I have been struggling with this question for a number of months since reading the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polan and since some good friends of mine for various good reasons became vegan.

Of all of the reasons to become vegan the ones that inspire me the most to change to a diet of 80% or less of animal products is the environmental arguments. In addition to the ground and water pollution that are produced in raising live stock there is also the problem of global warming.

This came back to my attention because of a recent Time magazine (April 9, 2007) article on 51 things to do to prevent global warming. Number 22 is "Skip the Steak" because beef is responsible for mopre global warming then your BMW the article says. "The international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions - even more than the transportation - according to a report last year from the U.N.'s Food and Agricultrue Organization." It isn't carbon emissions though the worst are nitrous oxide from manure which has the global warming effect of 296X CO2 and methane from bovine's natural gas which has a global warming effect of 23X CO2. I guess looking only at CO2 production is a bit misleading, hmm.

In addition, given the amount energy that it takes to raise, ship and sell livestock the article says "If you switch to vegetarianism, you can shrink your carbon foot-print by up to 1.5 tons of CO2 a year.

I always thought that fish was safe bet because of the good oils that it provides but there are other problems with fish. It has recently come to my attention that farmed fish are fed anumber of things such as artificial color, hormones and other garbage to make it look attractive. Worse yet many farms have been feeding fish melamine the toxic contaminant that has been found in dog food. So I am avoiding farmed fish as well.

We live in such a toxic food environment that it seems the only safe reliable food is good fresh wholesome fruits and vegetables grown locally and organically. Sort of limits the options but yet again leaves us with the creme of the crop.