This Earth Day, Thinking Ethically—Not Just Locally
Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the United States
Who among us hasn’t heard it before? You don’t need to be a foodie to have read that we ought to be eating more locally-grown foods in order to reduce our carbon footprint. And I couldn’t agree more.
But the question of eating ethically involves a lot more than just questioning how many miles our food had to travel to get to our plates. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people proudly say, “I buy local meat,” implying that their meat (or eggs or dairy) didn’t come from a factory farm.
Don’t get me wrong. I applaud any effort people make to avoid supporting factory farms. It’s imperative that we reduce the suffering of animals raised for food. But we can’t ignore the thorny issue that factory farms aren’t just “out there” in a faraway land. All factory farms are local to somewhere.
Case in point: This past month, Mercy for Animals released an investigation of a “family-owned” egg factory farm located in Turner, Maine. The results were gruesome: dead and live hens confined in the same cage, birds packed into cages where they could barely move an inch their whole lives, and workers kicking the animals as if they were mere footballs.
Is it possible that some Maine egg consumers felt good about buying these eggs just because they were produced locally? How easy it would be not to look beyond the fact that they were local eggs and not consider the suffering of the animals and degradation of the, yes, local environment.
On Earth Day, those who even make the association between the food they eat and the well-being of the planet are already ahead of the game. Indeed, they’re ahead of some of the leaders of the anti-global warming movement. But while local is certainly an important factor to weigh, other factors such as animal welfare, resource efficiency, and the local environment are also critical.
One way to work toward addressing all these issues is to choose more plant-based meals with an emphasis on local produce. Raising animals for food is extremely resource-inefficient, contributes enormously to global warming, and often causes cruelty few us would ever want to witness.
And fortunately, the number of restaurants catering to vegetarian-oriented diners has never been higher, making it easier than ever to live and let live every time we sit down to eat. There’s also an abundance of free recipes online diverse enough to keep even the most variety-hungry of us satiated.
So this Earth Day, let’s keep local on our minds. But, let’s not be lured into thinking that simply being local means something is ethical.
Paul Shapiro is the senior director of The Humane Society of the United States’ factory farming campaign. When he isn’t waging campaigns to protect farm animals, he can be found lifting weights, drinking vegan smoothies, and listening to C-SPAN radio on a lawn chair in the sun.
- Posted by Guest Blogger on April 20, 2009 at 8:26 am
-
Tagged as: Animal Rights, Earth Day, Environment, global warming, locally-grown
Other posts by this author:
1 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Pingback: Column 3 | Crazy Sexy Life on November 11, 2009
Let’s veg up friends! Thanks for sharing.
Casey
meat free for 8 years, vegan for 4. never going back to eating animal products, ever!
AMEN!! Just finished reading Mad Cowboy (& read parts to my carnivore husband) NEVER eating that crap again! NO WAY! NO HOW! I will totally support my local VEGGIE growing friends =)
Oh please. It wasn’t ethics that left Jane Goodall testifying before congress that apes are human. It was “greed for grants and funding”. Organic eggs taste much different from and many times better than commercially produced eggs. They aren’t even the same color or texture. Mercy for Animals isn’t about mercy or animals. It’s about a few folk wanting to control the actions and choices of all others on the planet.
Thank you for bringing up the ethics of eating. That is what your blog is about. Many people don’t want to think about it, but as more people say NO to cruelty & learn the truth about where their food comes from, factory and cruel farms will be the minority. Obviously, would love to see them go extinct!
I just saw your movie/video diary a few weeks ago and fell in love with you! I have been vegetarian for 13 years and vegan for three. You inspired me to buy a juicer ($30.00 on Craigslist!!) and a bunch of organic produce to juice with! I am raw now for about one meal per day.
Thank you for sharing your story! I will be visiting your blog frequently!
Maureen
I think it’s torts, beans and rice for lunch! And a smoothie … mmmmmmmm
Thank you Paul for a wonderful post! I got new for Jack on the comments post – Mercy for Animals IS about Mercy for Animals and they, like us at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and the good people at HSUS work hard to expose the cruelty behind ANY meat or milk production – not just factory farms. We are voices for those who have no voice and WE are opposed and determined to EXPOSE the inherent cruelty involved in these industries as well as the environmental impact of animal based agriculture. A vegan lifestyle is THE ONLY way to go for ANYONE looking to reduce their carbon-foot print and oppose the slavery of the other living beings that inhabit this earth. Meat is murder. Period. We’re not out to control the choices of others on this planet–we are FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHTS of non-human species who suffer horribly at “our” (society’s) hands. We fight for their rights and we are the Abolitionists of our time. Could you argue that Abolitionists that fought to end the slavery of African Americans were trying to “control the actions & choices of all others on this planet”? EVOLVE!
good info paul, thanks. i would also suggest people not fall for marketing terms like “free range” and “cage free” and “humanely raised” etc. as those are industry terms, not legally binding. a lot of us have seen the footage of so called “free range” farms and now know they are no better than straight up factory farms.
cheers from overseas! keep rocking, you guys are doing an amazing job!