photo: baalands, Creative Commons

This is the sixth night of Chanukah, the Jewish holiday where we light menorahs each night and eat a lot of food in oil.  Oil which was supposed to only last the heroic Maccabees one night lasted eight days.  Modern environmentalists have jumped on this oil story to promote anything and everything related to oil conservation.  This holiday is the poster-child for the movement to get us off of our oil dependence.

However, while oil is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, agriculture also accounts for a substantial portion of greenhouse emissions. 1/5 of all emissions come from the livestock section.  The average American meal travels 1200 miles from field to your fork. So, what you eat does impact climate change!

The Hazon conference (which means vision in Hebrew) is promoting a more sustainable approach to food. Thus, I was a bit upset to learn that a free-range, organic fed turkey was killed by a kosher slaughtered for tonight’s dinner.  Yes, this animal certainly was treated well and its meat will be healthy for its consumers. However, eating animals is still more polluting than a vegetarian diet, even if you choose organic, free-range animals. And, what about the ethical implications of eating animals? The single greatest thing you can do to address your personal contribution to global warming is to become a vegetarian. Yes, a Prius is a flashy way of saying you care about your car’s emissions, but it’s only making a minor dent in solving the problem.

Not too be too doomsday sounding and have you dismiss me as a paranoid, negative environmentalist who thinks the sky is falling! But, we are in crisis mode now with global warming and need to make drastic changes to our lifestyles.  Eating non-industrial meat isn’t the solution; it’s a modest measure that will improve, but not solve the situation.

takepart with the Humane Society of the United States today to learn more about incorporating more vegetarian foods into your diet. Learn more about global warming and food from the Cool Foods Campaign.