What did Al Gore forget? This question is posed in the new climate movie: Meat the Truth. A climate movie, again? After Al Gore’s successful movie Án inconvenient Truth, we all claim to be well-informed about the threat of climate change. But… apparently the former US-presidential candidate silenced a big factor in the problem.
Last Thursday, the 12th of februari 2008, the Belgian premiere of Meat the Truth took place in Antwerp. More than 500 pairs of eyes attented the screening, joined by a ‘green carpet’ with plenty of environment-concious Belgian celebrities, Karen Soeters (producer of the movie) and the Dutch ‘Party for the Animals’-politician Marianne Thieme on it. The message of the evening was clear: “compared to the ecological crisis, the financial crisis is almost neglectable. Especially the livestock industry is for a huge part responsible for what happens with our planet. Because of this, our steak should appear on the political agenda. Yes, especially the European and North-American one. ( http://www.vegetarisme.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=687#persbericht )
Trailer:
Meat the Truth takes off where An Inconvenient Truth ended and shows how the meat industry worldwide spreads more green house gases than all cars, trucks, trains, boats and airplanes together! The calculations on greenhouse gas emissions used in the film derive from and have been validated by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN (FAO), the World Watch Institute, the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Free University Amsterdam and numerous other authoritative sources.
One cow in the live stock industry produces the same amount of CO2 equivalent in her life as an average Fort Fiesta! So which strategy is the most effective against climate change: replacing our steak for a vegetarian alternative or leaving the car in the garage? This debate started earlier on in the Netherlands, where the documentary Meat the Truth was first released on the 10th of December 2007. In the film, Marianne Thieme from the Dutch ‘Party for the Animals’ discusses -in typical Al Gore-style- the disadvantages of livestock farming and its dangers for the greenhouse effect.
Did Al Gore succumb to the pressure of the livestock producers? Was it his love for American Big Macs? Or did he simply ‘forget’? The reasons why Al Gore left the most prominent greenhouse polluter unmentioned, remain unclear. Nevertheless, Meat the Truth took the opportunity to bring Al Gore’s omission in the spotlights: there is no other sector that contributes so much to the emission of greenhouse gases as livestock farming. Globally, 18 percent of the greenhouse emissions find their origin in the live stock farming industry! This is more than all forms of transport added up together (responsible for 13 percent). Something to consider in our quest for an answer to the cow-or-car question… (source: http://www.ngpf.nl/downloads/astrueasabelchingcow.pdf )
Am I right in concluding that the climate policy should perhaps expect more from a reduction in meat consumption than car use? “Does that mean we should all suddenly become vegetarians?” I am sure I will receive this question several times in the comments section of this blog. So let me be clear about it:
The consumption of less meat is urged. The less we eat meat, the more global warming we can prevent. Some interesting facts from the Meat the Truth website even convinced some of my most meat-loving friends of the impact of meat:
If you know
· 1 megaton = 1 billion kilos
· 500 million EU people (according to Wikipedia there were 497.198.740 million people living in the the European Union in 2008)
· A car drives on average 20.000 km per annum (according to Central Bureau for
Statistics, in 2005 cars drove an average of 15.500 km per annum)
· Emissions from cars = 160 gram CO2 per km
· The average European eats meat each day. By not doing so, he could save the equivalent of
1400 kg CO2
· Estimated for all European people that is 700 megaton (500 million x 1400 kg)
· If we, EU-Members all ate less meat for one day a week, then it would save: 100 megaton CO2 equivalent (700 divided by 7 days)
· That is equivalent to 625 billion car kilometres ((100 billion kg x 1000 (gram)) /160 (a car emits an
average 160 gram CO2 per km))
· That is equivalent to the emissions of 31.25 million cars: 625 billion km divided by 20.000 km
In other words: Just by eating no meat 1 day a week, we can all together take the CO2 equivalent of 31,25 million cars off the European roads!!!
For mathfreaks and idealists: If all EU-citizens would become vegetarian, that would equal the C02 emissions of 218,75 million cars!
