Chapter 8
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."
-Leonardo da Vinci
Diet For a New World
There's a major food revolution occuring in our world today.
It is a move away from a largely beef-centered, meat-based diet towards one that is clean, organic, healthy and vegetarian.
Here are a few statistics worth noting:
- The beef industry has contributed to more health-related deaths than all the wars, natural disasters and automobile accidents of the 20th century
combined.
- Plant sources of protein alone can provide more than adequate amounts of the essential amino acids necessary for optimum human performance and
health.
- Eight billion broiler chickens are killed for food in the United States each year. There are 20 billion livestock on Earth- more than triple the
number of human beings.
- To produce 1 lb of beef requires 5,214 gallons of water. To produce 1 lb of tomatoes, potatoes, wheat or carrots requires roughly only 25
gallons each. Nearly 1/2 of the water consumed in the United States is used for livestock.
- More than 2/3rds of the entire land area of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Idaho (in the USA) is used for
rangeland. The whole of the American west absolutely stinks of cattle.
- The #1 factor in the elimination of latin american tropical rainforests is cattle-grazing and beef production for fast food restaurants in the USA.
- Today, more than 1 billion people on this planet do not have enough to eat, while 40% of the world's grain is fed to livestock.
The demand for meat among the rich is squeezing out staple food production for the world's poor.
- The number of underfed and chronically malnourished people in the world is 1.2 billion. The number of overfed/chronically fat and
overnourished people in the world is 1.2 billion.
- The amount of US produced corn eaten by people in the world is only 2 percent. The amount of US produced corn fed to livestock is at 77 percent.
- 2/3rds of the food sold in US supermarkets now include genetically engineered ingredients from companies such as Monsanto which grows 3/4ths of
the world's transgenic crops.
Today's global agribusiness doesn't grow food for people. It grows it for animals, whose flesh, milk and eggs are then consumed en mass by human society.
The horrendous environmental and health impacts of modern meat production are profound and unsustainable, contributing to widespread world hunger,
violent, lustful, low-life reptilian consciousness and the continuation of a "profits over people" lifestyle that can no longer be tolerated nor sustained on our planet.
A major revolution is now occuring reflecting the need for the human species to evolve into higher, lighter, cleaner, more intelligent and
environmentally sustainable modes of food production, consumption and living- eating lower on the food chain- so that all may be fed.
The promotion of a largely vegan and vegetarian diet is very much needed worldwide today in order to ween the masses off an unneeded and
environmentally harmful meat based diet, especially in the developed nations of the North where the problem is most acute.
The shift to less concentrated, lighter vegetarian diets will eliminate the need to cut down large swaths of the planet's tropical
rainforests in order to grow beef. That rainforest needs to remain intact for biodiversity and climatic regulatory reasons. Hence, a prime
rationale to shift to plant based foods.
I believe the shift into a largely vegetarian diet is a critical next step in the evolution of human consciousness. I also believe that this
particular issue, in and of itself, has the greatest potential to uplift the collective consciousness of the human family and evolve our species
into a peaceful, non-violent and highly intelligent planetary civilization.
A diet for a new world is one that ceases consuming animal flesh and instead relies largely on plant, tree and root based foods to supply
the nutritional and dietary requirements for optimal health and well being. One thing is for sure, the shift to a largely vegetarian diet
will definately lower the violent, aggressive and hyper-competitive tendencies associated with meat eating. Vegetarian diets transform
and uplift human consciousness, promote a more peaceful, non-violent existence and radically change the rules of the game for human society.
Plant based diets are eco-friendly, good for both the person and the planet. i believe a species shift from meat eating to largely
vegetarian diets is the vital key issue that will do the most to evolve, change, transform and Save Our Planet from the largely
destructive path we are now on. I say so because consciousness is the defining element of our reality. As we change our consciousness (and
a vegetarian diet WILL change one's consciousness), so too, do we change our world. As such, nothing is more important now than changing, salvaging
and bringing peace to our world today.
