Animal Agriculture and the Environment - George Wuerthner

This video of George's recent presentation to a Northwest VEG audience in Portland, Oregon back in the summer of 2011.

George Wuerthner makes a strong case for challenging our assumptions about the correctness of cowboy culture and doesn't cut any slack in letting you know about the impacts of animal agriculture and what's wrong with ranching and grazing on America's wide open spaces. His education and considerable experience led him to an overwhelming conclusion that the policy to tie up over 1 billion acres of our land raising livestock and animal feed is wrong and needs to be changed.

As George states in an open letter to the Sierra Club, "Nothing would produce a greater positive impact upon the West's wildlife and land health than ending livestock production."

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Thank you George Wuerthner for expressing the facts. It's nice to finally hear the devastation brought on by livestock grazing instead of hearing ranchers go on and on about how wonderful it is and how anyone who opposes and knows the truth is dumb.

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It would be funny if human extinction is caused by gas from bloated cows.

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Cowspiracy is built around much of the same basic data as is presented here. However the real focus of cowspiracy is on the obvious lack of interest from major environmental groups on the issues related to the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. George mentions this point several times in passing but doesn't explore it in depth. Cowspiracy is, as of this moment available on Netflix and is highly recommended by those who'd like even more information on this subject. Perhaps, more to the point, for those of us who are not already doing so, all the major environmental groups need to be held to account for their failure to tackle the issues related to the environmental impact of animal agriculture. Further to that point, anyone who's a true environmentalist needs to stop eating or using animal products if they want to be truly engaged in saving the planet. Anything less than this commitment is hypocrisy.