RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact
Hi, Apologies for the delay in picking up this thread... I'm very interested in Kai's observation: In Ghana a year ago, I saw billboards advertising rice grown in Texas and California, whose low prices (counting transportation across the seas) had decimated the poor farms of the west African interior. I know that US (also Canadian) agricultural exports have increased substantially since the 1960s. Does anyone know of any sources that document the impact of agricultural imports on small producers. I'm particularly interested in finding sources that could provide more of an overview of this as a global trend, as opposed to single case studies. I know Mike Davis talks about this in Planet of Slums, as a factor pushing rapid urbanization in the global South, but I can't think of any others... Cheers, Andrew Andrew Biro Dept. of Political Science Acadia University Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6 (902)585-1925 [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact
World Hunger: Twelve Myths, revised edition from Food First! takes this up in a popular treatment, but with scholarly sources cited. On specific cases, there is considerable literature out on the effect of corn exports to Mexico as a result of lowering restrictions under NAFTA. Angus Wright Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies California State University, Sacramento -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Andrew Biro Sent: Tue 2/13/2007 12:08 PM To: Kai N. Lee; gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact Hi, Apologies for the delay in picking up this thread... I'm very interested in Kai's observation: In Ghana a year ago, I saw billboards advertising rice grown in Texas and California, whose low prices (counting transportation across the seas) had decimated the poor farms of the west African interior. I know that US (also Canadian) agricultural exports have increased substantially since the 1960s. Does anyone know of any sources that document the impact of agricultural imports on small producers. I'm particularly interested in finding sources that could provide more of an overview of this as a global trend, as opposed to single case studies. I know Mike Davis talks about this in Planet of Slums, as a factor pushing rapid urbanization in the global South, but I can't think of any others... Cheers, Andrew Andrew Biro Dept. of Political Science Acadia University Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6 (902)585-1925 [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact
As I am sure many of you know, the main environmental and justice arguments (rather than animal liberation arguments for not eating meat were pretty well-laid out in Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet and others have been improving on and elaborating those arguments for some time. I was convinced by those arguments for many years and became a vegetarian for quite some time largely based on them. I later became convinced that the best eating model was based on what the best kind of farm would produce. The best kind of farm and farming system, I believe, is one that is a rough mimic of natural processes, and that as such incorporates animals in a variety of ways and makes modest amounts of meat consumption a logical consequence of the production system. This is an agroecological approach rather than a minimal energy or minimal materials approach, though in the larger picture, it would tend to minimize energy and materials production. Of course, large scale or l! ong term feed lot production would not be part of this.and meat would be produced in ways that are far different, ecologically and ethically, than what we now have. The farm, in fact, would look a lot more like what the mixed production farms of the American midwest looked like one hundred years ago--the kind many of us older folks remember from our childhoods. It is also a kind of farm one still encounters frequently outside of Europe and the U.S. (Eating very little beef in the U.S., I am much more relaxed about eating the delicious and more healthful grass fed beef one finds in Brazil and elsewhere--which of course brings in rainforest issues, another complicated--much more complicated than generally believed--issue.) I think many ecologically conscious farmers have come to the same kind of conclusions. Other than my own work on this, my main guides for this have been Wes Jackson and Miguel Altieri. I have heard Michael Pollin speak, but haven't read his book yet, but I gather it is the approach he takes, too. Having served on the board of Food First, the organization Frances Moore Lappe founded with the proceeds of Diet for a Small Planet, I can say that it is predominantly the evolution of thought that most people involved with that organization, I believe including Lappe, have taken. Let me emphasize that this would require dramatic change in our agricultural system--it is not a status quo argument. But it is based more on genuine ecological reasoning, in my view, than the standard vegetarian arguments. Of course, if you believe that it is wrong to kill and eat animals, then that brings in an entirely different set of considerations, different from those I have outlined here. Angus Wright Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies California State University, Sacramento From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Dale W Jamieson Sent: Wed 1/31/2007 10:23 AM To: Maria Ivanova Cc: 'Mary Pettenger'; gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: Re: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact 'animal liberation' is of course important, but i was thinking of 'the way we eat'. an account of the study on vegan diets and co2 emissions that i was referring to can be found here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060414012755.htm cheers, dale ** Dale Jamieson Director of Environmental Studies Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy Affiliated Professor of Law New York University http://www.esig.ucar.edu/HP_dale.html Contact information: Steinhardt School, HMSS 246 Greene Street, Suite 300 New York NY 10003-6677 212-998-5429 (voice) 212-995-4832 (fax) Knowing what we know now, that you could vote against the war and still be elected president, I would never have pretended to support it.