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A Vegetarian Diet is WORSE for the Environment Than A Meat-Eating Diet

Devin Ellsworth — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 17:54:29 +0000

In case you missed the headlines yesterday there was some big news about vegetarian diets floating around the internet. New research has just shown that believe it or not a vegetarian diet is actually WORSE for the environment than a meat-eating diet!

This new study flies in the face of conventional wisdom and an entire body of research showing that vegetarian and vegan diets are significantly better for the environment. But everyone loves a contrary point of view, especially when it gives us good news about our bad habits!

See, it’s been a rough go for bacon recently. The World Health Organization recently declared that bacon and other processed meats cause cancer. And meat in general has come under fire as a top contributor to climate change.

So meat eaters were rejoicing at yesterday’s headlines, including that lettuce was three times worse for the environment than bacon!

So, how true is this claim and others that a vegetarian diet is actually worse for the environment than a meat-eating diet? What did the researchers actually find?

SOURCES:
http://www.vegan.com/debunking-claims-that-lettuce-is-3-times-worse-than-bacon/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vegetarian-bad-for-environment-debunked_567072d7e4b0e292150f95a4
http://www.cowspiracy.com/infographic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayGJ1YSfDXs

Meat Eating Climate: THE USDA CAVES TO THE MEAT INDUSTRY

Devin Ellsworth — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 16:34:43 +0000

In February of this year, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group of the nation’s top experts on health and nutrition, issued their 571-page report detailing the latest in scientific research as it pertains to diet and health. The advisory committee are the experts that advise the policy. They themselves do not write the policy, that is of course reserved for the government. In this case, the USDA.

Among the report was a particularly shocking line to me, one that gave me great hope. It read:

Current evidence shows that the average U.S. diet has a larger environmental impact in terms of increased greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and energy use. This is because the current U.S. population intake of animal-based foods is higher and plant-based foods are lower.

The experts recommended that the USDA consider sustainability when making its recommendations on health and nutrition, and with that in mind, to recommend people favor a more plant-based diet and eat less meat dairy and eggs.

Well on Tuesday the government said “no thanks.”

SOURCES:
News Story from Tuesday: http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-cave-remove-sustainability-from-dietary-guidelines/
AND: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Feds-won-t-address-beef-s-environmental-toll-6554657.php#photo-8528760
AND: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/06/new_nutritional_guidelines_will_ignore_the_climate_obama_administration.html
Environmental Facts: http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/
Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report: http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/

Why It Matters Where You Buy Your Food (Eat Local!)

Devin Ellsworth — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 15:05:35 +0000

In my last post I talked about the reality of the seafood industry, and the ultimate conclusion that There Is No Such Thing As Sustainable Seafood. After reading the post, a reader commented that it seemed as though no food was safe from the ill fate of a damning article.

It is true that if you follow health and wellness websites on the internet, you can find an article blasting just about every single food known to man. Some are warranted (those writing against animal products from an ecological, health, and animal rights perspective) and others, I would argue, are much more misguided (“Gluten: Cause of All Health Problems Today!”).

However the comment held a lot of truth. The reader expressed an all-too-common frustration these days that it seemed impossible to know what is safe to eat anymore! You hear great things about seafood for your health, so to hear about the environmental catastrophe that it causes is disheartening!

Is no food safe?

While any food that has its origins in the industrial food system likely has at least one blemish on its record, there are places to start and rules to follow for safe, clean, healthy eating. So in the interest of a more positive discussion this week, let’s talk about foods you can (and should!) eat with pride.

Garden Fresh

By a mile, the safest foods you can possibly eat are foods you’ve grown yourself, in your own backyard. In no other setting can you have the level of control that you do in your own backyard. Don’t like supporting foods grown with pesticides and artificial fertilizers? Don’t buy them or spray your plants!

Don’t want to exploit animals? Grow fruits and vegetables without the help of horses to till your garden!

Don’t want to exploit migrant farmworkers? Pick your own produce!

Yes, the least controversial place on planet Earth to eat from is your own garden. If you have any — and I mean ANY — space on which you could place a garden, do so. (If you don’t check out public gardens in your area and apply for a plot!).

Growing your own food is close to printing money, and it will be the freshest, best tasting, and possibly most nutritious food you’ll ever eat!

Eat Local!

The next least controversial (and most safe) location to purchase food is from a local farm. There are two main ways to do this: farmers markets and joining a CSA (community supported agriculture).

Chances are you have been to a farmers market in your life so I won’t go into too much detail. The benefit here is you can select the items you want and talk to the actual people who grew them. The food is fresher, in season, and generally more nutritious. Most farmers markets are organic (though not all!). You can always ask the farmer how the food was grown.

A CSA may be less familiar to you. In this model, you pledge a certain amount of money to a farm (along with other members) at the beginning of the growing season, usually in early Spring. The farmer uses this money to purchase the items necessary to grow food, and every week during the growing season, you pick up a box overflowing with whatever is ripe!

The positives here are for the farmer. You support the farm no matter what happens (if tragedy strikes and crops are ruined, they already have your money). This also means you may get surprises — things you didn’t plan on and don’t even know what they are! For some this is the big drawback — no choice. But for others it can be a truly rewarding culinary adventure! Just how do you prepare kohlrabi…

Finally, most pickup locations are at farmers markets or community centers, so it is a nice way to connect not only with the farmers that grew your food but the fellow consumers who are supporting your farm!

The Grocery Store: Part 1

Beyond growing your own food or supporting farmers nearby that do, your next option is to venture into the supermarket. This option is decidedly varied, running the gamut from an organic food coop to your local chain or big box store.

I won’t go into detail on the difference between these stores, but merely will point out that the safest products in the grocery store are whole plant foods — this means the fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds.

