Summer 2018
The HLPF also reviewed progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and focused in particular on:
SDG 6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
SDG 7 – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
SDG 12 – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
SDG 15 – Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
SDG 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development that will be considered each year
The focus of the HLPF and SDGs is on sustainability and resilience. Nothing is more sustainable than the vegan diet and lifestyle. The meat and dairy based diet is not sustainable. It is a waste of precious resources – land and water, the largest contributor to pollution and climate change, causes degradation of forests, land, and natural resources, and is responsible for the skyrocketing, unsustainable costs in human healthcare. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and antibiotic resistance are directly linked to the meat and dairy based diet.
SDG 6 – Water and sanitation management. More water is used to produce a pound of meat versus a pound of grain. Raising animals for food consumes nearly half the water used in the United States. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states, and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. The meat industry causes more water pollution in the US than all other industries combined. Animals raised for food produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human population does – 86,000 pounds per second. A typical pig factory farm generates a quantity of raw waste equal to that of a city of 50,000 people, but without the sewage system. This pollution translates into compromised human health and corresponding loss of financial resources related to it.
SDG 7 – Sustainable energy. More energy is used for the meat and dairy based diet than the more sustainable plant-based diet. Raising animals for food requires more than one third of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. This is for fuel to produce fertilizer for crops that are fed to animals, oil to run the trucks that take them to slaughter, electricity to freeze their deceased bodies, and much more.
SDG 11 – Make cities and settlement inclusive and sustainable. The skyrocketing costs in human healthcare resulting from the meat and dairy based diet are not sustainable. The United States expenditures on healthcare – drugs, surgery, and chronic disease treatments are rising. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is based on meat and dairy. As a result, the United States spends more per capita on health care than any other industrialized nation. At this rate, the US will spend 20.1% of Gross National Product (GNP) on health care by 2025. And that is rising!
What is the definition of ‘inclusive’? Does that refer to one species? Speciesism is not ‘inclusive’. All travelers on spaceship earth deserve to be treated fairly, with respect, dignity, and compassion. All species deserve the right to live a healthy, natural life.
SDG 12 – Sustainable consumption and production patterns. The Vegan diet is the most sustainable pattern for production and consumption. It uses less resources than raising animals for food, does not create the pollution and climate change that the meat and dairy based diet does, and veganic farming promotes optimal human health through increased vitamin and minerals, thus reducing financial expenditures on health care.
SDG 15 – Sustainably manage forests, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss. Forests are being cut down to provide grazing for cattle, thus increasing climate change. More than 260 million acres of US forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals. Twenty times more land is required to feed a meat eater than a vegan. Land used for cattle (dairy and other) is destroyed, as opposed to remaining pristine and beautiful when only indigenous animals, now becoming extinct, are present.
HLPF Side Event held at the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations: Optimizing Resource use to Nourish a Growing World: The role of Agriculture in Realizing the SDGs.
Veganic agriculture is the most optimal use of resources, and most sustainable form of agriculture in the planet today. Veganic agriculture uses no pesticides, fertilizers, or animal inputs. For fertilizer, veganic farming relies on ‘green manure’ – nitrogen rich crops which are not harvested. Green manure is plowed under to provide the nutrients which crops for food require. Harmful pesticides are not needed because veganic farming uses crop rotation, and other natural methods. This is unlike organic farming which, like conventional farming, uses harmful pesticides. Crops produced the veganic farming way have an abundance of vitamins and minerals which provide optimal human health.
SDG 17 – Implement Global Partnerships for Sustainable Development. Vegan International is ready to partner with any Government, UN Agency, or other NGO to provide information, and experts for participation in sustainable development projects.
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