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A cow takes a break from its lunch to look around at Orr Beef Research Center in Pike County.
Angela Bauer/Journal-CourierLast Friday, the day before Earth Day, I was the keynote speaker at the Canadian Aboriginal Minority Supplier Council conference in Toronto. The purpose of the two-day conference was to bring together some of the largest companies in North America with diverse companies to learn how efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses can potentially impact their ability to do business with each other. Companies and nations are working to meet carbon reduction goals in order to prevent global temperatures from increasing by 1.5 degrees. Scientists fear such an increase could lead to serious consequences — even the extinction of life.
The 2015 Paris Accord required the 196 signatory countries to commit to carbon dioxide reductions — the major cause of global warming — to levels sufficient to save the planet. Canada committed to reduce emissions to 30 percent below 2004 levels. The United States, the world’s largest polluter on a per capita level, pledged to reduce CO2 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.
Reaching these goals will not happen without significant changes in government, business and individual behavior. Two weeks ago, the Biden administration ruled that all newly sold vehicles must reduce emissions by 50 percent of current levels. If successful, that would reduce CO2 by 10 billion tons. (The largest contributors to greenhouse gases are energy production, transportation and agriculture.)
In Toronto, I focused my remarks on the actions individuals can take that can help save the planet — and our grandchildren.
Next year will mark my 50th year as a vegetarian. I’m not looking for praise. I will admit the reasons for my decision to forgo the eating of animals and fish was that the cool kids were vegetarian. But over time, I came to appreciate the health benefits and the immorality of killing animals for food. It was only in the last 25 years that I learned that vegetarianism is the only diet consistent with a green world.
While there is some debate among medical professionals on the health benefits of a vegetarian diet, there are several studies that have linked meat consumption to diseases including colon cancer, hypertension, pneumonia, diabetes and heart disease.
Additionally, it is meat consumption that caused epidemics, including bird flu, swine flu, Ebola and COVID.
There are 29 million beef cattle in the US. They consume 75 trillion gallons of water annually and each one of those cows produce 220 pounds of methane gas, a significant greenhouse gas. Added to this is the impact on the land and ground water from the millions of tons of cattle waste.
Many of us learned as children that it is not proper to discuss politics, sex or religion at the dinner table. That taboo has been extended to discussing what’s on that dinner table. However, we must have this conversation. I know changing the readers of this column into vegetarians is an unrealistic pipe dream, but meat eaters need to confront the environmental damage they are doing by simply eating a hamburger.
The meat industry is a powerful protector of their economic interest. In 1998, Oprah Winfrey was unsuccessfully sued by the Texas Cattle Association because of comments she made in support of vegetarianism on her popular show.
Every year, Americans produce over 20 tons of CO2 per person compared to 4 tons for everyone else in the world. Modernity has significant advantages However, our personal consumption behavior in terms of how we heat and cool our homes, what we drive and how those vehicles are powered, and what we eat can no longer be ignored. We do not have to return to 18th century living, but we must change. If we don’t, Mother Earth will have the final say.
Fred McKinney is the co-founder of BJM Solutions, an economic consulting firm that conducts public and private research since 1999, and is the emeritus director of the Peoples Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Quinnipiac University.
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