The ‘Middlemen’

I wrote my first post on the subject of Food – “Can you be a meathead and a treehugger?” a while ago now.

Reading the responses (and feeling a bit of a slacker for not having posted anything back yet… ) – one element of the (lively) debate that struck me was that there were a number of ‘nutritional beliefs’ in play, beliefs that were in fact modern myths.

I thought it might be useful to examine the top ten of these myths, thinking that if we can deal with the ‘technical reasons’ for not changing diet then we might be left with purely choice driven issues – which might help the focus of debate.

I reached out to Dr Justine Butler of Viva for some help with this and between us, over the past few weeks we’ve compiled a list of the Top Ten Food Myths and busted them.  You can read this here – take a look and see what you think.  And pls feel free to pass the PDF version around.

Pulling this together gave me an interesting new perspective on food choice. It’s probably worth reading this ‘myth busting piece’ first, if you can.  But here’s my new perspective;

Animals are the middle men in our diet.  They get what they need from plants.  They get what we need from plants.  And we don’t actually need them to get it for us.

In fact it’s most inefficient for us to use animals to get our nutrition.  For example it takes roughly ten kilos of vegetable protein (fed to a cow) to make one kilo of meat!  Animals consume huge quantities of water (something that will be increasingly scarce in the world) and they belch and fart their way to being one of the biggest contributors to climate change – a bigger cause than transport at some 18% globally.  And for what?

Whether we’re talking B12, Iron, Calcium or Protein – Plants can provide all that we need and often in a form we can use more readily (and safely) – if we don’t pass it all  through the bodies of animals first.

We’re pushing ourselves up the food chain because we can, or because we could (in the days of cheap abundant oil).  It costs vastly more to feed a meat eater than a vegan or vegetarian, it adds massively to climate change, it brings serious (and awful) health problems.  And it costs a shed load of oil (and rainforest) into the bargain.  Not to mention it’s not a very nice way to treat animals.

All of this will shortly be a luxury we cannot afford anyway.  The way we eat today is not sustainable.

We need to take animals out of the equation (eventually, not overnight) and convert our farms to Organic (fertilizers are the product of massive fossil fuel use).  We need to be using wind powered farm machinery (the wind powered tractor is on the ‘drawing board’) and grow (much) more of our own food here in the UK.

Probably the biggest single step that we can take (towards food sustainability) is to stop feeding the food that we grow to animals to achieve that incredible 10 to 1 ‘diminishing return’ – we’re talking about (roughly) an order of magnitude increase in efficiency after all…!

It’s clearly more sustainable not to eat animals or their by products and clearly a big step to fighting climate change.  It also brings big health benefits and it’s a far cheaper diet.

And then there’s animal welfare, and the holocaust we visit on them and their children year in and out.  (Seriously – 860 Million chickens a year are slaughtered in the UK and over 10 Billion ‘chicken periods’ (eggs) are eaten every year)

IMO – There’s an unarguable case to shift our diets.  Simple taste preference or habit is a weak counter argument, and immoral given what we know.

Cheers.

Sea Shepherd Returns From the Whale Wars

February 9th, 2009
10:00 Hours. (Sydney Time)
15:00 Hours (PST)

The Sea Shepherd ship the Steve Irwin and her crew have withdrawn from the Japanese whaling fleet to begin preparations to return with a faster and longer range ship.

“I have said always said that we would do everything we can short of hurting people to end illegal whaling in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “We have done everything we could with the resources available to us this year. We have shut down their illegal operations for over a month in total. We have cost them money and we have saved the lives of a good many whales. And although we are willing to take the risks required, even to our own lives, I am not prepared to do to the Japanese whalers what they do to the whales and the escalating violence by the whalers will result in some serious injuries and possibly fatalities if this confrontation continues to escalate.”

Captain Watson said that he has been operating at a disadvantage against three harpoon boats that are superior in speed and manoeuvrability to the Steve Irwin.

