Peace On All levels

“Peace on all levels” was a comment by Kevin Martin, Founder of Peace Action, the nation’s largest grass roots peace organization.  Mr. Martin made this comment as a panelist during the UN NGO Annual Conference in Mexico City.  I was the moderator of the panel.  Drawing on this thought, it is a logical conclusion that peace be extended not only to countries and populations, but also to the environment and our fellow travelers on spaceship earth.

Recent findings have left no doubt that the warming of the climate is directly linked to human activity.  Of all the causes, the livestock sector generates the most greenhouse gas emissions according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report.  The massive amount of animal feces produced in factory farms is the largest source of airborne methane in the United States.  Methane traps heat in the atmosphere much more effectively than carbon dioxide does.  Animals raised for food in the United States produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human population does – 86,000 pounds per second.  A typical pig factory generates a quantity of raw waste equal to a city of 50,000 people, but without the sewage system.  The runoff from factory farms pollutes rivers and lakes more than all other industrial sources combined.  Chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated ground water in 17 states.

Of all agricultural land in the U.S., nearly 80% is used to raise animals for food.  More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals.  Twenty times more land is required to feed a meat-eater than to feed a vegan.  Raising animals for food consumes nearly half the water used in the U.S. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat.  More than one third of all the raw materials and non-renewable fossil fuels used in the U.S. are required to raise animals for food.  More importantly, these flesh and blood, sentient creatures are killed in ways that would horrify any compassionate person.

There will be no Peace in the world until it is experienced on all levels, including the treatment of our fellow travelers on spaceship Earth, our beloved animals.