By Jack Miller, PA Chapter Food and Agricultural Team
By what measure do you call someone an environmentalist? While we probably all have our own measure, we can all agree that there are many actions we all can take to reduce our individual environmental impact. There is no exact standard to measure whether or not you are or aren’t an environmentalist. We all live with a degree of hypocrisy. Sami Grover's book We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now makes this point. It is almost impossible to accomplish all the actions one could take to become a perfect environmentalist, whatever that means. Even though I try to ride my bike whenever I shop in town, it is not infrequent that I drive a car. It is a high mileage hybrid, but does that make me a hypocrite if I call myself an environmentalist?
There seems to be an almost endless list of things one can do to decrease one’s negative impact on the biosphere. Just consider food. You can be a locavore, buy organic, grow an organic garden, and avoid plastic packaging, but there is one dietary practice that one can follow which may be the single most important step we can take to protect the environment. Don’t eat anything that has a face or a mother. Go vegan.
There are several reasons I practice eating a whole food, plant based diet (WFPB). It is the healthiest diet, animals don’t have to suffer to feed me, and animal agriculture is one of the most environmentally destructive undertakings humans conduct. The UN estimates that 16% of all greenhouse gas production comes from Animal Agriculture. It is the number one cause of water pollution in our country. Think of all the manure being produced and all the pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and topsoil that runs off more than half the fields that grow crops in this country. It is the number one cause of deforestation. Something like 90% of loss in the Amazon is used to graze cattle or grow food for animals. There is much more that can be said, but this should be enough to start moving away from meat, dairy, and eggs.
While Big Carbon wants to emphasize and focus on individual actions, the overwhelming fact remains that we as individuals live within a human environment and structure over which we have very limited control. I would like to use only cleanly produced electrons. Where we previously lived I could access a clean energy supplier, but where I currently live it can’t be done. My choice of action has been limited. The “system” prevents me from being a better environmentalist.
But with the foods I can choose to eat, I am not limited by the food system. I can choose to ignore all the lies, deceptions, and half-truths pushed at me by the food industry. I can learn that all the dietary information telling us that we need animal protein to be healthy is simply false. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of all the nutrients we need, including protein and calcium.
While I would urge you to move all the way to the vegan side of the road, every step you can make is a step in the right direction. If meatless Mondays are a good idea, why not more days that grow even to seven days? Maybe follow the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson: use meat only as a condiment in any meals you choose to eat meat. Maybe start by eliminating beef first as I did and then move to pork taking one step at a time.
You must decide what degree of hypocrisy you are comfortable with. As Michael Mann emphasized in his recent book The New Climate Wars, we must not make judgements which make the less than perfect the enemy of the good. While I believe that moving away from the consumption of animal products and moving to a WFPB is maybe the single best thing we can do for ourselves and the living world, I must not be critical of those who will not take this step. I guess the best advice is to judge not least you be judged.
This blog was included as part of the March 2022 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!