“We need to block those deadly harpoons and we need to outrun these hunter killer ships and to do that I need a ship that is as fast as they are and I intend to get one and I intend to return next year.” He said. “We will never stop intervening against their illegal whaling operations and we will never stop harassing them, blockading them and costing them money. I intend to be their on-going nightmare every year until they stop their horrific and unlawful slaughter of the great whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.”

This year the crew of the Steve Irwin pursued the Japanese fleet from December 18th until January 7th for over 2,000 miles, shutting down their operations for a month. The crew returned and relocated the fleet on February 1st and pursued them for another 9 days during which time the whalers were only able to kill five whales. A pursuit of the Yushin Maru #2 by the Steve Irwin on December 20th caused ice damage to the prop of the whaling ship and forced them out of operation for a month and a half. The harpoon vessel was denied repairs in Indonesia much to the embarrassment of Japan.

Confrontations between the Steve Irwin and the whaling fleet have resulted in numerous close calls and two collisions causing minor damage. The whaling fleet this year deployed Long Range Acoustical Devices (LRAD’s) and high powered water cannons against the Sea Shepherd crew. No whalers were injured. Three members of the Steve Irwin’s crew were injured with one man requiring five stitches above his left eye after being hit by a blast from the LRAD and knocked over.

Captain Paul Watson is dismissive of Japanese accusations that Sea Shepherd deliberately rammed their whaling ships “The whalers and their hired PR flunkies can say whatever they want now but we have over 1,000 hours of video footage documenting every moment of the campaign. Our story will be told on a weekly series on Animal Planet with the show Whale Wars. People can watch and judge for themselves. The camera is the most powerful weapon in the world and we intend to demonstrate that power.”

On January 31st, the Japanese government dispatched a security vessel called the Taiyo Maru #38 from Fiji to intercept the Steve Irwin. The ship is believed to be carrying a special boarding unit and has orders to seize the ship and all video evidence, according to a source in Fiji. The ship is expected to arrive in the Ross Sea within days.

“We cannot allow this documentation to be captured by Japan” Said Captain Watson.

The Steve Irwin will be returning to Australia and is expected to arrive within the next two weeks. The ship had only another four days of fuel reserves to remain with the fleet before being forced to return anyways.

“Another four days is simply not worth getting someone killed,” said Captain Watson. “We are down here because we respect the sanctity of life. The whalers are down here to illegally destroy life. People can choose to side with life or with death, between the whalers and the whale defenders, and we have chosen to defend life, and for those who condemn us for what we are doing, all I can say is that we are not down here for them. We’re down her for the whales.”
Captain Paul Watson
Master – The Steve Irwin
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
www.Seashepherd.org

A Very Tense Day of Saving Whales

January 5th, 2009

By Captain Paul Watson

Today was one of the most intense confrontations that I have ever experienced. Our one ship the Steve Irwin was aggressively attacked by the entire Japanese whaling fleet..

Three of the vessels, the hunter killer harpoon ships are faster and more manoeuvrable than us and the fourth, the factory ship, the one we call the Cetacean Death Star is eight times larger and armed with six very new and extremely powerful water cannons. All four ships are equipped with Long Range Acoustical Device weapons systems called LRAD’s.

It all started this morning on the fifth day that we have prevented the whaling fleet from killing any whales. One of the harpoon vessels had uncovered its grenade tipped harpoon and was bearing down on a defenceless Fin whale.

Two small boats from the Steve Irwin were launched to block the harpoon and our helicopter took off to document the action.

The small boats were moving between the harpooner and the factory ship when two crew members on the Nisshin Maru aimed the LRAD directly at our pilot Chris Aultman.

Chris said that immediately he heard a rattling sound in his helmet and then he felt the vibrations in his legs and chest. He retreated before the device could disorient or confuse him. We were all shocked that they would target the helicopter. The chopper was not a threat to the whaling ships, it was involved in documentation only. It was completely irresponsible to aim that devise at an aircraft. The potential to have caused our helicopter to crash was very real and very intimidating.

