Thanksgiving Draws Attention to Mass Resource Depletion

Why You Should Green Your “Meat”

Not to long ago, there was a bigger to-do about our carbon foot print. More recently, people started looking at the carbon foot print of cattle, or what they called a “cow emission”. According a 400 page report by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, the world’s 1.5 billion cattle are responsible for 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than all other forms of transportation combined.

A great measure of how much awareness is spreading about this issue is to look outside of the green community. When my non eco friends started discussing "factory farming", I knew were starting to gain ground on the importance of the impact cattle has on our environment.

It’s a more commonly known fact that cows produce a tremendous amount of methane a year, adding to an already increased global warming problem. As a natural part of a collective species, it’s a small and likely insignificant “contribution” – but when considering cattle is farmed to sustain a billion dollar beef industry, we can start seeing the compounded impact to our ecology.

Cows aren’t the only one. Any livestock that is farmed bears a similar burden on the environment. And if you recall the number of turkeys harvested and killed to cater to a Thanksgiving feast, you can start using your abacus to tally up the figures.

The Problem with Turkey

Turkey dinners have their own carbon foot print, or in this case a “wing print”, according to NPR, which did a piece on tracking the amount of resource it takes to raise a turkey and then transport it to its final destination. The added global impact of transporting livestock also strengthens the case for homesteading your poultry. Each step along the way burns natural resources from farming turkey to the fuel it takes to transport them.

DID YOU KNOW: A landmark study at Cornell University revealed that turkey meat “production consumed energy in a 13:1 ratio to protein output.” The study goes on to add that:

· Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the United States.

· Livestock are directly or indirectly responsible for much of the soil erosion in the United States

· According to David Pimentel, Professor of Ecology at Cornell University, “More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of the world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans.”

With these clear cut facts, we find ourselves hard pressed not to switch out turkey for soy even if just for one day. My recommendation is to email this article to your friends and family, particularly your guest list to get them thinking about the importance of an eco-friendly Thanksgiving feast.

At the end of the day, Thanksgiving is not about the food as much as it is about community – a gathering of loved ones over a feast regardless of what type of feast it is. And it’s hardly a celebration of gratitude if you’ve forced a turkey sacrifice for it, who I’m sure isn’t very grateful to have been included as an unwilling participant.

DID YOU KNOW: Approximately 45 million turkeys are (killed) cooked and eaten in the U.S. on Thanksgiving? That’s about a sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year.

If you’ve got to get people to consider alternative lifestyle choices by hook and by crook, then so be it. We’re on about 45 million turkeys here that will be very grateful to you for your efforts.