Check out the latest news I read from Courtney Pool's blog...
More than one million people in Taiwan have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by being a vegetarian. Taiwan's population is about 23 million, and the one million vegetarians would reduce at least 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions in Taiwan in one year.
The Union of NoMeatNoHeat made the announcement during its anti-global warming drive. Many prominent politicians, such as the legislative speaker, the environment minister, and Taipei and Kaohsiung Mayors all pledged to become vegetarians.
The Union said 20 percent of the world's carbon emissions are created by the livestock industry, which is higher than the 15 to 18 percent produced by all the world's transportation vehicles.
The Union said if a person eats only vegetables for a whole year, roughly 1.5 tons of carbon emissions can be cut.
Awesome! I think we should all pledge not to eat commercially grown meat! Last October, when I decided to move more towards raw, I stopped eating meat (although, I think I accidentally eat my fair share of slugs and bugs from our organic garden). I didn't eat a lot of meat at the time and most of it was local wild game and fish. I continue to feel no need in my body for meat at this time, but this subject always brings up that interesting concept of local and low carbon footprint. My husband is a hunter. It may sound like an oxymoron to some, but he has a deep respect for the animals and woods he spends so much time with. He is able to hunt close to home and we do all the processing ourselves. He spends tons of time out in nature observing. So much of the food we consume is something we have grown or gathered or he has hunted/fished. Commercial agriculture has huge negative impacts on the physical, mental and spiritual health of our planet and all of it's lifeforms. This is obvious to me. However, this gray area I am speaking of, never seems to be addressed. It deepens for me as I think about Shamanism and the plant matrix of life...who are we to decide that taking the life of a plant is any less powerful of act than taking the life of an animal? What is most important to me is that we receive our nourishment with a deep level of gratitude, respect and connection. By connection, I mean knowing what our food looks like when it grows and where it comes from, rather than being consumed by supplement bottles and packaging.
I would love it if folks would like to comment on this, as I am very curious for your opinion and experience.
Sending Love and Respect, Kelly O
p.s. The sarvice berries are ripe in our yard (a wild edible berry, sometimes known as saskatoon berries) and I picked a big bundle for my green smoothie this morning, along with lamb's quarter and chard from the green house! Yum!
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3 comments:
The past few months I have been gradulally switching over to raw foodism, not raw veganism... I eat raw dairy, raw egg yolks, and in the fall when my dad (who, lol, happens to live in Eureka Montana :)) sends me home raised healthy beef, I plan on eating steak tartare... With that said, I agree completley with people's reasons for going vegan, as I have been there... my reason was that comercial animals are treated cruelly and raised unhealthy. However I think raw animal products (in minimal amounts to raw vegetables in the diet) have amazing health benefits.. So I buy raw milk from a local farm where the cows graze in this beautiful field, and soon I will have my own chickens for raw egg yolks.
The problem with eating comercial animal products is now to me just as bad as buying fruits and veggies from the supermarket as oppose to growing your own or buying from local farmers markets or co-ops, the fruits and vegetables in the grocery store are typically grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, shipped thousands of miles (tell me that isn't a harsh carbon imprint...), and sit around long enough so that they're nutritional value dimishes greatly...
Kudos to those that make a stand a shop local or grow/raise most or all of there own food :)
I'm new to your blog, but this couldn't have been a better post for me to start with! I was vegan for a year and vegetarian for three. A few months ago I began eating meat again because I felt as though it was important for me to eat local, organic, sustainibly raised food. It's easy as a vegan (and even a raw foodist) to eat a lot of processed, pacaged, and far shipped food. There has to be a balance and the grey area you refer to is crucial.
Much love to you and your family!
Thanks for your comments! It's good to hear what's happening in the lives and experiences of others...and as close as Eureka and Boise! Much love to you...enjoy the bliss that is real in each moment! xoxo
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