One of the major benefits of a vegetarian diet is that people are able to eat lower on the food chain. We live in a very toxic world.
It is common knowledge that our world environment is filled with toxic chemicals. It is known that chemical toxins such as lead, mercury, PCB's, pesticides, dioxins,
radioactive isotopes (from nuclear testing) and the like, bio-accumulate their toxicity the further one goes up the food chain.
A piece of fish, chicken or beef may have between 10 to 100 to 1000 times more chemical toxicity concentrated in its flesh than say,
a head of broccoli, a loaf of wheat bread or a serving of high carbohydrate pasta. This is because it usually takes a tremendous
amount of plant material, and water, to produce a pound of beef, for example. As such, toxicity builds up to very lethal levels in more
highly concentrated protein foods such as those derived from animal flesh. As a general rule, the lower one eats on the food chain, the lower
ones risk of chemical toxicity. Of course, this also translates into better health as well as a lesser chance of contracting cancer,
heart disease, stroke and a myriad of other forms of industrial disease.
Recognizing the fact that we have billions of men, women and children today suffering and dying from the effects of hunger, starvation, disease
and malnutrition, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to suggest that grain currently used to feed cattle needs to be re-directed into feeding people.
The growth and consumption of meat-based products, by their very nature, removes the ability of billions worldwide to properly feed and sustain themselves.
In this way, meat eating could almost be seen as a crime being perpetrated against the poor. Until we, as a species, learn to honor
and respect the rights of all sentient beings (that includes animals as well as people) to be free from the pain and suffering of hunger
and deprivation, we remain a species without a conscience and continue to languish in a level of consciousness that is unable to lift
itself up by the bootstraps and maturely pass through the comprehensive global crisis that is now upon us all. Its time to level the playing
filed and balance out those 1.2 billion people who are overstuffed with those 1.2 billion people who are starved. Its time to shift
human civilization from a meat based diet towards one that is vegan and vegetarian based, so that all may enjoy the right to life and the fullness
thereof, regardless of race, nationality or social status on this planet.
The slaughter of billions of cattle, chickens, pigs and fish for human consumption must needs be come to an end. Not only is it inhuman and
barbarian to slaughter and eat the flesh of animals, it is unnecessary and unhealthy to do so. Human nutritional requirements, especially
in the area of protein intake, can be fullfilled in other environmentally friendly ways. With enough intelligence and understanding, fruits, nuts
and other planet products can easily provide humans with the core amounts of vitamins, minerals and protein nutrients necessary to live
healthy, productive and active lives.
According to John Robbins in his widely acclaimed book, "The Food Revolution: How your diet can help save your life and the world", world
meat production has quadrupled in the last 50 years. There are now, on average, more than 20 billion livestock in existence, roughly triple
the number of human beings on the Earth today. This production goes to supply the sprawling number of fast food restaurants and mega-chain
supermarkets with their quotas of meat consumption and supply. Not only is this practice unnecessary, it is environmentally destructive and
consumes vast amounts of resources such as fresh water, whose scarcity is now no longer in question.
As we shift into an emerging Age of Ecology, whose foundations must be under-girded with environmentally sustainable and green-based, ecofriendly
ethics and values, it is becoming blatantly obvious that the production and consumption of large amounts of meat must swiftly and expeditiously
come to a complete and utter end. Its now time to phase out, decommission and ultimately end the production of animal flesh for human consumption.
Its time to take the next step in human evolution.
The transition to a green world will, therefore, be based on the widespread incorporation of localized, sustainable and organic agricultural practices
and operations in order to supply the food and nutritional needs of the masses of humanity who now, and will continue to, populate this planet.
Petroleum based pesticides and herbicides need to be rapidly phased out as well as we make the shift from a hydrocarbon based economy to an economy
based on alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and anti-gravity.
