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photo courtesy bn ranch
Happy cows? Rajt argues that sustainable ranching is like “treating slaves
more kindly” without actually abolishing slavery.
The United Nations’ special envoy on food says that it’s a “crime against humanity” to funnel 100 million tons of grain and corn into ethanol while nearly 1 billion people are starving. So how much more of a crime is it to divert 756 million tons of grain and corn per year – plus 98 percent of the 225-million-ton global soy crop – to farmed animals? With 1.4 billion people living in dire poverty, reserving these harvests for animal forage is tantamount to stealing food out of people’s mouths.
Meat production is inefficiency at its worst. When you factor in all the water squandered on animal agriculture and all the fossil fuels needed to operate slaughterhouses and processing plants and to transport meat from the plants to the stores – not to mention the air and water pollution that results from it all – you’ll understand why it just makes sense not to eat animals. As Ms. Niman – who herself has been a vegetarian for years – can tell you, one can live quite healthily and happily without eating animals.