Make the Film *A Sacred Duty* Your Sacred Duty To View

Millions of people who eat meat and other animal products are in denial about anything and everything having to do with animal farming. They know that it must be bad, but they don’t want to look at any part of it. So all of it stays hidden and the abuses flourish—to animals, workers and the environment. If you never thought that eating meat was an environmental (and by extension, political) issue, now is the time to rethink that position.

According to a little-known 2006 United Nations report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” livestock is the major player in climate change, accounting for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (measured in carbon dioxide equivalents). That’s more than the entire transportation system! Unfortunately, this incredibly important revelation has received only limited attention in the media. It turns out that nearly every aspect of the huge international meat trade has terrible environmental and health consequences, with global warming at the top of the list.

The few commentators who have taken on the connection between meat consumption and global warming ignore the most obvious solution: not eating meat. Al Gore was even afraid to point out in his film *An Inconvenient Truth* that the livestock industry is the number one cause of global warming. The benefits of the vegetarian option are rarely on the agenda of meat eaters and governments that support and promote the live stock industry even when the environmental effects of the meat industry are under discussion. Because vegetarians enjoy lower levels of blood cholesterol and suffer less frequently from obesity and hypertension, their life expectancies are several years greater. From a sustainability point of view, what’s really needed is for people to understand the connections between factory farming, meat eating and environmental impacts.

Governments throughout the world should be sponsoring major mass media campaigns to convince people to eat more fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Cutting down meat consumption should be a public health priority everywhere!!