Real Girls Eat (Organic, Grass-Fed) Meat

First off, thanks so much for the wonderful article to encourage people to ease vegetarianism into their lives. I'm writing to respond to the title of this article -- "Real Girls Eat (Organic, Grass Fed) Meat." I am a vegan cattle-rancher's daughter. The reason eating even organic grass fed meat is not sustainable is because of water. With global warming, we are facing exacerbated drought conditions, especially in the American West. It is so severe, I've read of scientific estimates of a protracted 50 year drought, and the Scripps Institute forecast earlier this year that Lake Mead, one of the largest man-made lakes in the US, providing fresh water to Las Vegas and much of the surrounding area, is expected to be dry by 2021. My family own and operate a ranch with excellent water rights off the Green River, which feeds into the Colorado River and eventually Lake Mead. To grow the grass (hay) for their cattle, they require up to 12 times their water allotment. Scientific research supports the idea that their experience is prevalent. A 1991 Univ of Calif-Davis report to the Water Education Board on water inputs to California agriculture showed that to produce one serving of beef, it takes over 1200 gallons of water. One serving of chicken takes 330 gallons. A vegan diet is the most water conserving diet available. The report found that a complete, balanced vegan meal of grain (rice), protein (tofu) and two vegetables took only 98 gallons of water. A recent report presented to the UN called "Saving Water from Field to Fork" stated that 70% of all water usage is from agriculture, 10% from residential and 20% from industry. It also concurred that vegetarian diets were more efficient in terms of water usage, and that across the globe, it takes approximately 10 times the water to grow a kilogram of beef vs wheat. In the Southeastern US, we already have three states in a legal battle over scarce water due to drought, and the situation in the West is expected to become much worse. Adopting a vegan diet is not only going to reduce global emissions (18% of emissions come from livestock according to the UN -- more than transportation), we free up food for the hungry and stop bidding up the price of food by feeding the grain and soya to our animals (UN FAO states about 36% of global grain produce will be fed to animals vs 5% for biofuels and the USDA reports that over 70% of global soya goes to feed animals), we also assure there is enough clean fresh water for all Americans.

Susan of CA 1:55PM July 13, 2008

Folks who are interested in eating more vegetarian foods can check out The Humane Society of the United States' free guide (and recipes!) here:

www.humanesociety.org/veg

Erin

Erin of DC 10:29AM July 11, 2008