Veggie/vegans to educate climate marchers in Brum

This coming Bank Holiday Monday, Midlands Vegan Campaigns seek to educate thousands of climate campaigners in Birmingham. Our message is simple - THERE`S NO SUCH THING AS A MEAT/DAIRY EATING ENVIRONMENTALIST !!!

Download this event poster / leaflet at bottom of page

Press Release - 22/8/07

"FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE WITH YOUR KNIFE AND FORK" - VEGGIE/VEGANS TO TELL ENVIRONMENTALISTS AT `CUT THE CARBON` EVENT

On Bank Holiday Monday(27th August), between 5,000 and 8,000 environmentalists are expected to march from Birmingham City Centre to a rally and concert at Millennium Point. The event marks the launch of Midlands Vegan Campaigns(MVC) who will join the march to highlight the massive impact of meat/dairy production on the planet.

Organised by Christian Aid (CA), the `Cut the Carbon` march and rally aims to raise awareness of the fact that "climate change is not just a forecast, it is happening now and millions of poor people are suffering." The Birmingham event is the latest stage of CA`s 1,000 mile march from Northern Ireland to London. CA are calling on the government to commit to cutting the UK’s emissions by at least 80% by 2050.

Steve Williams of MVC said, "This event represents a fantastic opportunity for us to launch our group, whilst informing masses of environmentally conscious people of the devastation caused by meat & dairy production. We`ll be joining the march and rally with banners/placards etc and we intend to distribute 1,000`s of leaflets, urging other marchers and the general public to change their diet for the sake of the planet, people, wildlife etc."

"MVC totally agree that the government should commit to cutting carbon emissions, but the fact is that one of the biggest solutions to climate change lies in our own hands, or on our plates, and it`s currently being overlooked. There is an ever increasing amount of evidence from a wide variety of organisations, which suggests that the adoption of a plant based diet is the most effective action that any individual can take to reduce their personal impact on our fragile planet."

"The United Nations released a report titled `Livestocks Long Shadow` last November. In this report, they state that the livestock sector accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emmissions, more than all the worlds transport combined, which only emits 13.5%. The report goes on to say that livestock production is at the heart of almost every other environmental catastrophe confronting the planet - rainforest destruction, spreading deserts, loss of fresh water, air and water pollution, acid rain and soil erosion."

"All of this compelling evidence goes to prove that there`s no such thing as a meat/dairy eating environmentalist!!"

"The most enlightened environmentalists have long since woken up to this issue. All the kitchens at last weeks climate camp were vegan and there were workshops on vegan campaigning. Sadly, many of the mainstream environmental campaign groups have yet to recognise the fact that our diet is critical to the survival of the planet."

"Our aim on Bank Holiday Monday is simple - to ensure that thousands of "environmentalists" leave the event far more aware of the environmental destruction caused by their consumption of meat/dairy products."

"MVC would like to invite veggies/vegans from across Birmingham to march with us at this event. We will be meeting outside St Martin`s Church at 11am. For further details, please see the MVC website www.veganmidlands.org.uk or call 01527 458395."

"MVC has been formed to raise awareness of the many benefits of veganism - it`s the most compassionate, healthy and ethical way to live. The primary way we`ll get our message across, is by staging Free Vegan Food Fairs, the first of which will take place in Kings Heath in November."

ENDS

Notes To Editors

1. Steve Williams of MVC can be contacted on 07963 606194, both before the day and on the day itself. For further details of MVC, see

http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk

2. Details of the `Cut the Carbon` campaign, can be found on the CA website

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/stoppoverty/climatechange/march/index.aspx

3. The UN report `Livestock`s Long Shadow` can be found here

http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm

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DOWNLOAD LEAFLET AND POSTER - Please copy and distribute.

A4 Poster

http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk/downloads/poster27august.pdf

A5 Leaflet (2 on a page)

http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk/downloads/leaflet27august.pdf

Meet outside St Martin`s Church, near the Bullring Shopping Centre at 11am. See map

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=407328&Y=286544&A=Y&Z=1 Leaflets and some placards provided, but please make/paint/bring your own banner or placard if possible. Maybe even make some costumes/props, please use your imagination!! :)

If you would like to receive regular updates from MVC and discuss veggie/vegan campaigning with others across the Midlands, please join our email list. Email

midlandsvegancampaigns-request@lists.rbgi.net with "subscribe" in the subject line.

We look forward to seeing you in Birmingham!

MVC

Midlands Vegan Campaigns
e-mail: mvc94@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk

Comments

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Veggies and Vegans?

23.08.2007 06:21

Shurely just Vegans.

VeGan

The right strategy ?

23.08.2007 08:25

Do you really think that telling thousands of people who have made the effort to march against Climate change that they are not "proper" environmentalists because they are not Vegan is the way to gain support ?

Is it not more likely that your game of "more green than you" is likely to piss off the very people we are trying to atract ?

Green but not vegan

Veggies welcome at event

23.08.2007 09:45

Vegetarians should not feel excluded simply because they have not yet made the full transition to a vegan lifestyle. The fact is that by choosing vegetarian living, they have reduced their personal eco-footprint significantly.

