Reconnecting to Our Innate Compassion

This three-part presentation was delivered by Benedicte Gadron, Carla Golden, and Gordon Stamler on 27 September 2015 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Lowcountry in Bluffton, SC.

Benedicte Gadron – Environment

­GREENHOUSE GASES
(all data citations here)

• Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

• Even without fossil fuels, we will exceed our 565 gigatonnes CO2e limit by 2030, all from raising animals.

• Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human­related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.

• Reducing methane emissions would create tangible benefits almost immediately.


­WATER ­

• Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) water use ranges from 70­140 billion gallons annually.

• Animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34­76 trillion gallons annually.

• 2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of beef.

• 5% of water consumed in the US is by private homes. 55% of water consumed in the US is for animal agriculture.
­

LAND­

• Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land.

• Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction.

• Animal agriculture contributes to species extinction in many ways. In addition to the monumental habitat destruction caused by​c​learing forests​and converting land to grow​f​eed crops​and for animal grazing,​predators and “c​ompetition”​species are frequently targeted and​h​unted because of a perceived threat to livestock profits. The widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers used in the production of feed crops often interferes with the reproductive systems of animals and​p​oison waterways.​The overexploitation of wild species through​ c​ommercial fishing,​bushmeat trade as well as animal agriculture’s impact on​ c​limate change,​all contribute to global depletion of species and resources.

­

WASTE ­­

• Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the US. This doesn’t include the animals raised outside of USDA jurisdiction or in backyards, or the billions of fish raised in aquaculture settings in the US.

• A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people.

­OCEANS ­­

• For every 1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by­kill.

• Scientists estimate as many as 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed every year by fishing vessels.

Hi! I’m Benedicte, you hear me advertise for the Eat Without Meat potluck we have every 3rd Saturday of the month. We just had a great one last week actually. We went to Greece this time! Although I don’t consider myself vegetarian or vegan, I practically hardly ever eat meat anymore. It sort of happened over the years. My body was not craving it, on the contrary, I would feel heavy and have a long difficult digestion after eating meat.

Now, one more reason for me to head toward Zero Meat in my diet is that I know I can efficiently and positively impact the environment. I do my best to be good to the environment: I bring my own non plastic bags to the store, I try to buy in bulk as much as possible, I don’t use styrofoam cups or plates, I even avoid paper plates. I bring my own cup and refillable water bottle, and don’t buy plastic bottles. All of that is good and I wish more people would follow me on that. But reading those facts gives me such hope, because the impact we can all have through the simple choice of what we eat and don’t eat is so much greater here.

I tried to pick the most striking facts to make an impression on you, of course. Hearing those facts might be striking, but let’s watch that short video as well.

Some of you may just be thinking right now: “Yes, OK, but gosh, the taste of a good hamburger, haaa! How can I give up on this? And it’s part of my culture too anyway!”

Well, here is for me the best way to cut any resistance left in me. I feel for the planet, I ache for Her. But sometimes I feel like connecting to my culture too, and food is one way to it. Eating all kind of meats was part of my upbringing, especially in France. We even eat rabbits and frog legs there! We have a tradition of torturing geese and force feed them so they develop a liver disease, all of that for us to enjoy our Foie Gras for Xmas and New year’s Eve.

So what works really well then is for me to picture the face of a cow, and her beautiful eyes, or her baby calf, or a little lamb, or even a pig. Some people have pigs as a pet, instead of a cat or a dog. Pigs are actually very clean animals, in a air conditioned house! They are smarter than some dogs and very affectionate too.

Would I want to have my cat for breakfast? Nope! So I reconnect to my natural compassion and it works, whether it is my compassion for the Earth or for the animals.

I will be honest with you, I sometimes fail and I do have meat, and I will try to rationalize that choice by choosing a grass fed beef, for example. And yet, I am fooling myself because even if every meat lover would turn to that choice, it would be impossible to feed everyone, we just don’t have enough room left on the planet! Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land.

But that includes those farms that contains such a big population of cows that they can’t move at all and never see a blade of grass in their entire life. We are talking about the “cheap” meat you find on the shelves in every supermarket. It might be good value but is it worth what we pay for it in the end?

If this is not enough, I turn my attention to the ocean. I love the ocean, that’s one of the reasons why I love to live here! Many people still believe that the ocean has unlimited resources of fish and animals and it will always be there for us.​ We could see fishless oceans by 2048.