Ashley Dunn from Tasmania, a cameraman with Animal Planet filming for the series Whales Wars from the helicopter reported experiencing the same sensations as Chris Aultman.

Suddenly the two inflatable boats were struck by LRAD sonic blasts from the factory ship and one of the harpoon vessels. Steve Roest from Britain became instantly dizzy and fell forward cutting open his head above the left eye.

As I watched this unfolding I suddenly found I had some serious problems of my own. The two other harpoon vessels were moving in fast directly towards the Steve Irwin and they were both on a collision course with us.

As they approached closer we saw them man the LRAD devices and we saw one of the vessels trailing a long prop fouling rope.

What began then was a four hour ordeal of zigzagging and avoiding that rope, a task made very difficult with the sonic blasts causing physical discomfort.

I decided that the best move to avoid the fouling ropes was to steer into the approaching whalers to out intimidate them. It was a twisting, churning, chase as they sought to disable us and I fought the wheel to avoid them, a chase made even more dangerous when the third ship began to move towards us.

As I moved away towards the port side in the direction of the Nisshin Maru I was attempting to pass the factory ship on her starboard side when suddenly the massive hull of that ship turned in towards us. As I turned away from it, the Nisshin Maru kept turning into the Steve Irwin and forcing us back towards the harpoon boats.

The harpoon boats were whipping about like bi-planes in a dog fight so I radioed the two small inflatables, the Delta and the Gemini to act like fighter planes and cut off the attack of the hunter killer boats.

The two small boats made courageous and direct fast runs on the bows of the whalers, enduring the sonic blasts to throw small lines to foul the props of the attacking boats. Each time they did this they succeeded in turning the harpooner away from us.

When a harpoon boat would get by them, I was forced to make big S moves to keep them from crossing our bow.

The Japanese crew on the harpoon boats were throwing chunks of metal and ice at the inflatable boats. The water cannons came dangerously close.

Despite this the Gemini boat roared in and delivered 15 bottles of rotten butter onto the harpoon deck of the Yushin Maru #3, turning it into a nauseating stinkpot.

In order to keep the Nisshin Maru from attempting to ram the Steve Irwin, I dropped a long mooring line behind the ship to keep all the whalers off our tail.

But the harpoon boats with their superior speed kept moving closer and they came from three different sides.

If one of them succeeded in fouling our prop, we would be dead in the water, some two thousand miles from New Zealand or Australia. With the safety of my ship and crew in serious jeopardy, we had to evade these attacks

As the Yushin Maru # 1 pulled in close and was about to speed across our bow, I fired flares over them to scare them off. They retreated for a few moments and then moved back in again. This time I fired a line throwing rocket over top of them, laying down a long nylon rope directly across their deck. As the long line snaked overboard towards their prop, they backed off.

But all three of the harpooners kept coming in again and again. We could see the whalers on the deck flipping us off and throwing objects at the small boats. They were throwing pieces of lead and strangely enough golf balls.

During this melee the helicopter managed to land on the Steve Irwin to refuel and then lifted off again.

As the Yushin Maru # 3 moved in the Gemini caught their prop and brought the harpooner to a dead stop, knocking them out of the chase.

As the chase raged on across the Ross Sea I had to bring in the small boats and the helicopter before they all ran out of fuel.

But the Japanese whalers were not going to make that easy. The Nisshin Maru turned its massive bulk towards us and we saw it bearing down on us with its powerful water cannons spewing frigid high pressure water with the force of jackhammer. We were being caught in between the LRAD blasts from two harpoon vessels. I could not slow down and Chris Aultman was forced to land his machine on the back deck while we were moving at full speed.

Next came the retrieval of the small boats and that was going to be extremely dangerous with the two harpoon vessels moving in so close.

I decided to take a page from the Wild West and began doing circles. This circle the wagons move completely took the whalers off guard and they found they could not penetrate the circle to cross our bow without risking a major collision.

