Six Arguments for a Greener Diet: How a Plant-based Diet Could Save Your Health and the Environment [Paperback]

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has built upon the work of the Rocky Mountain Insitute, Frontline and Earth Policy Institute by providing a rational look at the environmental and health concerns involving foods we eat. This same group publishes "Nutrition Action Newsletter" and industry groups sometimes refer to as the "food police."

CSPI provides clear, concise and objective ways to grow and eat food sustainably, covered in six major areas:

1. Less Chronic Disease and Better Overall Health

2. Less Foodborne Illness

3. Better Soil

4. More and Cleaner Water

5. Cleaner Air

6. Less Animal Suffering

Recommendations include Changing Your Own Diet and Changing Government Policies. We are a nation of obsesity and heart disease by design, not accident. CSPI takes a big picture "Least Cost, End Use" (long term) sustainable and prevention approach. It is not an individual meal or snack, but the cumulative effect in our communities, regions, states, nations and world wide that are all interrelated. Long-term government policies are reflected in the epidemic of obesity in our youth. Visit almost any K-12 school and you will see the high trans-saturated fat, high salt, empty calorie foods that are modeled and served to students.

With emphasis on "grain-fed beef" for marbling, flavor and tenderness as an end-point, we have ignored the health and environmental consequences. Based on various studies, it takes between 20 and 25 Joules (60 to 100 calories) of grain to produce one Joule (4 calories) of beef. This is an inefficient way to produce food. We should just eat the grain and avoid most of "throwing away" energy on animal production.

Changing Government Policies recommends constructive, long-term, sustainable changes: 1) Increase fruit and vegetable consumption, 2) Reduce the Fat Content of Meat, 3) Reduce the Fat Content of Milk, 4) Label Food More Accurately, 5) Prevent Foodborne Disease (i.e., the recent E. coli and spinach problems), 6) Prevent Antibiotic Resistance, 7) Stop Promoting Unhealthy Meat and Dairy Foods (i.e., "Got Milk" advertising) and 8) More Healthful Meals at Government-Run Facilities. For Improving the Environment there are specific recommendations for 1) Prevent Air Pollution from Factory Farms, 2) Prevent Water Pollution from Factory Farms, 3) Reduce Water Use, 4) Reduce Pesticide and Fertilizer Use, 5) Reduce Feed Grain Use, 6) Reduce Indirect and Direct Subsidies that promote waste and 7) Prevent Overgrazing on Public Lands.

These are not new arguments or solutions, but with 300 million people in the USA (6.6 Billion on Earth) these questions and constructive alternatives become more important. Factory farms that focus on profit and ignore "externalities" are sure to encounter economic and environmental problems down the line. CSPI's recommendations run counter to industrial agriculture feeding at the trough of subsidies. Organic foods are increasingly in demand and seen as profitable (i.e., Whole Foods and community farmers markets).

There is light and healthier eating at the end of the tunnel, but we will continue to have to wade through a lot of waste and inefficiency in the name of short-term profit for a while. This book consists of "uncommon" knowledge in one place. CSPI will continue to address healthy eating in "Nutrition Action Newsletter" and future publications.

Scientific studies maintain that eating more plant foods and less animal products can lead to years of better health: a diet which also results in less pollution and impact on the environment, too. For those who would still argue the facts, SIX ARGUMENTS draws more direct links between dietary choices and environmental and health issues, with chapters providing step-by-step proofs on how meat-loaded diets lead to ill health and environmental degradation. While the theme isn't new, it's the reasoned and exact, science-based point-by-point six arguments which are clearer than more general surveys of the issues involved.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

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