FoA Tells Environmental Leaders - Put Your Carbon Credits Where Your Mouth is - Urges leaders to make a New Year’s resolution to “Go Vegan” for the planet
Darien, CT — A prominent international animal advocacy organization sent a strong message to environmental leaders on Friday: “Put your carbon credits where your mouth is.”
Friends of Animals believes that addressing animal agriculture, a significant contributor to global warming, is long overdue. As leaders in Copenhagen have been scrambling to come up with solutions to our climate crisis, most are contributing to it through their diets.
“While we applaud your actions to reduce industrial emissions, we feel that not enough is being done to reduce greenhouse gasses caused by animal agriculture,” wrote Friends of Animals President, Priscilla Feral. “That’s why we are calling on you…to make a New Year’s resolution to ‘Go Vegan.’”
Numerous studies prove that the demand for meat and dairy products is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Recent findings released by the Worldwatch Institute demonstrate that 51 percent of the world’s emissions can be attributed to dairy and meat production. Others show that animal agriculture alone emits a whopping 80 percent of all methane gas emissions. Even a small, family-owned organic dairy or chicken farm can produce more greenhouse gases than an industrial factory.
Environmental leaders should be committed to reducing all of their emissions, not just those they find convenient. By going vegan, these leaders will be letting people know that they can make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gasses just by changing their diet.
Added Feral “Going vegan is the easiest and most effective step a person can take to reduce greenhouse emissions…Animal agriculture is responsible for everything from deforestation to factory farming waste ponds —and if you eat meat or dairy, you are contributing to these destructive practices.”
Veganism is a diet that voids all use of animal products, including meat, poultry, eggs, dairy and honey. In addition, we shun all use of leathers, wool, silk and furs. For those interested in learning more about veganism, please download a free copy of the Vegan Starter Guide, courtesy of Friends of Animals, today.
A copy of FoA’s letter may be viewed here.
Post your comment
Comment Guidelines: We welcome your expressions of opinion on this subject. Please avoid false commentary about individuals or groups. Facts must be verified by the person posting. Off-topic comments, and comments inappropriate for a readership of all ages, may be deleted. E-mail addresses will never be published. Only comments with valid e-mail address will be published.
4 Comments
On December 18, 2009, Sally Malanga wrote:
It has to be repeated over and over, our diet is killing us and the planet, together. Way to go Friends of Animals for your call to veganism!
On December 20, 2009, Katherine Lopez wrote:
Yes, this has been repeated over again through different agencies and it needs to be repeated for it to stick in peoples minds and our leaders.
Veganism IS direct action.
On December 27, 2009, Ashley wrote:
People die.. no matter what. I have two cousins, Michele & Stephanie. Michele is 41, recovering alcoholic, smokes a pack a day, eats beef 4-5 times a week and chicken/seafood the rest (beef rare as possible I might add), not many veggies mostly potatoes. Stephanie is..was..37. Never smoked a day in her life, occasional drinker, ate all organic/all natural foods, didn’t eat beef/pork, rarely ate chicken. She passed away in May to breast cancer.
I’ll eat what I want to eat and do what makes me happy.
FoA comments:
It makes you happy to eat dead animals? You are sicker than your cousin Stephanie was and you should be ashamed to have exploited her unfortunate death to justify your own sickness.
On December 28, 2009, arhoads wrote:
Ashley - Yes, people die no matter what. It really depends on circumstance and genetics. Diet has an impact on our overall health, we know this. However, what is not mentioned is that a predisposition to breast cancer (gene) brings on a higher probability of occurrence than without the gene.
Eating meat and dairy may affect people in different ways, through obesity, high cholesterol, etc. However, without blinking I can tell you that consuming these products and furthering the business of animal agriculture is putting a strain on our environment. So rather than comparing one person’s health to another, maybe we need to focus more on how animals are treated, isolated and killed - and how this business is harming every other living being on this planet.
You say, “I’ll eat what I want to eat and do what makes me happy.” But will it make you happy now to know that you are contributing to our climate change?