The Yushin Maru # 1 kept on our stern in the circle as the Yushin Maru # 2 moved counter clockwise around our clockwise circle. I then called in the boats and the recovery training that Bosun Dan Bebawi had been drilling into his deck crew paid off. The Gemini raced up along side inside the circle and hooked onto hook from the hydraulic crane as the ship continued the high speed circling. With the Gemini onboard, the Delta came in and was retrieved. It was a difficult procedure, especially with the sonic blasts making our bodies extremely uncomfortable. I found my head starting to ache and a tight feeling in my chest.

Finally with the boats and the helicopter safely onboard I turned counter clockwise and dropped a long mooring line behind the ship to force the harpooner trailing us to retreat.

We then sped towards the Nisshin Maru as I turned towards any of the harpooners that attempted to move in on us.

The Yushin Maru # 3 after an hour was able to disentangle the line from the prop and they were underway again.

Finally the harpooners sped off in different directions leaving us to continue our pursuit of the Nisshin Maru.

The crew were dazed by the LRAD’s but thrilled to know we had protected the safety of the ship. We had only three minor injuries. Five stitches for Steve and some ointment for the rope burn on my right hand. Laurens De Groot from the Netherlands received some wicked bruises on this fingers.

I had never in my life been attacked by four ships at once and it was a great relief to see them steam off away from us. We are however very prepared if they should return.

If the Japanese whalers thought we would be easily intimidated they learned very quickly that Sea Shepherd excels in the art of intimidation and quite frankly we have far more confrontational experience than these cowardly whalers who for the most part do little but shoot defenceless fleeing whales in the back.

And thus the day ended with our pursuit of the fleet resuming as we looked ahead to the sixth whale safe day.

Captain Paul Watson
Master – The Steve Irwin
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
www.Seashepherd.org

Meanwhile I’d like to start a new thread – on the same subject but this is not about farming it’s about hunting an endangered species for the sake of money. This post comes to us direct from the Southern Ocean, from the Captain of the ‘Steve Irwin’ as he and his crew of volunteers chase the Japanese whaling fleet across the most dangerous ocean in the world. This is direct action at it’s very best and these are the words of Captain Paul Watson himself. Enjoy.

From the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin

2330 Hours January 29th, 2009
The Eastern side of the Rose Sea
The Southern Ocean

We are only hours away from returning to the Japanese whaling fleet. We left them on January 7th after chasing them for three weeks and forcing one of their harpoon ships to Indonesia for repairs.

We were forced to retreat 2500 miles to Tasmania to refuel and it was another 2500 miles to return to the Eastern side of the Ross Sea to resume our interventions against Japan’s illegal whaling operations.

For two years we have forced a 50% reduction in the kill quota. We are well on our way to making it a third year.

Meanwhile the International Whaling Commission is negotiating with Japan to possibly legalize their whaling activities in return for a mere 20% reduction.

This would be a disaster for marine conservation. It would amount to legalizing the slaughter of an endangered species. The Japanese whaling fleet is targeting endangered and threatened whales in an established international whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling. They are in violation of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species and they are violating the Antarctic Treaty.

What the Japanese whaling fleet is doing is no different than elephant or rhino poachers in Africa with the exception that Japan is a rich industrialized nation and the African poachers are impoverished citizens of poor nations.

Our one ship the Steve Irwin is up against a Japanese fleet. One large factory ship, three harpoon vessels, one supply ship, two spotting vessels and a large vessel sent down by the Japanese government with an armed Coast Guard unit on board.

Last year Japanese Coast Guard officers threw concussion grenades at us and fired shots. One shot struck me in the chest and if not for my Kevlar vest, it would have been fatal.

We don’t know what to expect this year but we know that the whalers are becoming increasingly desperate. Last year we cost them $75 million dollars (U.S.) in loss profits. We are hurting them economically and we intend to sink them economically.

