While I love that your latest issue features a cover story on “funny girls” Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho and Kirsten Schaal, I’m less than amused by your “green party” menu, which reads as follows:

Bread and cheese
Maple-glazed acorn squash
Green beans with onion sprinkles
Golden-crusted Brussels sprouts
Turkey with gravy
Sage, walnut, and dried-fig stuffing
Rosemary-garlic mashed potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Pumpkin pie
Vanilla ice cream with ginger-pear preserves
Artisanal dark chocolate bars
Hot apple cider
Beer, red wine, and sparkling cider

Turkey, cheese and ice cream are not “green” - not even close. Factory farmed cows - you know, the milk machines who produce all those bodily secretions found in your dairy products? - are, according to the U.N., “responsible for 18% of greenhouse gases, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.”

As summarized at treehugger, the U.N. also reports that:

“Ranching, the report adds, is “the major driver of deforestation” worldwide, and overgrazing is turning a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert.Cows also soak up vast amounts of water: it takes a staggering 990 litres of water to produce one litre of milk.

Wastes from feedlots and fertilisers used to grow their feed overnourish water, causing weeds to choke all other life. And the pesticides, antibiotics and hormones used to treat them get into drinking water and endanger human health.

The pollution washes down to the sea, killing coral reefs and creating “dead zones” devoid of life. One is up to 21,000sqkm, in the Gulf of Mexico, where much of the waste from US beef production is carried down the Mississippi.”

Dairy is not “green.” I repeat: Dairy. Is. Not. Green.

Now let’s talk turkey - which, ahem, isn’t green, either.

Says the HSUS:

Each year in the United States, 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for meat, eggs, and milk. Statistically, farm animals comprise 98 percent of all animals in the country with whom we interact directly, and that staggering percentage does not even include the estimated 10 billion aquatic animals killed for human consumption. […]

Of the 10 billion land animals killed annually in the United States, 95 percent are birds, and the overwhelming majority are “broiler” chickens raised for meat, 1 million killed each hour. Additionally, nearly 300 million laying hens are raised for eggs, and more than 250 million turkeys are slaughtered for meat.

On factory farms, birds raised for meat are confined by the tens of thousands in barren sheds, unable to carry out many normal behaviors, including roosting and foraging. The most significant assault on their welfare is fast growth. The poultry industry has used selective breeding and growth-promoting antibiotics to produce birds whose bodies “are on the verge of structural collapse.” To put their growth rate into perspective, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reports, “If you grew as fast as a chicken, you’d weigh 349 pounds at age 2.”

As I explained to one young featherhead who was trying in vain to troll my Flickr account (she took issue with my dogs’ vegetarian diets), such conditions have grave environmental, public health and animal welfare consequences:

Though chickens are smaller than cows and thus produce less waste per animal, the sheer number of chickens raised and killed means more waste. And, just like fecal matter from cows and pigs, chickens’ waste pollutes the environment.

For example, the enviro magazine Grist ran a piece called "Finger-Lickin’ Bad: How poultry producers are ravaging the rural South" back in February ‘06:

Since the early 1990s, observers say, thousands of chicken houses have cropped up across the South as consumer demand for poultry has grown. Today, the U.S. is the world’s poultry leader, with production of broilers, turkeys, and eggs valued at $29 billion in 2004, according to the National Chicken Council. Broilers — chickens raised for meat — generated $22 billion of that. The leading broiler production states in 2004 were Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas, which is home to the world’s largest poultry producer, Tyson Foods. […]

More frightening than the economic balancing act may be the health and environmental hazards posed by chicken farms, from the arsenic, ammonia, and other chemicals found in feed and manure to threats from diseased animals. While traditional farming can carry similar risks, CAFOs are especially hazardous because of the tight confinement that defines them. […]

Last year, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson (D) filed suit against Tyson, Cargill, and several other poultry companies, seeking to stop water pollution caused in his state by soiled chicken litter dumped in Arkansas. Polluted runoff, also known as non-point source pollution, is the biggest remaining water pollution problem in the U.S., according to the EPA, which cites agriculture as the largest source of such pollution.

Aside from environmental concerns, the overuse of antibiotics in poultry production (e.g., to cheaply prevent unhealthy animals from becoming sick) leads to bacterial resistance (i.e., "superbugs), and factors such as overcrowding and live animal markets made avian influenza (bird flu) an increasingly likely risk.

If you’re specifically interested in poultry production, I highly recommend Michael Greger’s Bird Flu - the full text is available online at birdflubook.com/g.php?id=5. In the context of discussing bird flu, he also examines the environmental consequences of factory farmed chicken/poultry.

Of course, this doesn’t even begin to address the unnecessary cruelty and suffering that makes up your “holiday” meal, nor does it touch upon the interconnected nature of oppressions. Women and animals, we’re not that different, see. Especially when we’re talking about exploiting and commandeering the reproductive systems of human (e.g., anti-choice policies, forced sterilization) and non-human (milk and egg production) animals.

Given that you’re a fluffyfunfeelgoodfeminism mag, you probably don’t much care about animal abuse, not even as it relates to the abuse of women. So I won’t go there.

But proclaiming meat and dairy “green” - especially when there are genuinely green alternatives, such as tofu, Tofurky, soy ice cream, and faux cheeses - is bullshit. Seriously, gals, get a fucking clue. The United Nations aren’t exactly a bunch of dirty, unwashed, hippie liberal, vegan potlucky, eco-/animal rights- terra-ists. And yet even they recognize that animal flesh and animal by-products are harmful to the environment. And that was two+ years ago.

A plate of Thanksgiving turkey is filled with antibiotics, salmonella, campylobacter, ammonia and feces. Your cheese and ice cream add a side of bodily secretions - literally - to the mix.

So eat up; enjoy! If you’ve still got some room left over, you might find that FAIL is a complimentary dessert to serve with your greenwashed dinner.

Regards,

A vegan feminist

P.S. I believe this is my last and final issue of Bust, so you probably won’t have to suffer my terraistic complaints any longer. Happy happy, joy joy.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment bust thanksgiving turkey meat green food diet climate change united nations dairy milk cheese vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism feminism factory farming hsus