These items are the least processed, which means the least chance for contamination. They are also the least controversial, since they generally don’t exploit animals to reach your store. There are still issues of pesticides on conventional produce and migrant farmworkers rights to muddy the waters, but without a doubt these products are still safer than the alternative. Which leads me to…

The Grocery Store: Part 2

The least safe items for purchase are processed foods and animal products. These are the most likely to support some for of exploitation, be that of the animal or the farmworker. They are without question the most likely to be detrimental to your health. And their ecological footprint is embarrassing at best.

Steer clear of these foods if you want to avoid the shame of supporting a dirty industry!

Restaurants and Fast Food

I’ll just quickly mention these final two eating options, as they are more and more increasing in popularity. As restaurants are businesses, and businesses exist to maximize the bottom line, chances are really good that the ingredients being used in these establishments were the cheapest source, meaning the lowest quality. This is by no means true across the board, and if you can find a farm to table restaurant that sources local organic foods, go for it.

But most restaurants will choose the cheapest ingredients possible, meaning red label seafood, factory farmed animals and animal products, and conventional produce. You are most likely to consume the least healthy meals in these settings, adding to the reasons to avoid them. Not to mention the added cost.

I am not saying you can’t ever eat out, I am merely saying that on the food safety continuum, these places rank low.

So there you have it

From your own garden to farmers markets and CSAs, all the way down to your local McDonald’s, where you buy your food matters. If you want to avoid animal suffering, worker exploitation, health detriments, and ecological catastrophes, eat as much as you can from the first two categories. Then supplement whatever is left with whole plant foods from the grocery store!

Happy (safe) eating!

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There Is No Such Thing As Sustainable Seafood

Devin Ellsworth — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 15:05:24 +0000

I’ll admit it. I will come clean. For years as a vegetarian, I still ate seafood. I was one of those people.

It was actually kind of amazing how many people fished for that when I told them I was vegetarian (see what I did there).

I’d say, “Oh no thanks, I’m a vegetarian,” to which they’d reply, “Oh ok, you still eat fish right?”

Of course I’d fess up. My best answer was “I still eat seafood from time to time, but it’s only like once a month.” And that was the honest truth. But I was still eating it!

It’s funny how many “vegetarians” there are that still eat fish and other seafood. For some reason we don’t seem to count it as “meat,” and I think it might have something to do with the fact that it is the only animal we eat on a large scale that is actually captured in the wild.

Everyone knows animal agriculture is terrible.

But we give a free pass to fish because, hey, they got to live their natural life.

Unfortunately, this “natural life” in the oceans is incredibly compromised. We are taking out more fish and other seafood than is naturally regenerated by the ecosystem. This is, by definition, unsustainable.

It’d be like if you made $2,000 a month and had some savings, then rented an apartment for $2,500 a month. That is unsustainable. You don’t even have to like math to know that eventually you will run out of money.

If we don’t drastically reduce our seafood consumption worldwide, we will run out of fish.

I know that’s hard to fathom, but scientists now actually have a date for when this will happen at our current rate of extraction (about 2050). By this year, there will be no viable populations of consumable sea life left.

Just Choose Sustainably Caught?

I used to justify my seafood consumption by “only choosing seafood from sustainably managed fisheries.” It’s true — you can download an app that tells you which types of seafood are “sustainable” and which are not.

Yet this always felt inauthentic to me as well. In our same money scenario, that would be like if someone challenged you on your finances and you pointed out that you make your cell phone payment every month of $100. Sure there is an area of your finances that are under control, but if the whole system is unsustainable, then you making your cell phone payment actually doesn’t mean much. The system will still collapse in time.

Just like 2050 for seafood.

Not Convinced?

Let’s look at some facts:

For every 10 top predators in the ocean alive 55 years ago (sharks, tuna, swordfish), just 1 remains today. We’ve wiped out 90%!
300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises die every year entangled in fishing nets!
Sharks kill 12 people per year; humans kill 11,417 sharks per hour.
Sea turtles and albatross species are endangered in large part due to fishing operations
For every 1 lb of shrimp caught, 26 lbs of bycatch is thrown overboard
Farmed shrimp is likely worse. Mangrove forests are destroyed for the farms, which are farmed to depletion in 2-3 years, and what is left behind is an uninhabitable cesspool
The U.S. fishing industry alone kills 6 billion animals a year (SOURCE)
Farmed fish are not a better choice; the waste they produce stifles local rivers and watersheds. They are fed unnatural diets that include ground up fish, corn, and chicken feces, and crammed in tiny tanks where disease rates are high. Farmed salmon are grey and have to be dyed pink and a fishy smell is added. Nutritionally they are inferior and even more contaminated
Seafood bioaccumulates environmental toxins, not just mercury, but PCB’s, dioxins, arsenic, xenoestrogens, toxic waste, and many more (SOURCE). Our oceans are incredibly dirty and these pollutants make their way into the flesh of the fish we eat.
The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 90% of ALL fish have already been fished out. This is not a sustainable system. (For more information, check out this INFOGRAPHIC)

But what about omega-3s?

Ah the last vestige of hope for seafood. “But we need to eat it for the omega-3s!”

Plant foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds all contain ALA — an omega-3 fatty acid which your body uses and converts into the other two omega-3 fatty acids — DHA and EPA. Consume these foods daily and you will have no worries whatsoever. Similarly, whole vegetables have omega-3s, and leafy greens are a great example.

Getting enough omega-3 on a plant-based diet is not an issue. If you are still concerned however, you can use an algae-based DHA/EPA supplement that is safer than fish oil as equally effective (SOURCE). The fish don’t actually make omega-3s themselves anyway — they get it from algae! Just cut out the middle man and take an algal supplement instead!

I no longer consume seafood of any kind because I believe there is no such thing as sustainable seafood.