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| Courtesy: gentleworld.org |
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to listen to Dr. Richard
Oppenlander at a lecture arranged by Vegetarian Society of Hawaii. Dr. Richard
Oppenlander is a sustainability
consultant, researcher, and author whose award winning first book Comfortably Unaware,is
endorsed as a must read by Ellen DeGeneres and Dr. Jane Goodall, among others. Dr.
Oppenlander's most recent book titled Food Choice and Sustainability has won
numerous awards including the 2014 International Book Award and the 2014 Green
Book Festival
Award and is being used by think tanks and strategists for developing
initiatives to advance global change. Dr. Op-penlander is a much sought after
international lecturer on the topic of food choice and how it relates to sustainability,
speaking most recently to the European Parliament, and served as the lead
consultant for two full -length environ-mental documentary films.
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| Dr Oppenlander recent book |
Since 1976, he has extensively studied the effect our food
choices have on our health and the immense impact those choices have on our
environment. Sustainability of food is a term which is confusing to many people;
a truly sustainable food system is one which nurtures the people, the
animals, the land, the community and the environment. The food choices we make have an immense
influence on our health and also the planet we live in.
While carbon emission due to automobile and aviation industry
has been blamed as a major cause of Global warning, Oppenlander reveals that
“Our current food choices detrimentally affect climate change and global
warming more so than do all the cars, planes, trucks, buses, and trains used
worldwide.”
He further opines that we should not be only worried about “Global
warming “but we should be more worried about “Global depletion”, but “Global Depletion”
is much less known. As vast as Global Warming may seem, it is only a small
piece in the growing puzzle of Global Depletion, which refers to the loss of
all of Earth’s renewable and non-renewable resources.
It is not our lights being left on or our fans running
(although they contribute) that are destroying our planet; it is our eating
habits. And it is not turning off the lights or air conditioning that will save
the Earth; it is the shift to a plant based diet.
The animal industry is simultaneously depleting our natural
resources of land, water, air, diversity, soil and our health. According to him “Of the four leading causes of death
and disease in the U.S. today, animal products and animal protein are
implicated in all four—coronary heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease,
and diabetes, as well as their precursors, hypertension and obesity.
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| from the book" Food choice and Sustainability". |
Eating
only plant-based foods prevents and reverses these diseases, as well as
lowering one’s risk of contracting numerous other conditions, such as kidney
stones and gallstones, kidney disease, osteoporosis, Crohn’s disease,
Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis, and many
other degenerative diseases, gastrointestinal conditions, and asthma. Of the
five most common cancers—lung, colon, breast, pancreatic, and
prostate—consuming animal products has been linked as a significant risk factor
in all five, as well as many more. I need to emphasize that this is about
animal products and the type of protein, which does not change if the animal is
grass fed."
More than $3 trillion dollars were spent on health care in
2012 ($2.83 trillion in 2009, growing at 6 percent per year) in the U.S.
Of that, minimally $130 billion dollars spent were due to
dietary choices related to livestock. I believe this figure is quite
conservative and could be as high as $350 billion due to eating animals,
because this is how some of the $3 trillion was spent:
$300 billion—heart disease
$200 billion—diabetes
$190 billion—obesity
$124 billion—cancer
$88 billion—food-borne illness
$200 billion—diabetes
$190 billion—obesity
$124 billion—cancer
$88 billion—food-borne illness
These figures are truly staggering and are for just one
single year. They also do not reflect loss of productivity. For obesity alone,
it is estimated that the annual cost of the workdays missed is $30 billion,
with employers losing, on average, $3,800 per year for a single obese person.
“Fifty-five percent of our fresh water is being given to
livestock… Over 70 percent of the grain in the United States is fed to livestock…
It takes 10 to 20 gallons of water to produce one pound of vegetables, fruit,
soybeans, or grain… over 5000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat…
over 30 percent of all usable total land mass on the earth is used by
livestock.”
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| Dr. Oppenlander first book. |
Here are some horrifying facts on fresh water usage
from Comfortably Unaware’s Dr. Richard Oppenlander:
—>50% of all the water used in the U.S. is given to the animals people eat.
—>70 billion animals are raised and killed each year for food. A few billion of these animals need up to 40 or more gallons of water per day…which is over 100 times what we, individually, consume daily.
—>The average water footprint per calorie of beef is TWENTY times larger than for grains.
—>Legumes (or “pulses”: lentils, beans, peas) require FORTY-FIVE times less water to produce versus beef and they are excellent sources of protein.
—>To produce 1 pound of meat, it takes:
1,800-2,500 gallons of water per pound of beef
731 gallons per pound of sheep
127 gallons per pound of goat
468 gallons per pound of chicken
880 gallons per gallon of milk
60-120 gallons to produce 1 egg
11.6 gallons to slaughter and process 1 chicken
The image below is from Farmscape and the data is from 2010, but the ratios of comparison say it all.
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| http://farmscapegardens.com/blog/food-production-and-water-use/ |
It is estimated that eating purely plant-based foods
provides the following protective benefits, as compared to individuals eating
the average amount of meat:
• 50 percent less risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)
• 40 percent less risk of cancer (breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic, lung)
• 70 percent less likelihood of adult onset diabetes
• 50 percent less likelihood of developing hypertension
• 40 percent less risk of cancer (breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic, lung)
• 70 percent less likelihood of adult onset diabetes
• 50 percent less likelihood of developing hypertension
As an example of what effect a purely plant-based diet would
have on health care costs, let’s look for a moment at hypertension. Worldwide,
$500 billion was spent on hypertension in 2011—twice that amount if indirect
costs are included. A 50 percent less risk factor in developing hypertension,
simply by a change in food choice (elimination of all animal products from the
diet), would save billions of dollars as well as improving the lives of
millions.
Dr. Oppenlander’s goal with this book is to increase
awareness in order to effect positive change—before it is too late. This is a
groundbreaking book, and given the urgency and magnitude of the problem, it's a
book that anyone who cares about our future and that of other species should
read —individuals, academic institutions, businesses, organizations, and policy
makers.
This book also unveils a new model of multidimensional
sustainability for developing countries to eradicate world hunger and poverty
as it compels us all to become aware of the enormous effect of our food
choices, make necessary changes, and then, inspire others to do the same.
These are things that every person should be aware of, and
has the right to be aware of.
References:
It is very important to be disciplined in food choices and healthy life style. Thank you for sharing. This article is very informative and helpful!
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Medical Jobs Australia