As I write this, it is midnight and the sun has dipped briefly and will rise again in a two hours. When it does, our helicopter will head towards where the fleet is and we will follow.

The chase will begin anew for the second time this season. And as they ships flee from us, as they have done every year, they will not be killing whales and every day that we can prevent them from killing a whale is a victory for us.

Captain Paul Watson
Master – The Steve Irwin
Founder and President of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
www.Seashepherd.org

So here we go – kicking off in style with our first ever guest post. It’s from Juliet Gellatley – founder of Viva! – the vegan association.

I first met Juliet (and came across Viva) a few months ago. It was a bit like meeting yourself in another reality. If Ecotricity was about food we’d be very much like Viva. I’ve a lot of admiration for what Viva does and stands for, and for what it’s achieved already.

Anyway, without further ado I’ll hand over to Juliet, who makes a compelling case for a change in diet and the way we ‘make’ our food.

Cheers, Dale.

Can you be a meathead and a treehugger?

This is like saying can you be an environmentalist while jetting across the world for years in an aeroplane! The simple, if inconvenient fact, is that no, you cannot have your cake (or should I say steak) and eat it.

Being environmentally-friendly is all about changing your lifestyle, from choosing a green energy supplier to using a bicycle. It affects the way we drive, how much we travel, what we use, re-use and recycle. But being green doesn’t stop there. The Achilles’ Heel of our carbon footprint is meat.

The meat industry is at the heart of the world’s environmental catastrophes from acid rain to desertification; loss of biodiversity to global warming. If you don’t believe me, check out the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s report Livestock’s Long Shadow – a massive blow to those eco warriors who like to chomp on a burger while pondering the wonders of carbon offsetting and eco balls. It reveals that the livestock industry is responsible for a whopping 18 per cent of harmful greenhouse gases, through animal flatulence, industrialised production methods and the release of carbon from sinks through deforestation and slash and burn policies, among other things.

Considering the fact that the entire world’s transport systems make up only 13.5 per cent, this is really saying something. It means that people can help the environment by simply changing what they eat! In fact, a vegan driving a four by four has less of an impact than a bike-riding meat-eater!

Talk about fuel efficiency, what about food efficiency? A plant-based diet is far more efficient in providing us with all the nutrients we need – and not just us in the western world but all people.

Imagine a piece of land ten hectares big (or five football pitches to you and me). This can provide enough meat to feed only two people. That same amount of land will feed ten people with maize, 24 people with grain and an impressive 61 people with soya. Land used for grazing and feeding cattle is destroying our rainforests, causing desertification, killing and displacing millions of wild animals, driving many species to the brink of extinction, as well as causing most of the world’s pollution and consuming most of our water. And that’s not even the end of it.

A worldwide plant-based diet would require less than a quarter of the present agricultural land and could feed the millions who currently live in starvation. What are we waiting for?! Meat consumption is set to double by 2050 meaning there has never been a more urgent time to reconsider our eating habits.

So, are your burgers and bangers worth this environmental catastrophe? You would have to be a meathead to think so!!

To find out more visit: www.viva.org.uk/hot

Viva! was founded in 1994 by Juliet Gellatley, who is the organisation’s director. She also founded Viva!’s sister group, a registered charity called the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation, in 2002.

Why start blogging?

There are things that I think need to be said. There are things I want to say. It might be a reaction to a news story – like the crazy ‘Renewables Fudge’ story above, or new ideas that need airing.

There are big questions out there – how will we keep the lights on, what kind of cars will we drive (will we drive?) and how will we feed ourselves – in a post oil world, and a world where we can’t afford to keep burning things and throwing things away. I want to talk about this stuff, and hear other peoples views.

I want to discuss the next Industrial Revolution with you, and help bring it about.

It strikes me that a Blog is communication – 21st Century style and I thought I’d try it out.

That’s the end of this first post, time to post something you might get your teeth stuck into – courtesy of some crazy announcements by our government….

Thanks for dropping by,

Dale