This event is simply an information exercise. Many of the people at this event will be totally unaware of this issue due to the lack of coverage by many mainstream green groups. We will be there to help them make an informed choice about their diet.

Midlands Vegan Campaigns

MVC

Re:

23.08.2007 10:07

"Do you really think that telling thousands of people who have made the effort to march against Climate change that they are not "proper" environmentalists because they are not Vegan is the way to gain support ?"

Should all activists shy away from telling anyone any information they don't yet know in case it pisses them off? There are plenty of global warming deniers out there who don't want to hear it because they love their X5 too much.

Tackling climate change is not just about "asking" the government to do something but about changing your own behaviour to not screw up the environment or cause more poverty.

It is people's own personal decision to become vegan/vegetarian but the message should be that people can change their lifestyle to be more ethical. Most people won't give up their car and erect a wind turbine on their house, but they probably will buy a bike, drive less, cycle more, and buy renewable electricity. So why not suggest that people can cut down on their consumption of meat and dairy to reduce poverty and tackle global warming?

Becoming vegan is the single most effective change an individual can make to reduce CO2 emissions.

1 calorie of meat uses 5-6 times more energy, water, and land to produce than 1 calorie of plant. Not to mention the massive amounts of methane produced from cow farts and burps (all of the cows for dairy and meat production in the world are considerably more polluting than all the cars in the world).

Mike D

Tactic

23.08.2007 10:10

Well seems to me that actually going for a march won't actually solve anything, might help people to ease their consciences by thinking they're 'doing' something. Obviously it might raise a little awareness, but beyond that people have to actually do something, and being vegan is a practical and easy step to make, once you get out of previous habits.

Christian Aid are also busy piling animals into Africa, and having a bunch of goats in increasingly desertified areas is absolute insanity, that i think is the main point of the protest.

Tacticalawareness

Ploughing release CO2 too

23.08.2007 17:51

It's just not true to say being vegan would automatically reduce CO2 emissions.

One of the largest stores of Carbon in the biosphere (after the oceans) is the soil. Soils contain even more Carbon than the living things walking or growing on it.

Ploughing to grow crops significantly reduces the amount of Carbon in the soil as it is intended (among other things) to increase the aeration of the soil to accelerate the decomposition of carbon so that nutrients are released to the crop.

Continuous ploughing will and can eventually lead to desertification.

Land that is used for grazing and is not being ploughed intensively as arable land is, will continue to store Carbon as the grasses and other plants in the field take in Carbon from the atmosphere, develop roots, drop leaves and eventually die.

Some improved pastures are ploughed now and then for re-seeding but they are not ploughed any where as much as arable fields in the UK for example where farmers are now trying to get at least two crops a year of their fields.

Also many upland pastures are totally unsuitable for growing crops (which is why they are not used for growing crops but for grazing sheep and cattle.) Trying to plough much of the land in Scotland or Wales or northern England, for example would lead not only to a massive release of Carbon but also large scale soil erosion, gullying, eutrophication of watercourses, silting up of lakes, etc.

These areas are also unsuitable for crop growing because climatic conditions - highlands are wet and cold which means they act as significant stores of Carbon through the formation of peat or peaty, organic matter rich soils - such as podzols. Any attempt to grow crops on these soils which have been storing Carbon for over 10,000 years since the last Ice Age would release huge amounts of Carbon and be an environmental disaster.

This is also one reason why planting tree in these upland areas will do little to prevent Climate Change. Trees immediately reduce the amount of water entering the soil by fifty per cent through intercepting rain with their leaves. At the same time the take up of water through the tree roots also dries out the soil, fundamentally changing the environment which led to the peaty soils developing in the first place (the wet and the cold.)

Drying out of these soils will lead to a significant increase in decomposition rates leading to a significant release of Carbon even taking into account the Carbon taken up by the growing trees.

Soil scientist

Vegan World

23.08.2007 19:10

Everyone (almost!) buys veg, why would we have to grow that much more?
A vegan world doesn't mean turning the earth into a giant bloomin' cabbage patch!

Farmer Smith

Reduce the effects faster....

23.08.2007 20:54

Meat and dairy production contributes about 20% of greenhouse gases towards global warming, more than transport. It's criminal that this fact is not more widespread, and anything we can do to get the message out there has got to be a good thing.

Apart from the relatively huge additional resources required to produce meat protein ( 5 times more land, 300 times more water, plus the veg to feed the animals, compared to equivalent grain protein production), meat and dairy production gives off methane, which has a greenhouse warming effect 30 times that of CO2.

Methane cycles out of the atmosphere in about 8 years, CO2 takes over 120 years.

So the conclusion is inevitable; reducing (eliminating) meat and dairy consumption will have the quickest effect on the increase in global warming. The consequences are additional savings in drug production/administration, animal transport, refrigeration, cost of processing/quality control, fewer people dying from poor meat quality, reduced domestic consumption on cooking/fridges..... and, oh yes, improvements in people's health.

