Health Care Without Harm: What A Novel Concept!

About a month ago, I read a cool report about Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), an international coalition of hospitals, health care systems, environmental health organizations, and other groups that want to promote the health of people and the environment. The coalition is asking hospitals to serve less meat to patients and in hospital cafeterias to help reduce greenhouse gases. So far, at least 14 hospitals are taking the "Balanced Menus Challenge."

As I wrote in a Care2 blog about HCWH, this concept makes sense on so many levels. Not only are the hospitals (there’s a list in the HCWH link in my blog) helping to halt climate change and other environmental problems, they are helping to keep people healthier. I mean, plenty of people end up in the hospital because they eat too much meat and other unhealthy foods and they need to have bypass surgeries, angioplasty, or other scary procedures. Why on earth would hospitals serve them foods that can cause high cholesterol, arterial blockages, and various diseases?

Well, okay, profit--hospitals do benefit from sick people. Many hospitals even have fast food restaurants right on the grounds. I guess they figure if visitors and staff have one too many burgers; they can just wheel them over to the ER. It'll save the trip in an ambulance.  

But c’mon, seriously, hospitals will still have plenty of “business” if people eat healthier. I hope more hospitals will take some responsibility for the environment—and for keeping people out of the hospital. Hippocrates’ Oath is “First, do no harm,” after all.

Are "Meatless Mondays" Going Global?

Perhaps it might be a bit of an exaggeration to say that "Meatless Mondays" (or Wednesdays or Thursdays or whatever) are becoming a worldwide phenomenen, but the concept is catching on!

Restaurants in Israel recently started promoting "Vegetarian Mondays" to help combat global warming and the Belgium city of Ghent urges citizens to go meatless on Thursday, also to help halt climate change. Paul McCartney is promoting the concept in the United Kingdom and Australia and The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health sponsors “Meatless Mondays” in America, largely for health reasons.  

It's a pretty good start!  I wrote a Care2 blog about it if you want some more details. It's at http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/are-meatless-mondays-going-global/.

Please check it out and vote in the poll if you have a second. Someone added a comment to tell me about a global "Meatless Mondays" petition that is being circulated for various countries.

In case you also hadn't heard about it before, the Global Meat Free Day Coordinating Team is hosting petitions for every major region, so you can just click on the country you live in and sign the appropriate petition. The list is at  http://www.meatfreepetition.com/.

I figured my vegetarian friends on PNN might be interested in signing, but I hope everyone else will sign it too--you don't have to make a big commitment, it's just one day a week. (And you don't really have to adhere to an "official" day. Just pick whichever day is convenient for you).

As I noted in my Care2 blog (and have probably mentioned on PNN too), the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook states that “refusing meat” is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.”

With "Cash for Clunkers" in the news all the time lately, I think it's a good thing to keep in mind!

"The Meat of the Problem"

Wow. Did everyone see Ezra Klein's Washington Post article explaining why people should at least eat much less meat to help slow global warming?  It's refreshing to see someone tell it like it is! As Klein points out, even some of the big environmental groups sidestep the issue, because they don't want to alienate meat-eaters by telling them what they might not want to hear. That's why they tend to stick to "safe" tips like recycling, taking public transportation, and using energy-efficient light bulbs.

But meat production not only generates lots of greenhouse gasses, it wastes water and land. It takes more than 4,000 gallons of water per day to produce a meat-based diet; a totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water a day. Food for a vegetarian can be produced on just 1/6 acre of land; it takes 3 1/4 acres of land to produce food for a meat-eater.

When you factor in all the lives that can be saved—each vegetarian saves more than 100 animals every year and vegetarians are less likely to die from heart disease and cancer—it simply makes sense to eat less, or preferably no, meat. That greasy, fatty slab of flesh just isn’t worth it!

If you haven't read the article yet, check it out and maybe even give Klein some kudos for writing such an honest, informative article.

17 Reasons to Eat "Green" for St. Patrick's Day

I wrote this blog about eating "green" foods for St. Patrick's Day for a PETA site, but I wanted to share it with all the Irish lasses and lads on PNN too. Of course, it doesn't really matter if you're Irish, Italian, Greek, or German, "eating green" is important for everyone, everyday. We all share the same planet, after all! As I pointed out in the blog, "eating green" doesn't just mean tinting your food (or beer) with food coloring, it's about making sustainable, environmentally-friendly food choices. The evidence against the meat, egg, and dairy industries is pretty damning, but, fortunately, it isn't being swept under the global carpet as much as it once was. The newly-formed Veg Climate Alliance will make sure of that too. Anyway, I hope you all have a happy St. Patrick's Day (or just a pleasant Tuesday) and remember to "eat green" the other 364 days of the year too! It’s not just good for the planet; it’s good for your health.

17 Reasons to Eat "Green" for St. Patrick's Day

In the past, eating green foods for St. Patrick's Day meant eating green-colored mashed potatoes and cabbage alongside of a huge hunk of ham or corned beef—and a bottomless mug of green beer, of course. Now, there's more to eating green than just using food coloring. If you really want to "eat green"—on St. Patty's Day and all year round—you should choose "green" vegetarian foods. I don't just mean spinach, broccoli, and lima beans either. I'm talking about veggie burgers, pasta primavera, hummus wraps, potato croquettes, vegetable curry, and other fabulous vegan foods. They're not only humane and healthy; they're easier on the environment too. Consider these seventeen reasons to ditch the smoked neck and opt for smoky soy sausage instead:

1. A United Nations report revealed that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes in the world combined.

2. The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook states that “refusing meat” is “the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.”

3. A University of Chicago study showed that switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering climate change than switching from a standard American car to a Prius.

4. Nearly half of all the water used in the U.S. is squandered on animal agriculture. It takes more than 4,000 gallons of water a day to produce a meat-based diet; a vegan diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day.

5. John Robbins claims you can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than by not showering for an entire year.

6. Animals raised for food produce approximately 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population—89,000 pounds per second.

7. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, factory farms pollute our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined.

8. The United Nations reports, “expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation, especially in Latin America where the greatest amount of deforestation is occurring.”

9. Food for a vegan can be produced on only 1/6 acre of land; it takes 3 1/4 acres of land to produce food for a meat-eater.

10. More than one-third of all the fossil fuels produced in the U.S. are used to raise animals for food.

11. Cows, chickens, pigs, and other farmed animals are fed more than 70 percent of the grains grown in the U.S.

12. Around 1.4 billion people could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone.

13. A Duke University Medical Center study showed that people living downwind of pig farms are more likely to suffer from mood disturbances, nausea, headaches, respiratory problems, and other health problems.

14. A Scripps Howard report included this warning about animal waste: “[I]t’s untreated and unsanitary, bubbling with chemicals and diseased. … Every place where the animal factories have located, neighbors have complained of falling sick.”

15. According to Chris Weber, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at  Carnegie Mellon University, "You can have a much bigger impact by shifting just one day a week from meat and dairy to anything else than going local every day of the year" Image how much of an impact you'd have if you never ate meat or dairy.

16. The United Nations report concluded that the meat industry is “one of the … most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”

17. All Earthlings deserve compassion and respect.

Have a happy and green St. Patrick's Day everyone!