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Part Seven, Issue 28. A Sustainable Diet. Objectives. After reading the assigned chapter and reviewing the materials presented the students will be able to understand: What constitutes a sustainable diet?
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Part Seven, Issue 28 A Sustainable Diet
Objectives After reading the assigned chapter and reviewing the materials presented the students will be able to understand: • What constitutes a sustainable diet? • What are the medical, social, and environmental consequences of the standard American diet? • What is the relation of industrial hog farms to sustainability?
The Ethical Gourmet (fig 28-1, page 307) • Sustainability embraces the triple bottom line of people, prosperity, and the planet and includes the goal of social and economic justice. • The American diet includes more meat (over 200 pounds per person annually) and this is encouraging industrial streamlining of the process by which animals are raised for slaughter. • This in turn has led to inhumane living conditions for cows, pigs, chicken and dangerous working conditions for employees. • The American diet has led to an epidemic of coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
The Sustainable Diet • Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, and does not harm the environment, is humane for workers and animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities. • Eighty percent of soybean harvest is eaten by animals.
Coastal Population Growth of Hogs • Coastal North Carolina has quietly become one of America’s most important centers for hog raising and processing. • Hog factory farms confine animals in stalls with eight square feet of floor space per animal in metal buildings. • The floors are slatted metal through which feces and urine fall. • Spills from sewage lagoons are common.
For Further Thought • Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are usually windowless, crowded, and polluted factories where animals are treated like production units rather than animals. • In 2001, U.S. per capita carbonated soft drink consumption was 49 gallons.
Summary • The American diet includes more meat (over 200 pounds per person annually) and this is encouraging industrial streamlining of the process by which animals are raised for slaughter. • The American diet has led to an epidemic of coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. • Sustainable agriculture is a way of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals, and does not harm the environment, is humane for workers and animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities. • Coastal North Carolina has quietly become one of America’s most important centers for hog raising and processing. • Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are usually windowless, crowded, and polluted factories where animals are treated like production units rather than animals.
Home Work • 1. What is sustainable agriculture? • 2. What are confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)?