2048, that is only in 35 years! I would be 83 years old. If this is really happening, I don’t want to be a witness of that. Can you imagine an ocean without one fish in it? We will have to come up with a different saying: If your grandson broke up with his girlfriend, you will have to say something like:“There are many f… shipwrecks in the sea, my boy!”, unless we want our grandson to stay single… I don’t understand why people who have children are not more sensible to what is happening to our planet right now. We might be lucky and die before we witness those terrible predictions but our children? Our grandchildren? What world are we leaving them? Some parents leave them a good heritage, lots of money and a big estate. But will they be able to buy clean air or water if it’s all toxic? It sure will be too late for a plant based diet, if the soil has become sterile.

Let me read you this: Animal agriculture contributes to species extinction in many ways. In addition to the monumental habitat destruction caused by​ c​learing forests and converting land to grow feed crops and for animal grazing, predators and “c​ompetition”​ species are frequently targeted and​ h​unted​ because of a perceived threat to livestock profits. The widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers used in the production of feed crops often interferes with the reproductive systems of animals and​ p​oison waterways.​

The overexploitation of wild species through​commercial fishing, ​bushmeat trade as well as animal agriculture’s impact on​ c​limate change,​ all contribute to global depletion of species and resources.

The list of facts is totally overwhelming, I only covered maybe 2⁄3 of it, I haven’t mentioned the facts about the Rain forest, Wildlife, and Humanity. But I did mention hope earlier and I will conclude with those amazing facts:

• A person who follows a vegan diet produces the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide, uses 1/11th oil, 1/13th water, and 1/18th land compared to a meat­lover for their food.

• Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent, and one animal’s life. Each day.

If you are like me, concerned for the planet and its inhabitants, people and animals, please start considering having 1, 2, 3 or more meatless day per week, and same for dairies. Carla Golden will explain to you how you can achieve that while still enjoying your meals and actually improving your health.

Carla Golden – Health

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to stand before you today. My intention and goal is to present useful information that will inspire you to improve and extend your life.

I am going to tell you something that few people understand. There is no human nutritional need for the flesh or fluids of animals. By flesh I mean meat or the bodies of cow, pig, chicken, fish, goat, or sheep, rabbit, or frogs. By fluids I mean dairy and eggs. By dairy I mean milk, cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and kefir. By eggs I mean, you guessed it eggs. If you have access to a decent grocery store, all the nutrients your body needs to thrive can be purchased as plant foods. By plant foods I mean fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, lentils, peas), tubers (potatoes and other root vegetables), nuts, and seeds.

All whole plant foods are a combination of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and all the other necessary nutrients your body requires to function well. Yes, an apple contains protein. Who knew? And these plant foods, again in whole, recognizable form, contain none of the substances that cause disease such as the saturated fat-cholesterol combination, carcinogens, or the absence of fiber.

In other words:

Meat is not what needs to be for dinner.
Milk does not do a body good.
The edible egg is, alas, not incredible.

Approximately 97% of Americans are fiber deficient, while only 3% are protein deficient. These few people are malnourished individuals who are not meeting their daily caloric needs. The 97% who are fiber deficient are eating too many fiberless animal foods, too many highly processed plant foods stripped of fiber, and not enough fiber-rich whole plant foods.

If you eat your required daily calories of a minimum 1,200 per day for every adult in plant foods, you will intake an adequate and safe level of necessary protein and other macro and micro nutrients. For example, one bag of organic frozen sweet peas contains 25 grams of clean, safe protein.

As a vegan who eats only plant foods, you can imagine the question I am most often asked is: but where do you get your protein? And my favorite response is: well, how much protein do I need?

Not a single person I ask knows the answer. Yet everyone is concerned that I’m not getting enough protein.

Considering my individual caloric needs based on my age, activity level, and gender, I need around 43 grams of dietary protein per day. That one bag of sweet, organic peas supplies 58% of my daily protein requirement. It is of no daily concern to me whether or not I am intaking enough protein. I am getting enough protein by eating ample daily calories to sustain my weight and energy. I don’t even think about the protein issue.

While protein deficiency is rare, there is ample evidence in America of animal protein over-consumption. The formation of kidney & gall stones, gout, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndrome are all related to urate crystals forming when uric acid is not metabolized during animal protein digestion. Animal proteins are very acidic in nature and lead to inflammation in the internal body environment.

Urate crystals can form when the body pulls calcium from the blood & bones to neutralize the acidity of animal protein digestion which then can give rise to arthritis, rheumatism, bursitis, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and varicose veins.

