The reason I gave up meat initially was the environmental impact

[Beaverhausen]

I stopped eating meat in the mid 80s when the news was starting to report on the deforestation of the planet for the purposes of grazing cattle.

I took a vacation last weekend to Sequoia National Forest. There, as we were driving among the big beautiful redwoods and stately sequoias, my boyfriend repeatedly played the Bruce Cockburn song "If A Tree Falls" - lyrics below- on the CD player. I had heard the song before but to really LISTEN to the lyrics while driving among these ancient giants was a really wonderful experience.

It seems to me that democrats/progressives who still think it's OK to eat meat just need to be educated about the environmental impact on our planet caused by raising, manufacturing and shipping meat. They may change their minds a bit.

Here are the lyrics:


Rain forest
Mist and mystery
Teeming green
Green brain facing labotomy
Climate control centre for the world
Ancient cord of coexistence
Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam -
From Sarawak to Amazonas
Costa Rica to mangy B.C. hills -
Cortege rhythm of falling timber.

What kind of currency grows in these new deserts,
These brand new flood plains?

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?


Cut and move on
Cut and move on
Take out trees

Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day
Take out people who've lived with this for 100,000 years -
Inject a billion burgers worth of beef -
Grain eaters - methane dispensers.

Through thinning ozone,
Waves fall on wrinkled earth -
Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars,
Speak of a drowning -
But this, this is something other.
Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world
Where wild things have to go
To disappear
Forever


If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

http://cockburnproject.net/

[flvegan]

1. I've never heard that song. Pretty damn cool.

I would like to agree, though I know that many progressives that are ALSO rabid environmentalists eat meat. I find that a little odd.

I would also like to believe that those progressives that are so protective of children, or the homeless, or those living in squalid communities in 3rd world countries, would also stop eating meat if they knew that if we used all the land used to grow soy for cattle, for cattle to graze on, for chicken farms, etc, we could feed the world. No more famine, no more hunger, no more starvation.

This is why I think it's important to keep bringing these points up anytime the chance arises. Sooner or later, hopefully it makes sense, then makes an impact.

Thanks for posting this.

[Piperay]

2. Yes

if they don't care about animals that is not an excuse to eat them. The impact on the environment is a global issue and they need to realize that.

[shockra]

3. I made a post on this topic in the Lounge last month.

No one responded. Maybe they didn't even read it, LOL.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3566313#3567148