The Beef With Beef!

“How Vegan Ethics Can Help End Climate Change”

Because of the urgent need to diversify leadership in the environmental arena, Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Inc. and Dr. Robert D. Bullard, Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University (Houston) launched the Historically Black College and University Climate Change Consortium in 2011 Now 11 years later the Consortium has a total of 30 HBCUs participating in its activities and is growing its numbers to include more schools each year in an effort to train the next generation of climate and environmental justice leaders. In 2022 the 8th Annual HBCU Climate Change Conference, was held in New Orleans, LA.

Morehouse’s Philosophy program is offering two elective philosophy courses –Philosophy of Science and Climate Change Ethics. The reason this is of importance is that Climate change is an ethical issue, to put it very simply, because many bad things are happening, and are predicted to happen, because of it. It is about focusing on our collective obligations despite what minor impositions saving the planet might cause. The alternative is to cease to exist. Veganism is a moral position that opposes exploiting and otherwise harming nonhuman animals. This includes what we do directly, such as hunting or fishing. It also includes what we support as consumers, which affects many more animals and surprisingly this affects the outcome of our fight against the consequences of climate change.

The classes and consortium exposed that a worldwide phase out of animal agriculture, combined with a global switch to a plant-based diet, would effectively halt the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gasses for 30 years and give humanity more time to end its reliance on fossil fuels. The climate crisis has been called humankind’s greatest challenge and the world’s greatest environmental threat. According to the United Nations. According to PETA (People for Ethical treatment of Animals)”Feeding massive amounts of grain and water to farmed animals and then killing them and processing, transporting, and storing their flesh is extremely energy-intensive. And forests—which absorb greenhouse gasses—are cut down in order to supply pastureland and grow crops for farmed animals. Finally, the animals themselves and all the manure that they produce release even more greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere.”

Adopting a plant-based lifestyle is one of the most effective ways to save water, as .plant foods require a hell of a lot less water compared to animal products, especially if utilizing “tower farming” techniques and hydroponics. Tower Farms use the same compact, vertical growing technology that powers Tower Garden. Water circulates from upper tiers to lower tiers making the best use of water with the least waste. That means you can start your farm virtually anywhere. Tower farmers are growing in airports, on rooftops, in deserts, on islands, in greenhouses, and even apartment balconies, and other unconventional locations within their communities.

To put this into perspective: 1kg of beef takes 15,500 liters of water to produce. 1kg of tomatoes uses 180 liters and 1kg of potatoes 250 liters. Switching out meat for veggies could save gallons of water just in one person’s lifetime. The key iss, to do this safely by adding alternative protein and B complex vitamins as well as zinc resources to your diet. Overfishing our seas is another problem ,with one-third of global fish stocks being overfished. 90% of fish populations are considered fully fished, meaning any further fishing will cause a population decline leading to extinction. Species like bluefin tuna have declined by 97% causing imbalances in the food chain. We know that 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed, with 80% of that deforestation occurring to make room for beef cattle. After beef, the second biggest driver of deforestation is soy. In fact, 75% of soy grown worldwide is food for cows.

Veganism combats world hunger as It conserves water It also cleans the soil ·This understanding is becoming more urgent as the global population is expected to hit or surpass 9.1 billion by 2050. There's simply not enough land on the planet to raise enough meat to feed everyone the average American diet. So what’s the trouble with meat? The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world. When forests are destroyed to produce industrial meat, billions of tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming. Veggie Burger anyone?