"Hi, I'm Julietta. I'm the spokesperson with Vegetarian
Action, an Adelaide-based vegetarian group. For me, the
environment is the strongest reason that tipped me over
into being vegetarian.
"I've been completely vegetarian for about 6 years. Basically
I've been concerned about the environment for a long time,
and when I found out the direct links between what we
eat and environmental issues, I really couldn't do anything
else.
"Being vegetarian actually is one of the ways in which
an individual can have a really practical and concrete
effect on environmental issues. Being vegetarian does
make a huge difference, so when you multiply that difference
by 6 billion people (the world's human population), basically
it's the difference between environmental devastation
and environmental sustainability.
"Well, the classic figure that people always quote is
that by being vegetarian you can save an acre of trees
every year. It's fairly dramatic, but it is true. Cattle
production is the single biggest factor in deforestation,
so there's a really direct impact there in becoming vegetarian
for a major environmental issue.
"It's a bit hard to talk about the pollution side of
meat-eating with a straight face, but it's actually a
really serious issue. If you think about it, basically
there's more than 50 billion animals a year killed just
to feed us with our meat demands. And if you imagine how
much excretia and how much methane those animals are producing,
it's phenomenal. A pig farm of 5000 pigs creates as much
faeces as a city of 50,000 people. So from that you get
water pollution, land contamination, just basically huge
amounts of waste that we can't get rid of."
The above media clip was broadcast on Triple
J on Monday, 21 February, 2005. You can listen online
at www.abc.net.au/triplej/requests/listen
- [under 'Browse Audio Archive (by band/artist)' go to
'G']
'The Green Room', an environmental segment on the Triple
J evening show, recently featured Julietta from Vegetarian
Action speaking out on why going vego is one of the most
important things individuals can do for the environment.