Organic farming techniques inherently protect and preserve the environment on which healthy food production depends. Most big agribusinesses
of today do just the opposite. They exploit, run down and destroy the very soil and water resources upon which they depend. Centralized mechanized/monocultrual
agricultural production consumes huge amounts of natural capital and non-renewable energy whose harvest today goes disproportionately towards meeting
the needs of the meat industry. We need to reverse this trend, outlaw non-sustainable agriculture and put the human enterprise on a path that
is vegetarian, organic, sustainable and renewable both for ourselves and in respect for future generations. Sustainable organic agriculture
is the only viable alternative and solution to an environmentally destructive and debased corporate oligarchical meat and monocultural based
society whose "profit over people" motive no longer serves the best interests of humanity.
Another devolutionary turn in the human food production business has been the advent of the food biotech industry. Genetically modified organisms (GMO's),
otherwise known as genetically modified or transgenic food, has unfortunately, wrongly and insidiously found its way into our diets. GMO food,
euphemistically known as "frankenfood"- and rightly so- is food that has been altered or genetically manipulated in some way. It is food that has
been grown with the unnatural task of primarily manipulating its color, volume, taste, insect resistance, pesticide production qualities and/or other programmed
properties. Whenever you splice insect, rodent, fish, spider, pig or other genes into food to enhance their quality or value in any way, you
invariably not only do damage to the strain or species you are manipulating, you similiarily do harm to those who consume these types of hellish products.
Monsanto, Astra-Zeneca, DuPont, Novartis and Aventis, the world's 5 biggest biotech companies, account for most of the world's market for GMO
food and seeds. In addition to producing seeds that are rendered sterile after a crop is harvested- known as "terminator" seeds- the Monsanto corporation
has also been spiking milk products with genetically altered hormones called rBGH or Posilac, used to fatten up cows. Monsanto's rBGH contains up to
10 times more the amount of IGF-1 (insulin growth factor) than is in normal milk. Higher levels of IGF-1 are suspected of increasing the risks
of prostate cancer in men and of breast cancer in women.
The commercialization of GMO/trangenic crops and food have found their way into a large percentage of the corn, soybeans and seed oil used in alot
of products the world currently consumes. Some estimates put the amount of GMO corn and corn products in our diet at 90%. 95% of the corn and soybean
meal that is fed to livestock in the USA is GMO. That means nearly every meat, poultry, egg or dairy product in the USA contains genetically
altered substances.
I contend that the manufacture and promotion of meat-base diets and GMO foods are part of an overall global eugenics operation. I believe the
deliberately condoned effects of global climate change, severe incoming global water shortages, the continuation of a failed and imploding hydrocarbon
economy, the introduction and use of GMO food and a bloated global war machine, are collectively working together to function as an insidious and evil
elitist campaign designed specifically to sterilize, destroy and depopulate a large segment of the human population on this planet. It is precisely
this agenda that stands in the way and blocks the development and formation of a global green society.
On one level, the corporate forces of death need to be confronted and exposed for who and what they are. On a more important level, the human
species needs to develop, build and break through these impediments with the forces of life and the promotion, support and institution of vegetarianism,
sustainable organic agriculture and food products free of GMO ingredients. Jeffrey Smith, author of the books, "Seeds of Deception" and "Genetic Roulette",
has recently offered a guide to consumers that identifies GMO food not to buy. This can be found online at: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com.
In as so far as humanity embraces an ecofriendly, green based, sustainable and vegetarian lifestyle, so too will our collective consciousness
as a species be changed. So too will the world be changed. As mentioned previously, I can think of no other factor more important in the struggle
to Save our Planet than a large scale species conversion to a largely vegetarian based diet.
This new diet for a new world represents a quantum leap in consciousness for the human species. It is the opportunity to develop and institute
alternative, sustainable and earth friendly ways of nourishing our bodies as well as our souls. The era and practice of killing animals and consuming their
flesh belongs to the dark age from which it originated. In the coming Age of Ecology, meat eating will be seen as but a sad chapter in the
long distance affairs of all things madly human.
SOURCES:
1. John Robbins/Diet For a New America
2. Institute For Food and Development Policy
3. North American Vegetarian Society