Meat, dairy, and eggs have too much protein and absolutely no fiber. The human body with its very long intestinal tract requires insoluble fiber to push food through the passage. True carnivores (cats, wolves, birds of prey) have very short intestinal tracts in comparison to humans and do not need plant fiber to move their bowels. If you are not comfortably moving your bowels at least once a day, you are not getting enough dietary fiber. The solution is not to chug some fiber powder in juice, but to cut back or eliminate fiberless meat, dairy, and eggs and increase whole fiber-rich fruit, veggies, grains, legumes, and tubers.

The only vitamin not readily nor reliably available by eating CLEAN, washed plants is Vitamin B12. It comes from bacteria in dirt and collects in the flesh of livestock who eat from the ground and are fed vitamin-fortified feed. B12 is easy and safe to supplement and is the only water-soluble vitamin that can be stored in the human liver for years.

America’s #1 killer, heart disease, currently kills 1 out of every 3 Americans. 70% of Americans are overweight and getting fatter. Studies forecast that by 2030…in 15 years…50% of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic.

This is painful. This is tragic. This is expensive. This is unacceptable. And this is largely preventable and very often reversible.

Before I launch into my next paragraph let me inform you that both my father and my husband are doctors. I am not a doctor-hater AND I dislike the conventional medical system very much. Acute emergency care in America is top notch and heroically saves many lives.

However being healthy is bad for the long-term healthcare (I mean, sickcare) business which encompasses doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies. As in being healthy, there is also no money in you being dead. You are most profitable to the vast system when you have a supposedly incurable chronic disease that needs to be managed by medical professionals, requires prescription drugs, and gets covered by your insurance company. The longer you can be a bit sick, the better….for profitable entities who have shareholders to please. 50% of Americans are taking some form of prescriptive drug. Lipitor, a statin drug to reduce cholesterol, is the most profitable drug in the world selling 7.2 billion dollars a year all while high-cholesterol is largely preventable.

Make no mistake. Your health is no one’s priority but your own. The medical-pharmaceutical-insurance complex wants you in the system and taking drugs for as long as possible. The food industry wants you addicted to their products and formulates their highly processed food-like edibles in such a way that guarantees your repeat purchases. The right combination of fat and salt or fat and sugar mixed with industry chemicals are magically addictive formulas. Potato chips anyone? Ice cream? How about McDonald’s, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut?

Reclaim your health, if you want. Reduce and eliminate refined sugar in foods and drinks, reduce refined starches like fiberless flours and stripped, nutrient-empty grains, reduce or eliminate red meat, processed meat, white meat, dairy, and eggs. Focus on a variety of whole, fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, tubers, nuts, and seeds. Baked potatoes piled high with chunky salsa, cashew sour cream, and fresh cilantro or a mushroom and onion pie with brown rice crust are two examples of whole food plant-based delicious and nutritious eating. The recipes are abundant!

Recipe: Spectacular Plant-Based Chilied Potatoes with Cashew Sour Cream

Every cell of your body and brain is fueled by glucose which is obtained most easily through carbohydrates, ideally in the form of whole fruits (which are simple, fast carbs) and whole starches (which are complex, slow carbs). Carbohydrates are fuel. Proteins are architecture. Fats are insulation. Yes, the body can convert protein and fat into fuel in a state of ketosis however this is an emergency, survival state of metabolism and isn’t intended to be extended for protracted lengths of time. High protein, high fat, low carb diets are all the rage right now. Paleo diets and neuvo Atkins diets are sweeping the nation. Ketosis does lead to rapid initial weight loss but weight loss does not guarantee or equal good health. These diets, while often healthier than the Standard American Diet where anything and everything goes, beg for heart disease, gall & kidney stones, gout, and diabetes.

Ah, diabetes. Diabetes is a dietary fat problem that causes a sugar problem. Too much fat and too many refined sugars and carbs is a recipe for disaster. (How many recipes start with a cup of sugar and a stick of butter?) Not only is a whole food, plant-based diet a vast improvement toward true wellness, but a specifically low-fat, whole food, plant based diet can prevent 80-90% of the cases of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, certain cancers and can often even reverse many chronic cases.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association “several conditions known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease — such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol — also increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Some autopsy studies show that as many as 80 percent of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease also have cardiovascular disease.” If you’re clogging the blood vessels to and from your heart, you’re blocking the blood vessels to and from your brain. (And to and from your genitals, but that’s another talk.)

If you don’t believe me because I don’t wear a white coat and carry a stethoscope, listen to cardiologist Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and cancer researcher Dr. T. Colin Campbell, both medical nutritionists, on their website, in their documentary, and in their cookbooks all under the name of Forks Over Knives. Change your diet (fork) to avoid going under the scalpel (knife).

