Animal Agriculture & Sustainability

 

By Raffy Burany

 

For many people that call themselves environmentalists, a part of that lifestyle is making sure we create a sustainable future for the next generation by keeping our current resources renewable. A major issue regarding renewable resources that has been hidden from the public, is agriculture and farm animals known collectively as animal agriculture.

Combined, they are the number one contributors of carbon emissions, deforestation and climate change as revealed in Cowspiracy. In fact, many environmental organizations that have reputations for progressive movements in the field such as Greenpeace, dance around the issue that big agriculture is the number one contributor to climate change and popularize blame onto secondary sources such as the burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and other synthetic chemical emissions rather than these biological components of climate change.

 

The question is why would reputable environmental organizations not cite the number one source of climate issues? To this the answer may be a bit more complicated and you may understand the underlying issue more by watching Cowspiracy yourself through borrowing a friend’s DVD or checking it out on Netflix. The main facts are that animal agriculture cannot last forever and this should be encouraging us to be living meat-free or very limited meat consuming lifestyles in the near future if we want to sustain our environment.

Banana Slugs for Animals (UCSC’s animal rights group and hosts of the screening event), with contributions from Animal Place as well as a multitude of sponsors gave away a generous amount of vegan products to encourage students to change their eating habits for the betterment of their own health, the planet and of course, animals! BSA had also held a raffle giving away goodie bags to a select few lucky screening participants. Overall, the event was great for encouraging students to take action advocating for farm animal, human and land health. Props to Banana Slugs for Animals for hosting the event and special thanks to Maddi Gibson and Calyse Tobias for photos provided. To find out more information on this group you can head over to their Facebook page by clicking here.