|
"Yet virtually all vegetable and arable systems receive an average of ten chemical sprayings annually through from the initial seed stage to the final storage of the produce."
Anyone who publishes such total nonsense has no credibility.
"One team led by Dr. David Ratner from the Central Emek Hospital, Afula, in Israel, blood tested several isolated cases of those suffering from this syndrome and found that various organophosphate pesticide residues intensively present in their vegetarian diet were responsible."
Dare you repeat such nonsense as a "case for meat?"
Of course, any nation, state or region that practices intensive animal agriculture is likely beholden to the agribusiness interests that push pesticides and herbicides like crack cocaine for farmers. Once hooked, they can't do without it.
It takes a total suspension of rational logic to believe that grassland grazing is somehow an efficient use of the earth's resources. Although possibly a "better" use than intensive factory farming, it is hardly an efficient use of available resources. Even with the most intesive factory farmed systems, the earth is not capable of feeding the human population. How in the world would grassland grazing feed more?
************
"Water required to produce one pound of U.S. beef, according to the national Cattlemens' Beef Association: 441 gallons" ("Myths and Facts About Beef Production: Water Use," National Cattlemen's Beef Association) <02.10.01.02>
"Water required to produce one pound of U.S.beef: 2,500 gallons" (per Dr. George Borgstrom, Chairman of Food Science and Human Nutrition Dept of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, "Impacts on Demand for and Quality of land and Water," Presentation to the 1981 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science) <02.10.01.03>
"Water required to produce 1 pound of California beef: 2,464 gallons" ("Water Inputs in California Food Production," Water Education Foundation, Sacramento, CA ) <02.10.01.04>
"Water required to produce one pound (lb.) of California foods:
* 1 lb. lettuce: 23 gallons * 1 lb. tomatoes: 24 gallons * 1 lb. wheat: 25 gallons * 1 lb. carrots: 33 gallons * 1 lb. apples: 49 gallons * 1 lb. chicken: 815 gallons * 1 lb. pork: 1,630 gallons * 1 lb. beef: 5,214 gallons
(according to Soil and Water specialists, Univ. of Calif. Agricultural Extension, working with livestock farm advisors: Schulbach, Herb , et. al., in Soil and Water, No. 38, Fall 1978) <02.10.01.05>
"In California, the single biggest consumer of water is not Los Angeles. It is not the oil and chemicals or defense industries. Nor is it the fields of grapes and tomatoes. It is irrigated pasture: grass grown in a near-desert climate for cows... The West's water crisis --- and many of its environmental problems as well --- can be summed up, implausible as this may seem, in a single word: livestock." ("Cadillac Desert", by Marc Reisner) <02.10.01.06>
"Nearly half the water consumed in this country is used for livestock, mostly cattle." (Audubon Magazine, Dec. 1999) <02.10.01.07>
"Irrigation to grow food for livestock, including hay, corn, sorghum, and pasture, uses 50 out of every 100 gallons of water consumed in the United States." (Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet, 20th Anniversary Edition, Ballantine Books, New York, 1991, pg. 76) <02.10.01.08>
|