NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina

Recently, my columns have focussed on a new phenomenon: the recognition by scientists and the public that people’s dietary choices have an immense impact on global warming and the environment. In other words, not only eliminating unnecessary big ticket spending, but replacing our cars with co-op vehicles and bicycles plus switching to transit, will impact Earth’s future generations. (www.cooperativeauto.net)
We can also make a huge climate change difference at our next meal.
European environmentalists observe that people generally, and openly, display an extreme reluctance to change their eating habits. We may be willing to donate a few dollars to an environmental group. But change to a plant-based diet? Sorry. Although we’d cut our risk of colon cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and reduce our weight and favourably affect global warming, when it comes to changing our menus, our eyes glaze over and we quickly change the subject.
Yet, a shift in our eating habits could play an immense role in the arrest and reversal of major environmental problems. Considering the impact of a single food, environmentalists recognize that the production of beef has the greatest negative impact upon the environment. Cheese, fish and milk are other high-impact foods.
Huge quantities of animal waste damage the ecosystem and contribute heavily to global warming. (Nutrispeak, January 2007). The community of Walkerton, Ontario is a tragic example of what can go wrong. In 2000, seven residents died as a result of drinking water contaminated with E. coli, eventually linked to manure from a dairy farm. And many cases of gastroenteritis, hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure have occurred among children who live near “feedlot alley,” an area northwest of Lethbridge, Alberta, accommodating more than one million head of beef cattle, which contaminate the environment with massive quantities of manure and CO2.
Globally, poorer countries’ resources are exploited for animal husbandry. Each year 66,000 square miles of rainforest, the lungs of our planet, are destroyed and the trend is increasing. Although not all of this land is cleared to rear cattle, most is. In the Amazon, 88 percent of the cleared rainforest is, or was, used for grazing for a short time. Unfortunately, the situation becomes sadder as the land in the Amazon, as in other tropical rainforests, has little or no soil; after a year or two as pasture, it quickly reverts to growing useless poison scrub. In Costa Rica and Panama, about 70 percent of the land is being cleared in this same manner.
As “food production machines,” livestock are extremely polluting and inefficient. When plant foods are transformed into animal products, most of the proteins and calories are wasted and used for the animals’ metabolic processes, bones, offal, bones and manure, thereby creating environmental problems.
A great deal of energy is employed to produce and transport animal feed and to maintain facilities for animal husbandry. Considering fossil fuel consumption alone, the production of one calorie from beef requires 40 calories of fuel; one calorie from milk needs 14 fuel-calories, and one calorie from grains can be obtained using 2.2 calories of fossil fuels.
Water consumption represents almost half of the overall environmental impact. Between them, animal farms and agriculture are responsible for 70 percent of freshwater consumption on the planet. Immense volumes of water are used for irrigating feed crops, quenching cattle’s thirst and cleaning stables, milking halls and slaughterhouses. Industry uses an additional 22 percent of the world’s water and only eight percent is used for domestic purposes.
During World Water Week in Stockholm in 2004, international water resource specialists linked water shortages with people’s eating habits, explaining that the planet’s freshwater reserves will no longer be sufficient to feed our descendants the present western diet. They noted: “Cattle feed on grains; (and) even those which are left to graze need much more water than is necessary to grow cereals.” For now, rich countries will be able to buy their way out of the dilemma by importing “virtual water” in the form of cattle feed or meat from water-poor countries.
Vegetarian and/or vegan eating can play an important role in preserving our planet’s resources, even if one only opts for those choices occasionally. Want to do your bit? My April column will help you introduce plant-based foods into your diet in a way that ensures a delicious, simple transition.

Vesanto Melina is a registered dietitian and consultant who lives in Langley, BC. She is co-author of seven food and nutrition classics, including Becoming Vegetarian, Becoming Vegan and Raising Vegetarian Children.
www.nutrispeak.com
vesanto@nutrispeak.com
604-882-6782