There is much more to say about the merits of a safe & smart plant-based diet yet I will stop here. Please feel welcome to approach me anytime with questions. Healthful eating is my favorite topic!

Gordon Stamler – Ethics

I hope you will not kill the messenger to avoid the message. I am going to talk about things that most people say “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.” I am going there.

I went through a slaughter house at the age 12. I stood at the Unitarian Uiversalist podium 21 years ago at the Beth Yam temple. At the time I had been a member for about 5 weeks and Patricia Friedman and Peggy Tweel recruited me because I was a vegetarian and I was part of a program just like today. After reading the talk we were doing I ended my talk with my own comment. It is a holocaust for the animals. It is still true, only in greater numbers.

I was in the third grade and there was a small 12” ruler in my desk and it had a brass edge set in wood and it said below the numbers: The Golden Rule “Do unto others that which you would have them do unto you.” That made sense to me. I choose to extend that Golden Rule to other species and treat them the way I would want to be treated.

What is different is that we now have 3 main reasons for not eating the animals. 1. Moral and ethical reasons, 2. Your health, 3. and now climate change. If you have no moral feelings for the animals, if you do not care how eating them affects your health, then You must care about the factory farming of animals as it is a direct cause of global warming and therefore climate change. That has all changed and the overwhelming issue of climate change or global warming has made it a moral and ethical imperative.There is no plan B if we destroy our planet.

So now it is a win-win-win to stop eating the 2 billion animals the planet consumes on a weekly basis.

The modern animal factory has a baseness that borders on criminality. All should see the factories for pigs, cows, chickens, veal and the suffering of sentient beings. If you eat them you are a part of this violence. You are also eating all the pharmaceuticals they are fed to keep them alive in these conditions. Ignorance is not an excuse to continue. Religion is a mockery when it condones this atrocity.

The truth is, there is no animal product, no animal exhibit, and no animal test that doesn’t inherently violate the basic principle that animals deserve the right to live their natural existence without the interference of humans. Outlawing cruelty to animals would mean outlawing animal products outright. This means that if you oppose animal cruelty, boycotting animal products entirely is the only logical course of action.

One must allow his compassion to cross over the species barrier to embrace the rights of animals.

Throughout history, there have always been public figures who have spoken out for the animals.

Albert Einstein: “It seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore.”

There is more than food on our plates. With every meal, we consume something of the substance of our own values and commitments. Do we respect the demands of reason? Do we value our ability to think and act on our own? Are we satisfied that we are doing the best we can with our lives? These are the truths we consume every day, whether we eat with friends or alone.

We cannot do everything in defense of those who cannot defend themselves. This does not mean that we should be content with doing nothing. We must be a voice for the voiceless.

Seneca said in 4 BC: “All cruelty springs from weakness.”

When an injustice is absolute, one must oppose it absolutely. It was not ‘reformed’ slavery that justice demanded, not ‘reformed’ child labor, not ‘reformed’ subjugation of women. In each of these cases, abolition was the only moral answer. Merely to reform absolute injustice is to prolong injustice. Animal rights demands this same answer: abolition.

7 states have laws that you are not allowed to video in a slaughter house, it is considered an act of terrorism. This is a moral and ethical issue and the slaughter house itself is an act of terrorism.

Chief Seattle said “If all the beasts were gone, man would die from loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast, happens to the man.”

This is a moral and ethical issue. There is no legitimate excuse for eating animals, none.

Albert Schweitzer: “Until he extends the circle of compassion to all livings things, Man will not himself find peace.”

We torture and kill two billion sentient living beings every week. 10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one, and we are now facing the sixth mass extinction in cosmological history. If any other organism did this, a biologist would consider them a virus.

And although animals do not have fundamental rights, human beings have certain moral obligations towards them.

Immanuel Kant: “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”

It is true, therefore, that women do not exist to serve men, blacks to serve whites, the poor to serve the rich, or the weak to serve the strong. The philosophy of animal rights not only accepts these truths, it insists upon and justifies them.

Once this truth is acknowledged, it is easy to understand why the philosophy of animal rights is uncompromising in its response to each and every injustice animals are made to suffer.

Jeremy Bentham: “The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer?”

It is not larger, cleaner cages that justice demands in the case of animals used in science, for example, but empty cages; not “traditional” animal agriculture, but a complete end to all commerce in the flesh of dead animals; not “more humane” hunting and trapping, but the total eradication of these barbarous practices.