--Hilary Clinton parody on Saturday Night Live - Original Message - From: Maria Ivanova [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:45 pm Subject: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact Mary, I want to support Dale's suggestion about Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation. I just showed Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth to my Global Environmental Governance class and asked students to post their reactions to the class website. The note below from one of my students goes right to the issues you raised. I had been meaning to see An Inconvenient Truth for a while, only puttingit off because I felt like I knew most of what Al Gore would have to say. I had assumed, keeping abreast of environmental issues and taking small measures in my personal life towards less consumption, that I was well-enough informed. While some of the film's contents did not surprise me, it reinforced a sense of urgency and a desire to do more. I can relate most to the story Gore told about his family giving up tobaccofarming stating that (I have to paraphrase), whatever once served as justification could no longer do. Recently I took up a vegetarian
RE: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact
Nice statement, Angus. Also being active in this area, I would add only that given the nature of today's industrial food systems, considerations of local economy should be added to the agroecological paradigm. When I moved to southeastern Pennsylvania five years ago, I was shocked at the advanced development of the local agroecological market. Virtually every type of meat and climate-appropriate fruit and vegetable is grown here by local, small-scale, ecologically sensitive farmers, and sold in local community-based farmers markets. I know the farmers market phenomenon is a huge and growing trend in the U.S., but what surprised me here was the combination of near-complete coverage of unprocessed food types and the explicit focus not just of individual farmers, but of the entire market or industry on the benefits that accrue to the local economy (and thereby return to the agroecological systems in place). Having moved here from Florida's central east coast, where there were literally no farmers markets, much less locally grown organic and/or sustainably farmed meats or veggies, this was an eye-opener. So my sense of the ideal paradigm, for what it's worth, is a combination of agroecological and local economic (or ecological economic) as a combined and most fully realized response to the industrial food system. And I concur with Angus's closing point that this is a very different view than that driven by animal rights considerations. Cheers, Rich -- Richard L. Wallace, Ph.D. Chair, Environmental Studies Ursinus College 601 E. Main Street Collegeville, PA 19426 USA (610) 409-3730 (610) 409-3660 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wright, Angus Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 2:50 PM To: Dale W Jamieson; Maria Ivanova Cc: Mary Pettenger; gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: RE: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact As I am sure many of you know, the main environmental and justice arguments (rather than animal liberation arguments for not eating meat were pretty well-laid out in Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet and others have been improving on and elaborating those arguments for some time. I was convinced by those arguments for many years and became a vegetarian for quite some time largely based on them. I later became convinced that the best eating model was based on what the best kind of farm would produce. The best kind of farm and farming system, I believe, is one that is a rough mimic of natural processes, and that as such incorporates animals in a variety of ways and makes modest amounts of meat consumption a logical consequence of the production system. This is an agroecological approach rather than a minimal energy or minimal materials approach, though in the larger picture, it would tend to minimize energy and materials production. Of course, large scale or l! ong term feed lot production would not be part of this.and meat would be produced in ways that are far different, ecologically and ethically, than what we now have. The farm, in fact, would look a lot more like what the mixed production farms of the American midwest looked like one hundred years ago--the kind many of us older folks remember from our childhoods. It is also a kind of farm one still encounters frequently outside of Europe and the U.S. (Eating very little beef in the U.S., I am much more relaxed about eating the delicious and more healthful grass fed beef one finds in Brazil and elsewhere--which of course brings in rainforest issues, another complicated--much more complicated than generally believed--issue.) I think many ecologically conscious farmers have come to the same kind of conclusions. Other than my own work on this, my main guides for this have been Wes Jackson and Miguel Altieri. I have heard Michael Pollin speak, but haven't read his book yet, but I gather it is the approach he takes, too. Having served on the board of Food First, the organization Frances Moore Lappe founded with the proceeds of Diet for a Small Planet, I can say that it is predominantly the evolution of thought that most people involved with that organization, I believe including Lappe, have taken. Let me emphasize that this would require dramatic change in our agricultural system--it is not a status quo argument. But it is based more on genuine ecological reasoning, in my view, than the standard vegetarian arguments. Of course, if you believe that it is wrong to kill and eat animals, then that brings in an entirely different set of considerations, different from those I have outlined here. Angus Wright Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies California State University, Sacramento From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Dale W Jamieson Sent: Wed 1/31/2007 10:23 AM To: Maria Ivanova Cc: 'Mary Pettenger'; gep-ed@listserve1.allegheny.edu Subject: Re: RE: Vegan and Environmental Impact 'animal liberation