Click here for more calculations
But sometimes, even a Belgian vegan turns pessimistic. What can we do with all the facts and figures? Does knowledge equal action? How long have we known about the harmful effects of leaving our garbage unrecycled? How many more statistics do we need before we realize energy resources are not endless? How many times should we see the horrifying images of melting polar ice? Tell me, how many climate movies do we need to make a change?
When I discuss climate change with people in my community, reactions sound often apathetic. “Yes, the climate is changing. Too bad. But yeah, what can we do about it?” I wonder who other people consider responsible for the fight against climate change. Their governments, Europe, The UN? But these are only advice-givers, policy-makers, information-providers, do I see it right? The change has to come from within. Politicians and diplomats are still people, and most of the time people in cars, who expect to eat meat at their meetings and congresses. Society is a social construction and it is damn hard to change, unless all the factual knowledge.
Maybe that’s why movies like Meat the Truth touch me in a certain way. Not only because of the content (the same message you already know by now: reduce meat, reduce heat), but by the perseverance of the makers, of the idealistic people behind it. There are still people who believe a change is possible. That gives me hope.
As a politician, it seems enough to contribute with words. “We should fight climate change”, but when the final decisions are taken, some eyes are closed, some ears turn deaf for a moment. Everybody but me.
Sad facts from the European Parliament:
But… if both politicians and citizens don’t feel in power to take action… and even ‘truth’ movies loose their effectiveness who or what can help? How come we know the ways, but don’t take them.
We, Europeans, are not stupid. We realize cars make our atmosphere a mess of CO2. We know rain forests are cut down for more agricultural land. Less trees, less convertion of CO2. We know this deforested land is mostly used for grains to feed the animals we consume. We know these animals consume… sometimes even more than a human would. We know that what goes in, goes out. “The more animals, the more shit”, to say it in a rude way. And “more shit, more methan, which is a green house gas causing climate change. Climate effects of the meat-industry in a nutshell.
Maybe it’s true that everybody in the West IS informed, maybe I and other environmentalists are fighting against windmills. Maybe Europeans just don’t want to be sustainable. I just don’t want to believe that… There must be something else
I wish I knew…
I wish I knew…
* The documentary Meat the Truth is the first major project undertaken by the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation
REGIE: Gertjan Zwanikken, Karen Soeters; MET: Marianne Thieme, Anthonie Kamerling, Georgina Verbaan, Henk Schiffmacher, Yvonne Kroonenberg, Karen van Holst Pellekaan, Wim. T. Schippers en Dolf Jansen; The Netherlands; 2007; 73 MIN.; Dutch www.meatthetruth.com
(96 votes, average: 4.61 out of 5)
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Let me bring some info to Your attention once You tend to support this vegetarian film. I hope it is not a hidden PR trick for car manufacturers.
If required I might find a precise data on this that proves that being a vegetarian or a complete vegan is not right as well as You can’t make it completely without Your car.
There was this comparative research which You might interpret as a case study of being a vegetarian. This study was carried out by a trainers who works with different types of premium class sportsmen. Basically these trainers test different training programs before they are performed by real sportsman.
So they picked a trainer who had to test on him self vegetarian lifestyle. the project lasted for about three years and a person (trainer) was had partly looking forward to be come a vegetarian due to his beliefs.
As a trainers they measured different medical and physical parameters of that person. And to make it short- after three years arrived final measurements that stated that a human body can not adequately function without particular type of proteins and other chemicals that are present in meat. Metabolic disturbances begin and performing capabilities decrease.
One may choose to his/ her personal beliefs. I choose to stick to precise sport medicin facts.
And concerning Your post and the film. I agree that this might be a sensation if we look at the numbers. But I suggest that instead of putting an accent on being a vegetarian- we put an accent on how much CO/CO2 and other waste agricultural production leaves.
On one hand, we can of course not forbid people eating meat. On the other hand, though, even reducing the consumption of meat, could have a positive effect on the environment (and our health). There are billions of euros behind meat products. Many economies rely on such factories. But, if we take it seriously, the EU I guess, could start with a campaign on how to reduce the consumption of meat, outlining at the same time the advantages of such a choice.
