"COWSPIRACY".. THE AWAKENING

1958---THAT'S ME ON THE FAR LEFT
5 YEARS OLD ON JUBILEE, BROTHER KEN,
AND PHIL ON WHISPER.

Takes a lot to re-awaken my spirit when it comes to our planet.. I grew up on the back of horse, where I developed a wonder of nature slopping hogs and chasing chickens, and as a child my family raised most of our own food on a 20 acre farm in Riverside,  I was hardly ever sick. Heck fire, I was Environmental Health Major at SDSU back in 1975, before Environmental Science was even a concept at most Universities.
PARIS CLIMATE CONFERENCE 2015: But that changed the other day as the leaders of 190+ Nations were tackling climate change and have made great strides in Paris, along with unifying proposals bringing in the religious segment with our extraordinary Pope Francis. I had to step it up once again, and felt obligated to write about it on Facebook, then WHAM, my old colleague David Emmerson seeing my post said, You need to see "COWSPIRACY" on NETFLIX. What an eye opener! It is nice to be a shocked once in-awhile, we get complacent about life sometimes. We need reminders that life = change. Damn, it would be so much easier to let someone else worry about the destiny of my children, and grandchild, and eat and consume whatever I want, I can afford to do it...but is it the right thing to do?  And with 7 billion people on the planet...this is not sustainable as a species

COWSPIRACY: A 2014 documentary directed by Kip Anderson and produced by Leonardo Dicaprio states in the 2006 Untied Nations report: more "Greenhouse gases" come form raising livestock than the transportation sector.... and you have to remember that methane gas (from degrading cow poo) has 86X to 105X  the heat trapping potential than C02. Here is a link to the research on this topic and the agencies involved.
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

Here are some quick facts from the documentary:
1. 1/4 pound hamburger needs 660 gals of water to produce it. Yipes!
2. 90% of the Amazon Rainforest loss is due to raising livestock, and agribusiness.
3. Dr. Will Tuttle: said "10,000 years ago, 99% of the biomass was wild animals, today 98% of the biomass is humans and their animal property".
4. Eggs is a 38:1 energy use ratio vs a 2:1 energy use ratio for a plant based substitute.
5. From 11/2 acres you can produce 37,000 lbs of vegetables vs 375 lbs of meat
6. Being a Vegetarian or Vegan saves more C02 production than going Solar.
7. Agriculture practices is the leading resource consumption and contributor to environmental degradation!

**Alternatives like the Fridheimar farm outside of Reykjavik, Iceland is a fantastic example of a creative farming using geothermal, computers and drip irrigation. Their tomato soup is to die for.

credit to:  Veggieparadise.com

PLANT BASED LIFESTYLE CHANGE AND CANCER: So shifting to a plant based LIFESTYLE is not only good for the environment it is good for you. Cancer is caused by... lots of things: choices in food consumption, radiation, chemicals, genetics, the sun etc.  What you and I can do is start making some lifestyle changes.  My 2 children have lead this charge in our family for 12 years, why... #1 their mom passed from Breast Cancer, #2 they read- Jane Goodall's  book called, "Harvest for Hope", Good choices way back then.

Guess what the first thing people do now when they get the big C. Change their food lifestyle and exercise more. A good life extension professional will take you off sugar (cancer cells thrive on it, cancer-- is mitosis cell division in action) and then take out all processed food. So why not get a head start. Can you put a price on your health and happiness?

commons: wikimedia

1. Shop at Farmer's market's or at least Whole foods type stores-- buy organic (USDA sticker)- see pic
2. Start gradually, there are substitutes for everything these days.
3. Start educating yourself on the benefits of a plant base lifestyle change.  Read the book: "Food for Life" by Jennifer Nemeth- recommended by Gina Sample-see below.
   I took a class called: "Plant based cooking" through Adult Ed. and learned a ton--they even have a substitute for Mac and Cheese (talking to you Bill) using butternut squash. Triathelete          Gina Sample ran the class and here is her website with recipes.

PERSONAL COMMITMENT: I have cut out Chicken and Beef for the most part, taking the pepperoni off my vegan Pizza....NOOO.  I am modifying my Sushi and fish intake, Almond milk---for cereal, Organic Soy for my vegan smoothies. Coconut milk for coffee sweetener, I already had a modified lifestyle change. And now I make my own dark chocolate with nuts (i have a great recipe from my nutritionist if anyone wants it).

credit to :animalaustralia-media.org

This is not only a shift in my fundamental Environmentalist approach, it is also a more compassionate way to treat our fellow animals and eventually shed light on some of the barbaric practices in factory farms (a friend of mine Naomi Call is working on a documentary that will be released next year on what really goes on in Factory Farms-especially chickens where they visited for part of the documentary).http://www.ameatfreemonth.org/
Here is her website, by the way she an exceptional plant base chef, yoga teacher and life extender:naomicall.com

We all go through chapters in life and this door has opened for me to follow and is now part of my spiritual approach to humans, animals and being a steward of our incredible planet.

And..... we still have to work on those 212,000 net babies born everyday.
We have a choice. And if you have kids, or grandkids it is pretty clear.

But first, do me a favor,  here is a chance to make a personal and fulfilling difference in the world:  see the documentary "Cowspiracy" on Netflix-- it is only 11/2 hours out of your life. thanks jerry