News Flash! Babies are poisoned in the womb by their mother's chemical toxins, and Yes Virginia, livestock grazing really does harm the environment!

Last weeks issue of Earth Talk has article on the Environmental Working Group's Body Burden Report, published in July 2005, in answer to the question: "I read somewhere that babies were being born nowadays with a number of man-made chemicals detected in their bloodstreams. This is pretty scary. How could it be?" Apparently all the 287 chemical pollutants in Mom's blood stream cross the placenta just as readily as nicotine, alcohol and other drugs. Well, Duh-uh! Eat Organic, folks!

Livestock Grazing Harms The Environment

So much for the idea that we can keep on eating meat by going back to grass fed beef. It might work, if half of us gave up meat, and the rest reduced their consumption by about 75%.

Earth Talk says: "Most scientists and environmental experts view livestock grazing as an ecological disaster. For starters, cows and sheep are indiscriminate eaters and tend to remove every piece of grass and shrub in sight, thus eliminating shelter and food for birds and other wildlife, leading to their decline. In drier regions, landscape used extensively and repeatedly for grazing eventually turns into barren wasteland not even suitable for the livestock themselves. Further, the significant amounts of waste that livestock animals leave behind play a key role in the pollution of our freshwater supplies."

The article goes on to document the amount of public land leased to cattle ranchers, and the public subsidies and tax breaks handed out to the cattle industry.

Startling Statistics: "Overseas Development Council analysts estimate that if North Americans were to reduce their meat consumption by just 10 percent, it would free up 12 million tons of grain annually for humans to eat. And a study by the non-profit Worldwatch Institute found that one pound of steak from a steer raised in feedlots costs five pounds of grain, 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 35 pounds of eroded topsoil."

Silly Me! I thought it was 2500 gallons of water per steer! When I went out looking for statistics, one USDA source stated: "In the 2 years it takes to raise a steer, it requires 12,000 gallons of water just to produce 1 pound of meat while it takes only 240 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of soybeans." According to Newsweek: "the amount of water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a (Naval) destroyer." Whatever the numbers or the source, it all adds up to a lot of water! American agriculture uses about 70 percent of all available water, accordiing to Ask Farmer Brown.

For more info about the environmental destruction caused by cattle grazing, read last week's issue of Earth Talk. Or go to their sources: FAO on Sustainable Grazing Systems, Stephen Leckie's article at IDRC - How Meat-Centred Eating Patterns Affect Food Security and the Environment, and the Worldwatch Institute article on The Price of Beef.

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