But, nothing has been done yet towards this direction, cause there is no political will, since economic interests are too great to ignore.
Sure, maybe cutting down on the red meat and fried sausages wouldn’t do any harm to this fat fattie generation, but on the other hand we eveloved as a species due to cooked meat.
Children with a low or non-existen meat-diet develop slower and generally have lower IQ’s than well fed kids.
All the while, a vegetarian diet without at least ovo-lacto input is even more harmful to both kids and adults: so you need them polluting cows at least for the milk.
I prefer walking or riding a bike or paying one of those many, many scientists designing more interesting wheels or fancy exhaust nozzle designs fot cars to get to researching cheaper fuels and who knows, one day we might have a breakthrough.
Provided we feed them enough meat to keep their brains working.
to bogdan
a vegetarian diet can be deficient in nutrients, just like any other unbalanced diet. the risk you talk about is due to a lack of esp. iron and b12, which may also occur in people or children with other diets. generally, vegetarian parents are much better informed about nutrition than the general population.
have you considered another, perhaps great risk? it is that children who are given meat, and are thus compelled to cut of a part of their natural empathy for other living beings, turn up to be less sensitive and caring beings than they otherwise could have been?
and i wonder how nature could have arranged a scheme in which people would be dependent for their health on the mother milk of another species…? very unlikely, in my opinion.
so far for some poor reasoning from a vegetarian with underdeveloped brains
best to you
Melanie
It is just not true that a vegetarian diet is bad for your health. You want proof? Here it comes:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10479226
“Thus, the health of vegetarians in this study is generally good and compares favorably with that of the nonvegetarian control subjects. Larger studies are needed to examine rates of specific cancers and other diseases among vegetarians.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12778049
It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.
@Blogdan:Please check your facts. we didn’t developed because we cooked meat.
That is just one of the theories. One of many. Some theories think it is because we ate a lot of protein rich foods or some theories say we developed like the way we did because of eating chickpeas.
Also there is no prove that children who don’t eat meat (or have a low meat intake) have a lower IQ then who are eating more.
In my experience the most vegetarians or vegans (or people who eat less meat because of environment or animal welfare/rights) are high educated.
So presenting these things like a fact is not correct in this kind of discussions.
@Athena:
It is better if people decide to stop eating meat and other animal products, but I think that we have no option if we have to in a situation where this is maybe an only option to radically change te outcome of the global warming.
I think that forbid eating meat can be an option if needed.
@Alnis:
About the sportsmen, I think you talk about a lower intake of creatin (what is common in the sports world). Meat eaters can get more creatin out of their food and mostly they at also supplements of that. A vegetarian sportsman mostly only by supplement.
So I think that research is not complete. Also they have checked within 3 years and not in about 20 years. Who of them have a better health at that point?
Meat is a ‘fast energy’ provider, because to get those nutritients inside it you don’t have to wait for your body to have processed a lot to get those nutritients. So it is something for shortterm.
So three years is not a good research I think, because maybe at that short moment meat eaters are having more succes at that moment, but in maybe 20 years the vegetarians are still running around and the meat eaters not. So a three years research is not so interesting.
Besided that.. there are a lot of examples of vegetarian/vegan athletes who are doing very good in the competition.
Also the movie Meat The Truth is not say people must be vegetarian.. NO it says what you can do. They give you options and effects. Maybe you don’t want to stop meat, but if you go eating 2 days vegetarians you can lower your impact on environment. So the movie presents all kind of options.
@Melanie
Of course ideally any kind of diet is a balanced one, but exactly because of this you would need to consume various items in a natural way - some of the replacements for meat, some of the soy products, are so processed and enhanced with various chemicals themselves that, for reasons of health, I would not allow my child to touch any of them.
Everyone points out vegetarian parents are more informed.. but I find it just as upsetting to force your child into one type of diet without 100% certainty its the best just like forcing him into a certain religion.
