"Save the planet; kill yourself?"

Everyone is trying to reduce their carbon footprint and their negative impact on the environment. Businesses are starting to be required to measure and report on their carbon generation, and the trading of carbon credits is now commonplace in many countries of the world. In a growing trend individuals are eating local in an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of their dietary choices by reducing the amount of miles that their food travels to get to them. People are opting to ride in cars with huge batteries (despite the largely unknown dangers of electro magnetic fields, and the problems of disposing of the battery at the end of its useful life), or downsizing to more fuel efficient cars, or even deciding to catch the bus, walk or bike when they go shopping to reduce their impact on the environment. We are switching to corn fuel for vehicles (ethanol), corn bags, corn plates, and corn utensils in an effort to avoid plastics, but the unintended consequence was a dramatic increase in food prices that in 2008 led to riots in third world countries.

The reality of modern living is such that no matter what you do, or how committed to green principles you are, you are still having a negative impact on the environment by your very existence. You are breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. You are traveling places using vehicles that create pollution while using roads made of converted fossil fuels. You are buying things that come in plastic or foam packaging and cardboard boxes, and were manufactured using electricity in facilities that have raw materials transported around the world to them, and which generate pollution or waste of some sort. You are eating foods that are transported to you, and you are evacuating and passing urine that goes into the sewer system, and you are using a computer that uses electricity, etc. etc.

If you become fanatical in our goal to have the minimum impact you can on the environment you could come to the rather bizarre but somewhat obvious conclusion that a woman in a photo I saw came too. She was holding a sign that said:

“SAVE THE PLANET KILL YOURSELF”

The obvious answer to this is, “No need; you can save the planet simply by not raising animals to kill and eat them”. The raising of animals to eat them has about the biggest impact on the environment than almost any other human activity. If you are truly serious about being green, adopt a vegetarian diet. That will have a much bigger impact and will have no negative unintended consequences. Do what you can for the environment, don’t go crazy over it, and do the easiest thing you can that will have the biggest positive impact – go vegetarian (while eating organic and natural foods free of GMOs).

Thanks for reading.

Mark Fergusson
Chief Vegetarian Officer