Alexandra Paul: We Choose What We Eat

There is not a lot we feel we have control over in this world, but one thing we do have control of is what we choose to eat.

I admit that sometimes it feels like there is a devil on my shoulder making me crave that chocolate confection, but ultimately I know that it is I who lifts my hand and puts the utensil in my mouth. I have the craving, but I forgo because I know there is a greater good in not eating that Rich Chocolate Melt in Your Mouth Dessert. In this case the greater good is Vanity, not gaining 5 pounds.

In the case of meat, the greater good is even greater, and good-er: the well being of the whole dang planet and millions of innocent cows who currently lead lives of dirty desperation, crammed into feedlots and then slaughtered so we can eat them. If that depresses you and makes you run for a yummy dessert, fine. At least you aren't propping up greedy, heartless agricultural corporations and killing the planet in the process.

I still nosh on chocolate, but I quit eating meat 31 years ago, when I was 14, after reading Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, which discussed the pollution caused by the cattle industry, the unhealthiness of red meat and the cruelty to the animals when they are raised for food. That convinced me to give up eating meat forever.

In the last 3 decades, the reasons to give up meat have become more acute. Millions more cows are being slaughtered each year after being raised in inhumane conditions (see http://www.farmsanctuary.org/mediacenter/assets/reports/beef.pdf to learn about the short, tortured life of beef cattle). With more cattle, more cattle waste is streaming into rivers and seeping into aquifers. A cow can produce 120 lbs of wet manure daily! More steroids and antibiotics are being used to stem the spread of disease as the "Confined Animal Feeding Operations" (CAFOs), the feedlots in which cows are kept, stuff more and more animals into smaller spaces. The animals are fed cheap corn, which is as unnatural to a cow as you and I eating sawdust (actually, some of this cow "food" also has sawdust added as filler). Already a farting machine, their unhealthy forced diet just exacerbates this and cows emits 100 million tons of methane a year, a potent greenhouse gas.

Nothing worthwhile is easy. For many, it will be difficult to give up meat. You will face cravings for fast food hamburgers, and raised eyebrows from dubious friends who will think you are having a midlife crisis or just going through "a phase". When you feel your resolve failing, go to websites like http://www.byebyebeef.com/ and http://www.farmsanctuary.org/, or books like John Robbins's Diet For a New America. You will be reminded of all the good you are doing by this one decision, and you can reward yourself with an extra large Toblerone.

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Alexandra Paul is co-host of www.earthtalktoday.tv. A 30 minute video interview with Frances Moore Lappe is online at http://www.earthtalktoday.tv/video-media/earthtalk-online-videos.html