[Vision2020] Global Warming, etc.

Mon Mar 12 15:28:05 PDT 2007

Roger,
Your vegetarian daughter seems like a very smart person. Like her,  
I'm willing to pay a little extra for organic food; I see it as an  
investment in my health and the planet's. Plus it's relatively cheap  
considering I don't buy meat or cheese and avoid overly processed &  
packaged foods which tend to be pricier. Anyway, props to your  
daughter for her compassionate and wise food choices. :)

Nutritional yeast is a vegan source of Vitamin B12. Hemp seeds & flax  
seeds are excellent sources of all the essential amino acids,  
including Omega 3 & 6. Many products such as cereals and fortified  
soy or rice milk also contain B12 and other essential nutrients. Iron  
is another one some vegans have difficulty obtaining, but considering  
it can be found in many green leafy vegetables (which are pretty much  
the healthiest things on the planet), they must be what I call "junk  
food vegans." :) There are plant sources of every nutrient necessary  
for human health, and meat is definitely not necessary for a healthy  
diet (just the opposite, actually - it is acidic and full of fat and  
cholesterol). And alas, there is no cholesterol in a vegan diet so  
the risk of America's #1 killer, heart disease, is greatly  
diminished. It also reduces the risk of cancers such as colon cancer,  
which is very closely linked to meat consumption. Lots of research  
has been done on this subject, I doubt it's very well publicized  
since the meat/dairy/egg industries have huge lobbies and will do  
just about anything to keep   the truth about their products hidden.

As for PETA, I really don't even want to get into a debate about it,  
as I believe I have brought it up before. But, for the record, PETA  
does not use illegal methods in promoting animal rights, they do not  
condone terrorism, violence, or destruction of property at all and  
have never used these methods in their campaigns. I think there is a  
lot of misinformation floating around and a lot of confusion with  
other groups in the animal rights movement, but I can assure you that  
PETA does not do anything illegal in its campaigns. They were  
actually recently audited and investigated by the FBI (along with  
Greenpeace, ACLU, and many other "leftist" organizations the gov't  
was suspicious of for some reason) and the FBI found nothing linking  
them to terrorism or illegal acts of any kind, and no citations were  
made. I know many people disagree with PETA and their often bold  
tactics, but they are not illegal and they are certainly not  
advocates of terrorism. Perhaps you are confusing PETA with ALF?  
There is no connection between the two groups other than both are  
interested in helping animals. Hope this has cleared up any confusion...

Anyway, let's lay the issue to rest, shall we? Everyone has a choice  
and can eat whatever they wish, that's fine by me. I just like to  
share my experience and I think everyone should have the right to  
know where their food is coming from. :)

peace,
~Megan

On Mar 12, 2007, at 3:00 PM, vision2020-request at moscow.com wrote:

> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:49:17 -0700
> From: lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Global Warming, etc.
> To: "Megan Prusynski" <megan at meganpru.com>, vision2020 at moscow.com
> Message-ID: <3742934c33b4c56b7b30ba43992745d5 at turbonet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Magan
> I advocate a diet high in fruits and vegetables. There is a  
> considerable scientific evidence that this is desirable. It is also  
> desirable that some meet products be consumed for a balanced diet.  
> An all meat diet such as the Atkins diet is not good over the long  
> haul. It is difficult although not imposable to get adequate,  
> Vitamin B12, Omega 3 Fatty acids and CLA strictly from plant  
> sources.  My youngest daughter is a vegetarian except for eggs and  
> buys the high priced organic products, even though there are a lot  
> of cheaper non- organic products that are just as good. My other  
> two kids. do not follow that line. I guess two out of three isn't  
> bad. As for PETA what they have to say is not valid and their  
> tactics are unethical. They along with The Earth Liberation Front  
> should be classified as terrorist organizations.
>
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: Megan Prusynski megan at meganpru.com
> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:22:08 -0700
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Global Warming, etc.
>
>> Doug,
>> I'm happy to hear that you are making an effort to eat less meat.
>> Your health will thank you, as well as the planet.
>>
>> As for your questions, is that the best you could come up with? LOL!
>> What will we do with all the cattle? Well, I'm not sure the entire
>> planet will be giving up their meat addition just yet (although one
>> would hope that in light of the overwhelming evidence that it's
>> slowly killing us, everyone would switch to a plant-based diet). I
>> think we can adjust over time and as the demand for meat goes down,
>> the number of livestock bred and raised in factory farms will go down
>> accordingly. In the meantime, I believe that livestock species can be
>> protected and saved in sanctuaries such as the Farm Sanctuary. I
>> doubt that we will completely eradicate our use of livestock, but
>> reducing their number over time by, perhaps, not artificially
>> inseminating milk cows to keep them pregnant and producing milk all
>> the time and raising their babies for veal... and of course, just
>> breeding animals less, will help reduce the greenhouse gases they
>> produce. We can then use more farmland for growing plants that will
>> feed humans directly, instead of the majority of our farmland (and
>> our imports) going to feed cattle at a huge expense of land, water,
>> and resources.
>>
>> I'm not trying to say that eradicating meat production is our only
>> choice, nor is it really possible at this point, but we could start
>> by reducing our intake of meat so that the demand goes down. It's the
>> intensive industrial farming methods that we use that are hazardous
>> to the environment, much more so than farmers in Asia using oxen
>> instead of tractors. Maybe we could go back to organic farming (and
>> more plants grown for food, less for livestock feed) on a large scale
>> and rid ourselves of factory farms, which are one of the largest
>> polluters in this country.
>>
>> As for the cabbage, I'm not aware of the greenhouse gases produced by
>> cabbage. And I don't see how cabbage production would increase, there
>> are many many many more edible plants out there.
>>
>> Ants... well, I don't think they produce many greenhouse gases
>> compared to livestock or humans. And they've been around for quite
>> some time with little detrimental effect on the planet. They tend to
>> live in harmony with their ecosystems, maybe we could learn something
>> from them (well, maybe not all species).
>>
>> If you have scientific information on the impacts of cabbage and ants
>> on the atmosphere, please, do share. :)
>>
>> peace & veggies!
>> ~megan
>>
>> On Mar 12, 2007, at 12:00 PM, vision2020-request at moscow.com wrote:
>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:50:36 -0400
>>> From: heirdoug at netscape.net
>>> Subject: [Vision2020]  Ed the Viking, Greenland, and Global Warming
>>> To: vision2020 at moscow.com, megan at meganpru.com
>>> Message-ID: <8C932D54FAFF4B1-AE4-143A at webmail-de02.sysops.aol.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>>>
>>> Megan,
>>>
>>> I'm with you too much meat is not a good thing. I only eat 15 to 20%
>>> meat now. What do we do with all of the cattle and monkeys that are
>>> worshiped in India? What do we do with all of oxen that are used to
>>> farm the land in Asia? Should we replace them with tractors?
>>>
>>> Let's say that we all turn to eating plants. What would be the
>>> increase
>>> in our production of green house gas from all of the cabbage?
>>>
>>> What about the ant population? Don't those little critters produce a
>>> lot a methane?
>>>
>>> Please feel free to answer these questions.
>>>
>>> Doug!
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> --
>>> ---
>>> -------
>>>
>>> This is just a guess (since I'm not Nick), but perhaps the  
>>> statistics
>>> on livestock contributing more to global warming than all
>>> transportation combined came from this UN's Food and Agriculture
>>> Organization report: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/ 
>>> 2006/1000448/
>>> index.html
>>>
>>> Here's a quote from the above article:
>>> "Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or
>>> driving cars?
>>>
>>> Surprise!
>>>
>>> According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and
>>> Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more
>>> greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent - 18  
>>> percent -
>>> than transport. It is also a major source of land and water
>>> degradation."
>>>
>>> Looks like going vegetarian has more positive impact on global
>>> warming than getting a hybrid. :) PETA has written a letter to Al
>>> Gore asking if he'd consider going veg (and offering to make him  
>>> some
>>> fine vegan cookin') in order to reduce his impact on global warming
>>> and set an example. We'll see if he responds. Here's the article on
>>> that from PETA's blog: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2007/03/
>>> clearing_a_few.php
>>>
>>> If anyone needs vegetarian recipes or tips, I have plenty to  
>>> share. ;)
>>>
>>> peace,
>>> ~Megan
>>
>>
>>

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