As for your argument on the way eating meat affects the mentality of a child (or even a society as a whole), that is just something speculative, uninformed and particular of an urban society. I grew up in an environment where people actually grew their own animals and fed them and nurtured them, where kids were just as sensitive as any other and the ugly business of butchering a pig was simply a part of a natural cycle, which began with its birth. Respect for animale life was great, if not greater, but also understanding for it.
As for the continuation of health arguments: look, you can cut meat out of the diet, but you can’t cut milk and eggs, or derivated products. I’m not referring to children here, but for adults as well. The components on milk are simply irreplaceable by vegetables, at the same level of quality and quantity. So then what, can we chose how much we can exploit an animal? And when it dies, can we eat it then?
I fully agree we need to develop technology to replace all this. The day we manage to produce identical substances to meat/milk in the labe that don’t have horrific, cancerigenous effects, so poor Sally the Sew won’t have to squeal that way before she becomes delicious bacon, that day I will be with you, chained on the door of he animal pen preventing the butchers to take the little lambs.
But maybe by then we’d have developed new fuel and new cars as well and global warming will be a thing of the past.
@everyone: if you talk about health issues concerning meat vs vegetarian, I agree - I do not spend hours of my life gathering proof that one or the other is better. I probably am NOT as well informed as you are in what concerns chemical results of the effects of a vegetarian diet in long term. I do watch Discovery often enough to figure out there is no balance without either of two sides. Ok, maybe there might be enough scientific proof that I should lay off the bacon for a while. But give it up? Now that would be extremism.
When, for personal ethical reasons, at times arbitrary, you build up a whole system of thought that produces statements like “I think that forbid eating meat can be an option if needed.”, envelopes issues like global warming and borders on religious zeal, then you got a big problem.
For reasons or logic, logistics, realism and practicality, at the very moment, having an industry based on a meat diet at a large scale is the only possible choice.
This little vegan trend rising through Europe at the moment, with bohemian little places where one can eat a vegetarian sandwich with 2€ more than a regular one is seriously not an answer for the population at large.
The debate is great though.
@Bogdan: I am curious…why would it be extremism not to eat meat anymore? You seem to associate not eating something with extremism, and I am puzzeld as to why?
I am also puzzled by this remark:
“For reasons or logic, logistics, realism and practicality, at the very moment, having an industry based on a meat diet at a large scale is the only possible choice.”
I wonder why you state this…and I doubt that this is correct. Even if you do not wish to stop eating meat, there is ample evidence that reducing the consumption of meat would be a positive choice for the environment. To much animals are being bred to provide the large quantities of meat being produced today.
For example…these animals have to eat, and the feed that is being fed to those animals has to come from somewhere, for instance the rainforest.
This is an effect of industrial farming… if you wish to eat meat, from that perspective it would be more ethical to eat meat from less production intensive farms. It would also be better for animal welfare. You could argue that it might be more expensive, but it might be reasonable to assume that prices will drop if more ecologically sound alternatives become more ‘popular’ (this is already happening up to a point). You could also argue that less intensive practices are not sufficient to provide everyone every day the amount of meat that we consume this day and age. You migth be correct, but perhaps, we must come to the conclusion that our current consumption of meatproducts is way to high. And that eating less meat would be better.
Anyone seen the movie ‘Supersize me’? If you want a crash course in the kind of harm a meat stuffed diet can do to your body I suggest you watch it. Never saw a movie about someone wrecking his or her health by eating vegetables for a month.
Credit is due to the meat and dairy indurstry for brainwashing us into thinking we cannot live without steak and milk. Do you know that present day Americans eat 52 times more meat per year then their ancestors in the 30s? Why? Marketing, that’s why!
Do you think present day Americans (or Europeans) are more healthy as the ones who fought the second world war? Or smarter then Einstein?
Do you know what a cow drinks? Water! Milk is to grow calves from 40 kg to 350 kg in 12 months!!! No wonder being overweight is the trend in the west…
Yes, the west. Because many parts of the world don’t have a history of meat and milk addiction like we do. Try Japan, where they grew the second strongest economy of the world on rice, vegetables and fish.
