veganwiki

[veganwiki]

To meet global climate goals, wealthier nations must reduce their meat consumption by at least 75 percent, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany found in a new study. Slated to be published in October in the 14th volume of the Annual Review of Resource Economics, the study—titled “Meat Consumption and Sustainability”—examines the environmental costs of consuming animal products at current rates. 

Researchers point out that half of the grain produced worldwide is fed to animals who are then turned into food—a costly inefficiency when it comes to resource usage. Animal agriculture is also a major contributor of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming.

Researchers explained that the average European Union citizen currently consumes 80 kilos (176 pounds) of meat annually—and the average United States citizen consumes a whopping 124 kilos (270 pounds) of meat annually. Maintaining these levels of meat consumption is not feasible for the growing world population, which is expected to reach more than 10 billion by 2050.

“If all humans consumed as much meat as Europeans or North Americans, we would certainly miss the international climate targets and many ecosystems would collapse,” study author Matin Qaim, a professor at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, said in a statement. “We therefore need to significantly reduce our meat consumption, ideally to 20 kilograms or less annually. 

The war in Ukraine and the resulting shortages in international markets for cereal grains also underline that less grain should be fed to animals in order to support food security.”

The researchers’ recommendations mirror those previously suggested by other groups, including Greenpeace which urged the EU to slash meat consumption and production by 71 percent by 2030 in order to mitigate the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the climate crisis.

[veganwiki]

Vegan of the Day: Mutabaruka!

[veganwiki]

“ do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals / Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught / for their young “ -Al-Ma’arri

[veganwiki]

COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret (http://cowspiracy.com) is a groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following an intrepid filmmaker as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today, and investigates why the world's leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.

[veganwiki]

Vegan of the Day: Carrie Underwood!

[veganwiki]

Veganism as a named movement historically was made up primarily of white people, and the stereotypical vegan is white; Khushbu Shah pointed out in 2018 that not until the bottom of the third page on Shutterstock was a person of color included among the images for the search term "vegan person".[2] Omowale Adewale, founder of New York City's Black VegFest, argues that there is a history of Black veganism in the US, but said in 2020 that the recent increase in Black veganism is partially because "You love to see yourself represented. That's one of the main reasons why the Black community has really galvanised around the vegan idea".[3]

The modern Black veganism movement takes inspiration from Rastafarianism, which developed a plant-based diet known as Ital in Jamaica in the 1930s, and groups like the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, which has advocated strict veganism since the 1960s, and the Nation of Islam, which specifically connected choosing a plant-based diet to fighting racist oppression.[4][2][5] It also has roots in the American Civil Rights movement; Dick Gregory, who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., argued that "Because I'm a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike."[3] According to Amirah Mercer, by the 1980s veganism had "settled firmly into celebrity and activist pockets" among Black people in the US.[5] The 1990 hip hop song "Beef" by KRS-One, according to Keith Tucker, founder of Hip Hop is Green vegan advocacy group, influenced many in the hip hop community to think about veganism and "meat in the slave diet".[6]

Syl Ko in a 2020 presentation to the Brooks Institute describes the development of the concept of Black veganism as an intersectional framework for political and social commentary, saying that she and her sister had in 2012 first discussed the idea that "animals are raced" and in 2015 started calling that idea Black veganism.[7]

In 2017 Aph and Syl Ko published Aphro-ism; Corey Lee Wrenn in a review said it presented Black veganism as "a political protest against the oppressiveness of animality, Eurocentric hierarchy-building, and harmful foodways."[8]

By the late 2010s research was showing that up to 8% of Black Americans identified as vegan, as compared to about 3% for the US population as a whole.[3][6] In 2017 Carol J. Adams argued, "Now is the time for us to listen to and embrace black veganism."[9]: 149  In 2021,The Washington Post, citing a Gallup report, referred to Black people as the fastest-growing demographic of vegans.[6]

[veganwiki]

"These latest findings are consistent with the accumulating evidence that the twin pressures of climate change and human exploitation of tropical forests are endangering the world's largest rainforest, which is home to one out of every 10 species known to science."

For context, about 70% of formerly forested land in the Amazon is used for cattle grazing.

[veganwiki]

Vegan of the Day: Samuel L Jackson!

[veganwiki]

The China Study examines the link between the consumption of animal products (including dairy) and chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer.[4] The book is "loosely based"[5] on the China–Cornell–Oxford Project, a 20-year study which looked at mortality rates from cancer and other chronic diseases from 1973 to 1975 in 65 counties in China, and correlated this data with 1983–84 dietary surveys and blood work from 100 people in each county.

The authors conclude that people who eat a predominantly whole-food, vegan diet—avoiding animal products as a source of nutrition, including beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of numerous diseases. They write that "eating foods that contain any cholesterol above 0 mg is unhealthy."[6] The book recommends sunshine exposure or dietary supplements to maintain adequate levels of vitamin D, and supplements of vitamin B12 in case of complete avoidance of animal products.[7] It criticizes low-carb diets, such as the Atkins diet, which include restrictions on the percentage of calories derived from carbohydrates[8] The authors are critical of reductionist approaches to the study of nutrition, whereby certain nutrients are blamed for disease, as opposed to studying patterns of nutrition and the interactions between nutrients.[9]

[veganwiki]

On This Day In History

April 22nd, 1970: Earth Day is celebrated for the first time.

[veganwiki]