Sure, there will be lots of issues about change in farming and related industries, and all the jobs that will be lost - but where are the gaslighters now? (Well, dead, of course, but they changed what they did to something the world wanted instead). The only argument for meat/dairy consumption is that it tastes nice, but that's not going to save the planet. We have to give up ideas of "traditional" foods being what we must have if we are serious about doing something.

And not that we need their support, but the move towards veganism as inevitable is supported by mainstream greens such as Monbiot, and even the UK Enivronment Agency has issued a note pointing out it's the only way for our little crowded island to go. Meat and dairy production is not a sustainable food source, unnecessary for humans to live

Transport is easy to complain about, but difficult to change (even relatively) quickly given the way we live now. But reducing meat and dairy consumption is a step we can all take now that will have an immediate effect on global warming.

Radjel

What about organic meat?

23.08.2007 21:35

The animal industry isn't just a few animals scuttling about on hilltops. This isn't Heidi.

Areas that can't be farmed (well much of that probably shouldn't be) but on hill tops etc. should be left as habitat for other beings that share this planet.

Local, organic meat? That is a more difficult argument in environmental terms of the animals just eating grass, or leftovers. They are still another mouth to feed, eating and shitting. Breathing!!!!!

But that just doesn't reflect the reality today, and by people saying, eat locally organic produced meat. There just could never be enough, and who is going to pay the prices for it? There aren't economies of scale in this form of 'ethical' farming. Those that have always eaten flesh, those people with money are the only people really involved in this side of farming, and if you look beyopnd the PR you'll see that much of this is actually 'free range' nonsense.

This form of farming leaves people who are poorer to eat cheap intensively farmed animals (which has by far the highest environmental cost), so set an example, go vegan. Because that is what is tactically needed right now in terms of the environment.

Heidi

Sheep farming destroys the environments

24.08.2007 09:53

"Also many upland pastures are totally unsuitable for growing crops (which is why they are not used for growing crops but for grazing sheep and cattle.) Trying to plough much of the land in Scotland or Wales or northern England, for example would lead not only to a massive release of Carbon but also large scale soil erosion, gullying, eutrophication of watercourses, silting up of lakes, etc."

Many upland areas have alreay been destroyed by soil erosion and silting up of lakes and rivers, and this is (mainly) a result of grazing by sheep, and in some areas cattle. Sheep have had a phenomenol effect on the countryside in the UK. They cover vast areas of land, chomping away at the vegetation, causing massive reductions in biodiversity as well as soil erosion and the resultant effects on the aquatic environment. If people were to adopt a vegan lifestyle, this would not mean we had to cultivate the uplands, it would mean we could leave the uplands to themselves and allow the wildlife to recover.

The main cause of eutrophication is diffuse pollution from animal agriculture. In fact, nearly every major environmental catastrophe on the planet can be linked to animal agriculture.

Animal farming already occupies 30% of the entire land surface of the planet, and is expected to double by 2050, as meat and dairy consuption in 'developing' countries increases along with economic growth. This is why it is imperative that environmental groups take onboard this message and start campaigning against animal farming.

Jane

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Funny if it were not so sad

24.08.2007 11:33

Amazing, there is still some people who think CO2 is the cause of Global Climate Change.

some people just don't read it seems

Soil Scientist

24.08.2007 11:52

"It's just not true to say being vegan would automatically reduce CO2 emissions. "

That is true - perhaps no single measure will automatically reduce CO2 emissions. However it is also true any reduction in the amount of meat eaten, especially ruminants, would reduce CO2 emissions, and the ultimate extension of that is veganism. It is a sick fact that factory-farmed meat has a lower carbon footprint than free-range but that is hardly an argument for factory-farming.

"One of the largest stores of Carbon in the biosphere (after the oceans) is the soil."
True overall, although not in equatorial areas where the soil holds less CO2 than the vegetation above it.

"Ploughing to grow crops significantly reduces the amount of Carbon in the soil as it is intended"
There are better farming methods such as organic 'no-till', permaculture and waste residue reclamation that should offset that. Plus a move away from irrigated crops such as rice not only reduces the release of carbon from soil, but the amount of water vapor, which is the main way humans produce this major greenhouse gas. Better domestic habits such as wasting less food not only reduces the carbon footprint of producing and shipping wasted food, but also the methane produced by wasted food in landfill or compost. In this respect at least freeganism is a vast improvement over veganism as a personal choice, albeit not as a global solution.

"This is also one reason why planting tree in these upland areas will do little to prevent Climate Change"
True, but at temperatures about 25 degrees humus is oxidized rapidly. Also in areas with a snow season, forests have a lower reflective value than bare earth. which are two reasons reforestation should be targetted at tropical areas - ironically the areas suffering worst from deforestation and forest burn-off.

So, you raise some interesting points that show veganism is not the only technique needed to fight global-warming, but you were wrong to start by saying veganism would not automatically reduce CO2 emissions as that implies it would not be an extremely positive measure. Turning vegan is more important than giving up personal transportation ( not a recommendation for more personal transportation ) and the vegans are right to highlight this.

Danny

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