Environmentalists Go Vegetarian

[gertvegan]

Environmentalists Go Vegetarian

Environmentalists Headline Annual International Veg Food Festival

Yes, it's true: I'm one of those vegetarian people your mother and the current administration have been warning you about. And whereas a concern for the environment motivated my change in eating habits, many folks with otherwise similar environmental philosophies are not so inclined. Case in point: Not one of the large-scale, mainstream environmental organizations -- the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy, etc. -- has vegetarianism in its mandate. Some are outright hostile to the idea.

Although the connection between large-scale animal agriculture and its deleterious effects on the environment isn't a new concept, it's been mostly ignored for more than 40 years. But there now appears to be a glimmer of hope on the green horizon that people are starting to come around.

FULL ARTICLE (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2004/09/22/gree.DTL)

[Kevster]

Let's hope that more of these environmental types start joining the dots,

But i'm not keen on the anti-nuclear bit, what about my power plant? It's perfectly safe, ehhhhhhhh

Burns

[eve]

You're right about the large organisations. I've had discussions with Greenpeace people, some of whom tell me they are 'trying to go vegetarian'! Also the Greens party here in Australia don't even suggest that veg*ism is better for the planet, and even some branches of Animal Lib do not have veg*ism as part of their platform. I remember doing some volunteer work for The Wilderness Society, but come lunch time and they buy meat pies and burgers!

[Gorilla]

the latest issue of the Ecologist magazine has an article arguing whether we should all be vegetarian. on the side of the meat-eaters is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who advocates organic farming of animals but does not believe a totally vegetarian culture is either possible or desirable. his basic argument is that it's ok to kill animals if you make their life better than it would have been in the wild :confused:

on the side of the vegetarians is Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian at Oxford University and author of Animal Theology.

unfortunately the magazine makes his ideas appear weak and he's not allowed to go into detail about the damage meat farming does to the environment, which for a publication concerned with ecology is disappointing. :(