Someday and not in the all too distant future people will say, I can’t believe that they use to keep people as slaves. I can’t believe that women did not have the right to vote. I can’t believe that they needed civil rights to have people treated more equally. I can’t believe that they would not let LGBT people live their own lives. And I cannot believe that they use to eat animals.

Thomas Edison: “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”

A cultural blind spot, against all odds we have accepted a huge injustice and we turn a blind eye. We are accepting a holocaust for the animals and have built nonsense arguments for our behavior.

Common sense is not very common. Can we not simplify this discussion? Would you do to your dog or cat, or fish or bird the things that are done to factory farmed animals? Can we tolerate what happens to the pigs in order to have bacon?

Why should we not give rights to animals? We routinely ascribe inherent value, and thus the right to be treated with respect, to humans who are not rational, including infants and the severely mentally impaired.

Pythagoras: “For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”

The crucial attribute that all humans have in common, is not rationality, but the fact that each of us has a life that matters to us; in other words, what happens to us matters to us, regardless of whether it matters to anyone else. We each experience being the “subject-of-a-life.” If this is the true basis for ascribing inherent value to individuals, to be consistent we must ascribe inherent value, and hence moral rights, to all subjects-of-a-life, whether human or non-human.
The basic right that all who possess inherent value have, is the right never to be treated merely as a means to the ends of others.

The argument for animal rights does not rely on a radical new theory of ethics, but that it follows from a consistent application of moral principles and insights that many of us already hold with respect to the ethical treatment of human beings. “inherent value” or “subject-of-a-life” status can be determined, and note that the sufficient conditions —for example, having sense-perceptions, beliefs, desires, motives, and memory—in effect reduce to “similarity to humans”. it follows from the ascription to animals of the basic right to be treated with respect that we should abolish the breeding of animals for food, animal experimentation, and commercial hunting. We must conclude that it is morally wrong to use animals for meat, clothing or any other purpose that does not respect their rights.

although the interests of animals often conflict with the demands of society, such as BUT (I want to eat them and cheaply) society remains responsible for the welfare of the animals involved. Considerations regarding animal welfare ought to be based on veterinary, scientific and ethological norms, but not on sentiment. And although animals do not have fundamental rights, human beings have certain moral obligations towards them.

UU – Henry David Thoreau “The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.”

For when an injustice is absolute, one must oppose it absolutely. LET ME REPEAT, It was not “reformed” slavery that justice demanded, not “re- formed” child labor, not “reformed” subjugation of women. In each of these cases, abolition was the only moral answer. Merely to reform injustice is to prolong injustice.

Let me close with this thought. ​Animals must be off our menus, because tonight they are screaming in terror in the slaughterhouses, in crates and in cages. Vile gulags of despair.

Conclusion by Carla Golden

Thank you for allowing Benedicte, Gordon, and me to stand before you today to make a three-part presentation outlining why eating the flesh & fluids of animals is not nutritionally necessary and, in fact, detrimental to human health, is devastating to Earth’s natural resources, and is unjust toward nonhuman animals, our fellow Earthlings.

Our goal is to empower you with this awareness so that you can re-connect to your innate compassion all the way to your kitchen & plate, and in the process improve your health and cause less damage to the environment. No other diet has the power to do so much good in the world as a plant-based diet.

I would like to echo some familiar words to you and ask you to feel in your heart if they take on a new, deeper meaning because of today’s presentation:

“To affirm the inherent worth and dignity of all people and all life.”

“To promote justice, equity, and compassion in all aspects of life and living.”

Food is a complex, interconnected, and intersecting social justice issue if we consider society to include Earth and all her Earthlings.

I encourage you to acquaint yourself with The First Principle Project which is a collective action by UU congregations to update at the General Assembly in June the UU First Principle to read “every being” in place of “every person.” The UU Congregation of the Lowcountry could be one of 15 congregations to help the First Principle to read: “We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every being.”

In your chair we have placed a Vegan Outreach brochure and a paper with important websites so that you may pursue further education on the topics of this presentation. We know this is a lot of information today, so our entire presentation is online for you to re-read and share. If you have any questions, please feel welcomed and encouraged to stay for the discussion after refreshments. Thank you.

Additional Resources

• Johns Hopkins on Health & Environmental Implications of Animal Consumption

• 57 Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet

• Best film for Vegan Environmentalism: Cowspiracy.com (available online or on Netflix)

• Best film for Vegan Health: ForksOverKnives.com (available online or on Netflix)

• Best film for Vegan Ethics: Earthlings.com (available online)

• The UU First Principle Project: FirstPrincipleProject.blogspot.com