotics to keep 'em from dying before we can kill 'em.

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!

[girlwild]

Bush has a perfect opportunity to get the nation behind lower consumption via rationing, victory gardens, and recycling. But he squandered this opportunity and in fact it was downright perverse when he encouraged us all to vacation! buy more now! buy that SUV! etc. It was a pretty disgusting performance.

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 "suggestions" after oil is around $100 a barrel.

The latest from the FDA is the approval of cloned animals and their offspring for human consumption. I want to see very explicit labeling so I can avoid those products.

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 corporatists out of office, from both parties.