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AprilEllen
Administrator
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Posted: Tuesday October 9th, 2007 04:47 pm |
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I was shocked when I watched the inconvenient truth and how he was saying that his family quit growing tobacco because of the inconvenient truth of tobacco, then he goes on to say that they raised cattle instead!!!!!!! This is another inconvenient truth!!!! He is INSANE!!!!!
xoxoapril
Schultz column: An even more inconvenient truth
By VALERIE SCHULTZ, contributing columnist | Monday, Oct 8 2007 9:19 AM
Last Updated: Friday, Oct 5 2007 10:02 AM
The 2006 documentary that won Al Gore an Oscar, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is a thoughtful and alarming look at the climate changes affecting our planet, both now and in the future. Al Gore, who introduces himself in the movie as the man who “used to be the next president of the United States,” has used his celebrity status to call attention to a looming global crisis. He has become the face of American environmentalism: scholarly, but urgent; somber, but hopeful. As long as his face is that of a meat-eater, however, certain environmentalists assert that he lacks an important earth-saving credential.
To make this point, the in-your-face animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has written Al Gore a letter. Not a private letter, but rather a news release, a letter of proclamation, stating that, topping the many inconvenient truths outlined in the documentary, the most inconvenient truth of all is that the “most effective way to fight climate change will come through diet change.” Specifically, a vegan diet, which avoids all animal products, not just the ones for which the animal must be killed. Becoming a vegan, says the letter, drawing on research from the University of Chicago, is even more beneficial to the environment than trading in your Buick or your Hummer for a Toyota Prius.
“Raising animals for food,” writes the author of the letter, PETA president and founder Ingrid Newkirk, “generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.” The Amazon rain forest, she says, is being destroyed in part to grow soybeans to feed the chickens whose well-fried parts will eventually fill KFC buckets. Now there’s an inconvenient truth for carnivores.
Author’s disclosure: as a vegetarian, I am still not doing my part as long as I eat dairy products and eggs. I write without smugness, therefore, but in the belief that we might all benefit from small steps in the vegan direction. Most meat-eaters and lacto-ovo vegetarians could survive on a vegan diet one day a month, or, better, one day a week. As an added bonus, taking this modest action to save the planet can also save one’s health and one’s waistline.
A few years ago, several of my family members embarked on a three-week cleansing diet that involved being a vegan for one solid week. Much as they may not like to admit it, they felt better during that week. They felt less sluggish, more focused, healthier. American diets tend to be protein-heavy, and the processing of such a load taxes our physiological systems. As emotionally difficult as giving up meat can be, neither the human body nor the earth suffers from its absence; in fact, both are more likely to thrive without it.
And I know that what we eat is an emotional issue. We equate our food choices with so many things besides our protein intake. Food is tangled up in comfort, identity, culture, habit, religion, family, society, celebration and addiction. Food is intensely personal, in its selection and in its consumption, and nourishes more than the physical human organism. Meat, in particular, is a sign of wealth, of well-being, of satiety, even of patriotism: what meal better precedes American apple pie than meat and potatoes?
But vegetarianism makes perfect sense, especially in a society that can easily keep itself alive and fed without resorting to the slaughter of animals, and without further environmental detriment. As our global future becomes more insecure and ever more fraught with problems, we can’t have it both ways: we can’t say we care about our environment and yet continue to behave in ways that harm it. It’s kind of like the people I recently overheard at a restaurant, condemning Michael Vick’s infamous dog fighting ring while they were gnawing on someone’s ribs, or tearing flesh from someone’s leg. They were upset about the mistreated dogs, but what about the unfortunate pig on that night’s menu? What about the poor chicken? We love our dogs, but we raise and kill millions of animals for food we don’t need, for protein that is actually not good for us. Dogs, pigs, chickens, cows: We imprison people for harming one type of animal, and then serve the inmates the other animals on plates. As Mr. Spock of the starship Enterprise would say, that is illogical. And of course, the enlightened Vulcans, the most logical race ever imagined, are vegetarians.
PETA’s letter to Al Gore concludes with an offer to provide him with “a delicious and eco-friendly meal of faux fried ‘chicken’ with all the ‘fixins.’” The prospect of “faux” meat of any kind makes the typical meat-eater groan in horror and recoil in disgust, I know. But, just like we parents tell our children about new foods: don’t knock it until you try it. I imagine Al Gore is dismayed by his public letter, as well as by the protesters who will attend a lecture on global warming that he is giving in Denver this month. “Too chicken to go vegetarian? Meat is the No. 1 cause of global warming,” the signs will say, according to planners of the campaign. Al Gore may be sorry he ever volunteered to open this global can of worms.
But think, Mr. Gore, of the role model you could be by giving up meat, even for one day a week. Think, dear readers, of the role models you are every day, even without the spotlight of fame shining on you.
In honor of October’s designation as World Vegetarian Month, try being kind to animals: Don’t eat them.
The animals, the earth, and your digestive system will thank you.
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April Anderson
Juniper Art Studios
Santa fe, New Mexico
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