What’s on your plate??

Never would have our individual choices made such a large difference in the global totality if it wasn’t global warming that was being discussed. But this very phenomenon has turned out to be more than a fancy phrase we throw in now and then to show that we care. And we are not quite convinced on the entire issue until the Rain Gods decide to surprise us from nowhere in the middle of May. But yes, it is happening, and you don’t have to look too far to trace the sources. What’s on your plate can tell the whole story.

What we eat is becoming quite the deciding factor in the future of our planet. With meat becoming highly dominant in most menus across the world, the rate of global warming has reached alarming levels. And for those who saw no connection between the two, here’s a factual peep into where the two twains really meet.

As statistics stand today, the meat industry is conspicuously standing out as the biggest polluter in terms of green house emissions, accounting for as much as a fifth of the total annual turnout of the ozone-destroyers. Almost a 100 million tonnes of methane comes from livestock farming every year, and there is no end to how much of our arable land and potable water is directed towards animal agriculture. Cattle are known to have a bigger carbon footprint than the more popularly indicted vehicles themselves. Deforestation has been blatant all over for creating grazing grounds to feed the farm animals. Add to that the indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizers to make animal feed, and you will know how this whole industry is poisoning our planet. 

If you are wondering how this can be rectified, cutting down on meat consumption is quite indisputably the best way to start. Diet change has come to be the biggest power in our hands as individuals who want to save the planet from its doom. To gauge how much of this will really help, it has been calculated that there can be a reduction by 1.5 tons in carbon emissions on an annual basis when a person quits eating meat.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri is now urging people to skip meat at least for a day in a week to counter the mounting environmental problems. He is promoting this as a solution to start with after the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation brought out grave estimates on the meat industry’s contributions to the global greenhouse gas emissions.

And if the United Nations message is not something that appeals to you, the idea is now also being packaged with a tinge of glamour to it, and the popular faces of Paul McCartney and Sheryl Crow may do a better convincing. The question is – are you listening?

Understanding how intensive livestock production is wrecking our planet will inevitably reflect how our shallow ecological ways eventually come back to haunt us in due course of time. So for all the meat addicts amongst us, it is time to stop being reckless, and start being responsible. If nothing else, anthropocentrism will spell the doom of our planet, which is what we exactly seem to be heading for, what with our acceptance of the institutionalized animal abuse in livestock farming and the associated environmental hazards.

Renouncing meat, at least for a day a week, will do us all some good, and in a climactic sequence of actions, we must then progress from an environmental-friendly diet to other constructive steps like afforestation and eco-restoration. And why stop at just the ‘one meat free day a week’ junction? Vegetarianism is in itself a very powerful choice, and an unequivocal means of direct action. Deep ecology has just the answers to all our woes.

So let’s all brace ourselves to be a little uncomfortable without that piece of meat on our plates, but let us rest assured that our planet is here to stay.