Supreme Master Ching Hai wearing Veggie Fur (Faux Fur)

THE BRITISH government has been commended for its work in sustainable food policy by the Vietnamese-born humanitarian and philanthropist Ching Hai but she has urged Gordon Brown to go a step further to save the planet.

In a recent interview, Ching Hai reiterated that the reliance on meat in our diets is killing the planet. It also seems to be killing us. Her request coincided with the recent announcement from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), that there is “convincing evidence” that eating processed meat heavily increases the risk of bowel cancer.

Ching Hai said, “As early as July 2008, a report commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to evaluate the UK’s food policy, acknowledged that “a healthy, low-impact diet would contain less meat and fewer dairy products than we typically eat today.” She added that meat consumption causes a huge expense to the NHS. “A study conducted in the UK also found that lifelong vegetarians not only have fewer visits to the nation’s hospitals, each person who is vegetarian saves the NHS, and taxpayers, close to £50,000, individually. This can add up quickly to savings of billions.

“I wish the UK would continue in this direction just as you did to curb smoking. It worked, so it could do with meat.”

Ching Hai believes that proactive measures are needed immediately. “The livestock industry is the top greenhouse gas generator. The last published findings from the United Nations in 2006 told us that the livestock industry causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation sectors combined—aeroplanes, trains, cars, motorcycles, etc., all together. An updated calculation tells us that the livestock industry is responsible for at least 50 per cent of global warming.”

She has set out to eliminate meat consumption and continued, “Currently, 80 per cent of hungry children live in countries that export food crops typically to feed farmed animals in the developed world. Moreover, two-thirds of US grain exports feed livestock rather than people. Veg is the first and foremost way to stop global hunger and global warming.”

She said that Simon Fairlie, the editor of the Land magazine, estimated that if Britons were to adopt a vegan diet, Britain could feed itself on 3.0 million hectares, half the land now under cultivation. She also particularly praised Prince Charles for his leadership on the environment. Ching Hai said, “How many leaders do this? He is a man of action ahead of his time. For example, he opened an organic produce market, and is trying to halt the deforestation of the rainforest worldwide. A full 80 per cent of the deforested Amazon rainforest is used for cattle grazing. The remaining 20 per cent is used for growing soy for cattle feed. He also donated £1.5 billion for forest preservation. Who else would do this?”

She added that Prince Charles is one of a kind. “In his memorable words, we can only be “courageous and revolutionary” in solving climate change. His leadership is inspiring people, not just in Great Britain but worldwide.”

She also commended Professor Tim Lang, Environmental Minister Hilary Benn, MP David Drew, and EU Parliament’s Edward McMillan for advocating a plant-based diet.

Ching Hai then pointed out that livestock is the single largest human-caused source of methane and accounts for 37 percent of the total, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Therefore, Ching Hai believes that the climate control policy should be directed at methane rather than carbon dioxide. “Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years. Even if we were to eliminate it to zero now, CO2 in the atmosphere would continue to heat the planet. Scientists are now saying that methane has a heating capacity 100 times greater than CO2 within the first 5 years. It then dissipates out of the atmosphere in about eight years.”

Ching Hai said that the bottom line is simple. “If meat eating were halted, then we still have time to handle the carbon dioxide.”

To combat this, Ching Hai is advocating more organic vegan farming. She said that it could be very productive on top of all the environmental benefits. “It saves 37 percent more energy, and even more water, than conventional farming methods. The topsoil stays and proves better at withstanding floods and hurricanes. Wildlife and ecosystems also win. Furthermore, organic vegan farming will halt the runoff of chemical fertilizers that have created monstrous dead zones in the ocean.” She cites a shocking statistic. “One animal farm produces much more waste and pollution than the whole city of Houston, Texas, and imagine how many animal farms we have.”

There is already proof in the UK that organic farming can work. She added, “According to the largest study done on organic farming in the UK, organic farms contained 85 per cent more plant species, with 71 percent taller and thicker hedges, and a healthy return of native animals across the species.

There is no down side, as Ching Hai says, because the organic soil is so effective at removing more CO2. “Organic soil matter also absorbs CO2 so effectively that the Rodale Institute calls organic vegan farming a powerful strategy to reduce global warming.” If 60% of the current arable land were used to grow organically, it would absorb 50% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere.

She added that governments should support organic vegan farming through subsidies, redirecting funds away from the meat industry.

There are even studies that say a vegan diet would be an inexpensive way to cool the planet. Ching Hai added, “A scientific study conducted by The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, called “Climate Benefits of Changing Diet,” found that a vegan diet, which excludes animal products entirely, would reduce the global government cost of stabilizing the Earth’s atmosphere by 80 percent compared to a meat diet.” The report concluded that US$20 trillion, or 50 percent of a total US$40 trillion estimated cost, could be saved from the global shift to a low-meat diet.

Some of the calculations show outstanding reductions. “Researchers in Germany compared emission savings according to diet,” she said, “measuring them in kilometers driven by an average, mid-sized European car. So, if a meat-based diet is equivalent to driving a mid-size European car 5,000 kilometers each year, then the animal-free organic vegan diet represents just 281 kilometers, or an incredible 94 per cent less emissions.

There is already recognition from round the world of the huge, harmful effects of the meat industry. As Ching Hai said, “The European Union this year acknowledged that meat consumption has a negative effect on climate change. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-Jeou and the entire presidential office signed a declaration of measures to reduce carbon dioxide, which includes eating locally and partaking of more vegetables and less meat.” She added that Belgium’s second largest city of Ghent has declared every Thursday a Veggie Day, and this school year, all city schools will have vegetarian meals every Thursday. This summer, vegan US Congressman Dennis Kucinich endorsed the first-ever Vegan Earth Day and state Senator Jamie Raskin initiated a vegetarian week in Tacoma Park, Maryland.

Tim Lang, the professor of Food Policy at the City University, agrees there has to be change. Recently, he said in a column in the Daily Telegraph, “For the British diet to be sustainable, it will have to lower its carbon and water footprints. That probably means a big reduction in meat and dairy, but more fruit and veg; fewer animals reared on cereals (using the land twice over) but more fed on grass, which allows them to lock carbon into the soil. Some argue that this more labour-intensive food system could be good for jobs and biodiversity. Let’s hope so. The current system cannot go on.”

Ching Hai also cites such leading luminaries on the subject of climate change as NASA’s Dr. James Hansen and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As Ching Hai continued, “Dr. Hansen has explained the threat of increased carbon emissions. The so-called ‘safe’ level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is 350 parts per million. But our atmosphere is measured to be already over that safe mark; now we are at 385 ppm.” That’s 385 parts per million!

“In 2008, Dr. Pachauri revealed that UN estimates are, in fact, much lower than what scientists now discover to be meat production’s harmful terror in the heating up of our planet.”

“Dr. Pachauri is also a strong supporter of Sir Paul McCartney’s campaign, Meat Free Monday. Both acknowledge that the adoption of a plant-based diet is the single most effective action that an individual can do to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ching Hai also said that a beneficial side effect of veganism is that it combats pandemics like swine flu by reducing livestock farms which harbour viruses and disease. “The Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine in the US called on leaders to “shut down the flu farms” citing that “1 in 3 pigs harbours flu viruses. We should ask ourselves, ‘Is our appetite for meat worth the price of a possible pandemic?’”