Chief Seattle’s Address, 1854

GLOBAL WARMING, inequity,
war and the other problems
we face are a direct result of
our cultural attitudes and
practices. Is there an idea that could
transform the roots of our culture and
lay a solid foundation for peace and
sustainability? A timeless, universal
idea that is beckoning to us three times
a day but which we mainly fail to recognise?
Yes, I believe there is, and it’s
our daily food.
Our most immediate and socially significant
connection with the larger order
is through eating food. Our food choices
are a surprising and overlooked key to
understanding our culture and ourselves.
By making wise food choices, we can
transform our world into a place of
harmony and abundance.
We were all born into a culture
that forced us, virtually from birth,
to eat the flesh and secretions of certain
animals who are bred, confined
and killed for this purpose. Early on,
we are taught the habit of disconnecting
the reality that is on our plate
from the reality of getting it onto our
plate. We became masters of the art of
disconnection.
There is no greater taboo in our
culture than honestly discussing the
environmental devastation, cruelty and
disease caused by using animals for
food. The reason it is such a taboo is
that in our hearts we yearn to live in
a world of kindness and respect for all
life. We naturally feel a kinship with
animals. So we repeat to each other
many erroneous myths such as the
protein myth, the taste myth, and the
no-soul myth to justify our routine
abuse of animals; but the main cause
of our ongoing oppression of animals
is our disconnectedness: we turn away.
All the institutions of religion, science,
media, family, government, business
and education co-operate to keep our
catastrophic abuse of animals wellhidden,
ignored and trivialised.
And catastrophic it is. Not just to the
animals, but to us as well. For example,
global warming is eating meat and
dairy products. According to a recent
major study by the United Nations
entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow, the single
largest contributor to greenhouse gases,
of all human activities – greater even
than all transportation by car, truck,
bus, boat, train and plane – is livestock
production. Breeding millions of cows,
pigs and other animals for food is the
greatest source of nitrous oxide (from
manure), a greenhouse gas 296 times
more powerful than carbon dioxide,
as well as animal-generated methane
gas, which is twenty-three times more
powerful. The science on this is unequivocal.
Eating animals requires massiveamounts of fossil-fuel inputs, directly
pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
In the West, we transport
over 70% of our corn, soybeans, oats
and other grains to feed animals. We
pump water to irrigate these fields,
and manufacture millions of pounds
of fossil-fuel-based fertiliser and pesticides
to grow animal feed. We use vast
amounts of fossil fuel to house and
slaughter billions of animals yearly.
The end result of all this is that while

it takes two calories of fossil fuel to
produce one calorie of protein from
soybeans, and three calories for wheat
and corn, it takes fifty-four calories
of fossil fuel to produce one calorie
of protein from beef! It’s easier to see
the gallons of petroleum poured into
our cars than it is to see the gallons of
petroleum poured into our cheese,
eggs, fish and meat. We waste huge
amounts of petroleum for our meat,
and send our young to war to ensure
the supply.
On top of this, the primary driving
force behind deforestation is cattle
grazing and clearing land to grow soybeans
and other grains to feed factoryfarmed
chickens, pigs and fish. This is
a further major contributor to
loss of biodiversity and global
warming. Sixty per cent of fish
is now factory-farmed, causing
severe water pollution and
decimating wild fish populations.
Our limitless appetite
for factory-farmed fish, birds
and mammals has brought our
oceans to the brink of collapse.
Dairy cows are fed huge quantities
of fish to ‘enrich’ their feed
to increase milk and meat output.
It takes three to five pounds
of caught fish to make one pound of
farmed salmon. We have exterminated
fish, turtles and sea mammals to such
an extent that jellyfish are now taking
over parts of the ocean, and fishing
vessels have to go out so far that
they use ever-increasing amounts of
fuel. A recent study published in The
Lancet medical journal concluded that
the only effective way to reduce greenhouse
gases is to reduce human consumption
of animal foods.CONVERTING PRECIOUS LAND and
grains to animal fat, protein and sewage
is extravagantly wasteful. It is the
main driving force behind water pollution,
topsoil loss, habitat destruction,
and the ongoing extinction of species
that many biologists say is the greatest
threat our Earth is facing.
Eating animal flesh, dairy products
and eggs is also supremely unjust. With
our higher incomes, we buy grain and
feed it to animals whose flesh and secretions
we eat and drink, driving up
the price of grain so that millions suffer
starvation. Thich Nhat Hanh has
summed it up well: “Every day, 40,000
children die in the world for lack of
food. We who overeat in the West,
who are feeding grains to animals to
make meat, are eating the flesh of these
children.”
A diet based on animal foods devastates
our personal health. Animal
fat, animal protein and cholesterol are
directly implicated in heart disease,
diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, kidney
disease, strokes, cancers, arthritis and
many other ailments. The largest human
nutrition research project ever
conducted, the China-Cornell-Oxford

