Spring 1993 (v5n3)
	Ecology and vegetarian considerations. Gussow, Joan Dye Keynote speech given at the Second International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition, Arlington, Virginia, June 29, 1992. In recent years, ethical and environmental concerns about eating meat have merged in the effort to achieve public reform. This paper focuses on the environmental issue: Does the optimal relationship between humans and the environment include or exclude animals as food? This question is addressed in three parts: 1) the popular development of the idea that environmental responsibility is linked to vegetarianism, 2) the destructive effects of present methods of animal raising on farmers, animal welfare, and the environment, and finally 3) asking whether vegetarianism is the appropriate response to these problems: "Is universal vegetarianism the goal?" The Origins of the Vegetarianism-Environmental Link The public first became widely conscious of the problems of modern animal raising in the United States about 20 years ago when Ballantine Books published Francis Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet, which sold over two million copies in ten years. Lappe presented evidence that agricultural resources were being wasted and the planet degraded to satisfy the U.S. hunger for grain-fed beef. Further, she postulated that this meat-based diet is one cause of world hunger and that vegetarianism is kinder to the planet. Many of the same problems first articulated by Lappe have been more recently documented by John Robbins in Diet for a New America and Jeremy Rifkin in Beyond Beef. Rifkin implies in his book that giving up beef will resolve many of the world's social and environmental problems, and that nature will recover. Although the notion that "nature can restore what a troubling culture has destroyed" is implicit in Rifkin's and many others' logic, Gussow points out that this notion is unrealistic given millennia of human intervention. In fact, leaving nature alone now may not result in the natural succession of plant and animal species as Rifkin suggests, but instead, in a takeover by weeds from surrounding territories. Thus, Gussow concludes that "leaving nature alone in a world already deeply affected by humans is a practical impossibility." Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines published in Britain in 1964 was one of the first popular books deliberately drawing public attention to the ethics of modern animal raising. As with crop production, the aim of animal agriculture has become efficiency: how to produce more animal or animal product in less time and with the least labor. To meet this goal, industry established large, confined animal facilities, a trend that has continued to the present. The Ecological Desirability of Vegetarianism Our present livestock production system relies largely on feed grain. (Thirty-eight percent of the world's grain production is used for livestock feed.) Although land used for feed grain would probably not be used to feed the poor in rich countries, this is not true in developing countries. To satisfy a growing demand for animal products, feed grains must be imported or grown at the expense of traditional food crops which may then have to be imported, all of which reduces a nation's self-reliance. In addition, feed grain is often grown in monocropped systems, which can degrade topsoil and use excessive energy. Production of livestock in confined systems also concentrates large quantities of manure in one place, which has become a major management problem in recent years. Even livestock that are not raised intensively are creating worldwide environmental stresses due to their increasing numbers. "World meat production has nearly quadrupled since 1950 as the populations of affluent countries and the newly affluent of poor countries, increased their intake of meat." This has led to overstocking of pastures, degradation of grazing areas and decimation of forestlands to make way for pastures. So, whether confined or free ranging, domestic livestock are putting an unsustainable burden on croplands and grazing lands around the world. "Is the solution vegetarianism?" Livestock and Sustainability Animals are an important component of many natural and managed ecosystems. In many parts of the world, crops and animals are integrated within the farm system. In these areas animals may act as a "savings account" for the farmer, and livestock and their products may represent the margin between survival and starvation. Ruminants, in particular, can produce high quality food from grazing lands not suitable for growing crops. In addition, livestock manure (a problem in intensive, confined systems) is a precious fertilizer and indispensable source of fuel in much of the world. Therefore, one important measure of sustainability, according to Gussow, is the extent to which livestock and crop production are integrated in farming systems. She urges that we reestablish integrated systems where they have disappeared, and encourage them where they survive. In range-land areas, suitable for livestock only, sustainability would be dependent on establishing and maintaining functional ecosystems rather than maximizing production. Editor's note: This paper emphasizes the role livestock play in developing regions of the world. Readers should note that livestock also have an important place in North American agriculture, both from an economic and ecological standpoint. Integration takes place at a different level in North American agriculture (i.e., between farms within a region), but the cycling and exchange of resources and nutrients between the systems is still an important consideration. Conclusion Finally, Gussow raises the larger question of who is in control of the food system. She states: "The issue then is not beef, and not the consumption of animals per se, but the ways in which the human species misuses nature for profit in the name of producing food...What drives the food system is not human appetite, but profit." Gussow asserts that the real problem we face is one of scale and control. "Giant corporations that are rapidly gaining control over the world's food from seed to table are working to create a system from which nature is largely excluded." We are all responsible for thinking about and participating in the decisions about how the world's resources are used. On a global scale, vegetarianism may actually be unecological. Eliminating animals in the many integrated systems around the world that are producing food for human consumption would decrease both sustainability and food output. These systems need to be nourished as part of a diversified ecosystem that will be required for long-term sustainability. Animals and their products have a vital role in that system. (GWF.010) Contributed by Gail Feenstra [ Back | Search | Feedback ]