Open your eyes and DO something. Don’t eat meat for one or two days a week like Veerle suggests. And when you eat meet, by quality meat and see it as a treat. Give politicians and the industry a sign that you care about the world of our children.
@bogdan who wrote:
… concerning meat vs vegetarian, I agree - I do not spend hours of my life gathering proof that one or the other is better. I probably am NOT as well informed as you … maybe there might be enough scientific proof that I should lay off the bacon for a while. But give it up? Now that would be extremism.
-> The only extremism I detect here is the depth you are willing to burry you head in the sand to deny the obvious. Educate yourself and stop the cynicism. Be grateful that there actually still are people who do think for themselves and push you out of the illusion of your comfort zone.
@bogdan who wrote:
I fully agree we need to develop technology to replace all this. The day we manage to produce identical substances to meat/milk …. I will be with you.
-> It’s not new technology that will save us. We need a change of mindset.
Thank you for your texts, Veerle. Few people like to hear the truth, and even fewer are brave enough to dare and tell the truth to the world.
Keep up the good work, there are many (and the number keeps growing) who support you.
With kind regards,
Caroline
Congrats on the win.
@everyone - read seriously what I write down before taking words such as ‘extremism’ and using them out of context.
It’s interesting though to see vegetarian conspiracy theories. I have to go tell my great-aunt about this next time she’s cooking her famous meat roll and how all her many grandchildren helping her on ocasion to feed the pigs and chickens or to slaughter them and cook them are all heartless fat and sick bastards now.
I think you are living in a porcelain world.
To Tex0711:
“Anyone seen the movie ‘Supersize me’? If you want a crash course in the kind of harm a meat stuffed diet can do to your body I suggest you watch it.”
I have watched it, but apparently you haven’t - or else you are deliberately misleading your readers. The movie is about the harm done to a body if it is kept on a diet of processed food with a lot of artificial additives. It takes great care to include statements from fast food company spokespeople saying it’s not meant to make up a person’s entire diet.
“Do you know that present day Americans eat 52 times more meat per year then their ancestors in the 30s? Why? Marketing, that’s why!”
Wrong. They eat more meat (and I would like the source for that number, by the way) because they have the opportunity to do it. Because meat is more affordable to the average American than it was in the 30s. If all it takes is advertising, why aren’t the vegetable producers advertising? You and your kind keep telling us that vegan crops take far less resources to produce - why haven’t the capitalists brainwashed consumers into veganism to boost their profits?
“Do you think present day Americans (or Europeans) are more healthy as the ones who fought the second world war? Or smarter then Einstein?”
Are present day American or European soldiers more healthy than 1940s soldiers? Yes. I don’t know who would be our time’s equivalent to Einstein - Bill Gates? Tim Berners-Lee? Stephen Hawking?
“Do you know what a cow drinks? Water! Milk is to grow calves from 40 kg to 350 kg in 12 months!!! No wonder being overweight is the trend in the west…”
Calves drink nothing but milk, in large quantities. Humans drink small amounts of milk, among other foods.
“Try Japan, where they grew the second strongest economy of the world on rice, vegetables and fish.”
Japan grew the second strongest economy of the world on a complete reconstruction after their industrial base was wiped out, so they used modern, efficient technology in place of legacy equipment. That is why Japan and Germany’s post-war economy grew so well, and Britain’s did so badly. I’ll also remind you that Japan is the country that came up with Kobe beef, probably the most exquisite, engineered kind of meat in the world.
It also shows your hypocracy as an environmentalist that you are praising the achievements of Japan, which has been destroying the world’s fish stocks through industrial fishing, not to mention killing whales for food.
China, today’s economic miracle, has a national cuisine that incorporates beef and especially pork very heavily.
Namaste ^_^
Very brave and fantastic article, congratulations!!! here´s another vegan posting and truly happy to read your article, as soon as I get a minute free I´ll post on organic agriculture in the EU…buy it local, organic and nacked
Keep well and keep up the good work!!!
Lots of love and peace,
Jose
_FoE activist_
An inconvenient Gore: http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/olther-stuff-an-inconvenient-gore/