study, concluded that “the closer
one approaches a total plant-based
diet, the greater the health benefit.”
Eating animal foods also devastates
our human spirit. Meat
production requires a merciless
exploitation of what we know in
our bones is the most sacred dimension
of life: mothers giving
birth, nesting and nurturing their
babies. Female animals are usually
raped with sperm guns, their
babies are stolen from them and
killed, and the mothers (mere
‘breeders’) are also killed for their
flesh after several years of cruel
treatment.
We drug them, rape them and
terrorise them, we sicken, oppress,
imprison and torture them
and destroy their families, and we
wonder why we find pandemics
of rape, terror, oppression, incarceration,
torture and family breakdown
in our human world. As we
sow, so shall we reap. We employ
whole armies of men and women
to do the horrific work of confining,
mutilating and killing billions
of hapless animals, work that is
bound to harm them and those
around them both physically and
psychologically. As Martin Luther
King, Jr. said, “violence anywhere
hurts everyone, everywhere.” We
are all connected.
VEGANISM – STRIVING TO minimise
our violence towards animals
– is indeed an idea whose time
has come. Veganism reflects our
true nature. Veganism is simply
seeing all living beings as sentient
beings to be respected rather than
seeing them as commodities to be
used and consumed. The motivation
underlying veganism is compassion.
As each of us awakens to
the power of this idea, we will reduce
animal cruelty and suffering
as well as our abuse of the Earth. Our
personal, social and spiritual health are
all connected.
In our culture, there is no more
powerful lifestyle change than switching
to a plant-based diet, because
this shift will lead to sustainability,
to healing and to compassion for the
countless animals, humans and future
generations to whom we are related. As
we allow others to be free and healthy,
study, concluded that “the closer
one approaches a total plant-based
diet, the greater the health benefit.”
Eating animal foods also devastates
our human spirit. Meat
production requires a merciless
exploitation of what we know in
our bones is the most sacred dimension
of life: mothers giving
birth, nesting and nurturing their
babies. Female animals are usually
raped with sperm guns, their
babies are stolen from them and
killed, and the mothers (mere
‘breeders’) are also killed for their
flesh after several years of cruel
treatment.
We drug them, rape them and
terrorise them, we sicken, oppress,
imprison and torture them
and destroy their families, and we
wonder why we find pandemics
of rape, terror, oppression, incarceration,
torture and family breakdown
in our human world. As we
sow, so shall we reap. We employ
whole armies of men and women
to do the horrific work of confining,
mutilating and killing billions
of hapless animals, work that is
bound to harm them and those
around them both physically and
psychologically. As Martin Luther
King, Jr. said, “violence anywhere
hurts everyone, everywhere.” We
are all connected.
VEGANISM – STRIVING TO minimise
our violence towards animals
– is indeed an idea whose time
has come. Veganism reflects our
true nature. Veganism is simply
seeing all living beings as sentient
beings to be respected rather than
seeing them as commodities to be
used and consumed. The motivation
underlying veganism is compassion.
As each of us awakens to
the power of this idea, we will reduce
animal cruelty and suffering
as well as our abuse of the Earth. Our
personal, social and spiritual health are
all connected.
In our culture, there is no more
powerful lifestyle change than switching
to a plant-based diet, because
this shift will lead to sustainability,
to healing and to compassion for the
countless animals, humans and future
generations to whom we are related. As
we allow others to be free and healthy,
we become free and healthy.
Will Tuttle is the author of The World Peace
Diet.
ILLUSTRATION: MATT KENYON
Will Tuttle is the author of The World Peace
Diet.
ILLUSTRATION: MATT KENYON