There is a serious decline in bees, other pollinators, birds, hedgehogs, bats & other small mammals. One of the main factors is chemical farming – 96% of arable farmland is treated with pesticides (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides) & synthetic fertilizers. We need to return to safe, sustainable methods – organic/veganic farming. *Over 22% of UK land mass is sprayed with chemicals.

Synthetic fertilisers have a carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint; although the main global warming gas is CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are also significant heat trapping gases. Both CH4 and N2O are produced in appreciable amounts by livestock production. N2O also destroys ozone.

What can you do?

Cut out (or greatly reduce) meat and dairy foods, prioritize organic foods & send this to your MP and the Minister of Agriculture. (Full text below)

Save the Earth card side 1

SAVING PLANET EARTH

The U.N. 2018 report states that globally we have 60 harvests left as soil fertility continues to degenerate; a major reason is the use of pesticides etc. Synthetic fertilizers have a carbon (CO2) footprint; although the main global warming gas is CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20) are also significant heat trapping gases. Both CH4 and N20 are produced in appreciable amounts by livestock production. N20 also destroys ozone.

“A Vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet earth – not just greenhouse gases but global acidfication, eutrophication, land use & water use.” Joseph Poore et al Oxford Uni.1st June 2018

New research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by 76% and still feed the world – and could store carbon.
The main course of current mass extinction of wildlife is the loss of wild areas to agriculture (Poore et al).

“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required…” Steinfield, H. FAO 2008.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Cut out (or greatly reduce) meat & dairy, prioritize organic food & send this to your MP & The Environment Minister.

THIS GOVT. MUST PUT OUR ENVIRONMENT FIRST:

The E.U. is actively encouraging organic production – e.g. in Austria the figure exceeds 20%. Many Govts. subsidise organics, however in the U.K. less than 4% of farmland is used organically.
France & Denmark recently agreed 50% and 40% reduction in pesticides. Most GM crops are designed to be sprayed with pesticides, threatening insects.

WE ASK THE U.K. GOVT TO:

• Urgently adopt a similar reduction (50%)
• Introduce pesticide tax (like Denmark) to fund environmental clean up
• Set a target of 20% of farmland to be organic or in conversion by 2022
• Give farming subsidies only to organic & arable farm systems

“The livestock sector emerges as one of the top 2 or 3 most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable costs.” UNITED NATIONS summary Livestock’s Long Shadow 2006.

Write to your MP to make our environment & future a priority

House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A 0AA

Include your name and postcode and ask for a response, giving you email or phone no.

Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth

“Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock – it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland”, according to this 31st May 2018 Guardian article

“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. “It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” he said, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems,” he said. “Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.”

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We can’t keep eating as we are – why isn’t the IPCC shouting this from the rooftops?

“In its crucial land and climate report, the IPCC irresponsibly understates the true carbon cost of our meat and dairy habits”, says George Monbiot in this Guardian article (8/8/19)

The problem is that it concentrates on just one of the two ways of counting the carbon costs of farming. The first way – the IPCC’s approach – could be described as farming’s current account. How much greenhouse gas does driving tractors, spreading fertiliser and raising livestock produce every year? According to the panel’s report, the answer is around 23% of the planet-heating gases we currently produce. But this fails miserably to capture the overall impact of food production.

If we want to prevent both climate and ecological catastrophes, the key task is to minimise the amount of land we use to feed ourselves, while changing the way the remaining land is farmed.

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