Worldlog Hafta 26 – 2008

Bu haftada parlementoda onemli bir gelisme kayit ettik. Gecen sene, is arkadasim, Esther Ouwehand, restoranlarda soyu tukenmek uzere olan hayvanlari , ozellikle yilan baligi ve morina’nin yasaklanmasi icin bir kanun degisimi icin bas vurmustu. Genel oylamada bu istek, eski Greenpeace aktivisti, Diederik Samsonun, suanda Sosyal Demokrat olarak parlementoda bulunan, buyuk bir payla red edilmisti.

Parlemento toplantisinda, bu sene Esther konuyu tekrar acti. Ikinci odanin baskani, bundan boyle restoranlarda sadece “de viswijzer”, World Wildlife Fund en Stichting de Noordzee tarafindan senelik hazirlanan balik rehberine gore reservasyon yapilabilecek.

Sosyalist Parti baskani, Jan Marijnissen, bu hafta tam 14 senelik emeginden sonra geri cekilmeye karar verdi. 14 sene icerisinde partisinin 2’den 25 sandalyeye cikartti. Gorevini bir bayana, Agnes Kant’a devrederek, parlementomuzdaki bayan baskanlarin rekor bir sayiya cikardi. 11 parti baskaninin 5’i bayan. Bu hos durumu (partimiz bayanlarin esit haklara sahip olmasi icin verdigi mucadele) kutalamak icin butun bayan baskanlari bir yemekte bulusmak icin davet ettim. Parlementonun yaz tatili sonu bulusacagiz.

Hollanda’nin en buyuk gazetelerinden biri, gectigimiz Pazar gunu et tuketimi hakkinda buyuk bir tartisma organize etti. Katilimci olarak, bir gun oncesinden, bu konudaki dusuncelerimi gazeteye bastilar, buda bir cok tepki topladi. Hollanda bilenler icin, yazi ve tepkiler burada online: http://extra.volkskrant.nl/opinie/artikel/show/id/846

Et, tabagimizdaki toplumsal sorun! Sacma sebeblerle et yiyenler tuketimlerini dogruluyor. Ancak cevreci olan, vejetarjan olur, dedi Marianne Thieme.

Et bir duygu. Dayanikli yiyecek tuketimini icin milyarlarca sebeb var, mesela hayvan haklarinin duzeltilmesi, 850 milyon aclik ile savasan kalkinma ulkelerinde insanlara yardim, bio cesiti, icme suyunu, ve iklimin korunmasi. Bunlara karsi tek bir karsilik var: et’in tadi cok guzel. Ve bu duyguyu temize cikarmak icin, et yiyen insan cesitli urban legends, yeni efsane, yaratmis. Mesela bio yakitlar aclik yapiyor.

.tarim uzmani, Louise Fresco, ya gore dunya tarim kotasinin yuzde ikisi bile bio yakit iicin kullanilmiyor. Halbuki %80’i ciftcilik icin kullaniyor. Batili tuketiciye ait et, bunda en buyuk baya sahip. Bizim biftegimiz 10 tabak bugday ile yarisiyor. Suanda bugdayin ve soyadan alinan bitkisel proteyinlerin, sadece %15 et yer’in migdesine ulasiyor. % 85’I kayboluyor ve ya daha kotusu gubre fazlaligina cevriliyor. Sadece Hollandada 4000 kilo gubre fazlaligi var adam basi!

Baska bir mitolojide, hayvanlarin, ozellikle domuzlarin en iyi copcu olduklaridir. Ciflik hayvanlari yiyecek sektorunun coplerini ete cevirdikleri soyleniyor. Bu hayvanlar olmasa bu coplerin cogalacagi dusunuluyor. Cimenliklerde, soyle tum dunya tarim alaninin ucte ikisiyle hayvanlarin doyuruldugu soyleniyor.

yem

maksat kolaylik olsun diye, unutulan bu hayvanlarin guc verici yem yedikleri; neredeyse dunya bugday uretiminin yarisi bu havyanlara yediriliyor. De Vrije Universiteit’in Harry Aiking’in hesaplarina gore soya uretiminin dortte ucu ciftcilige gidiyor. Ustelik cogu cim alanlarin tarimciliga acik. Ve bu tarim kotamizin milyarlarca insana ekstra yiyecek verebilecek durumda mesela bugday ve bakliyat ile. Tabiki bu bitkisel proteyinleri daha once ciflik hayvanlari tarafindan yenilmesse.

Acaba saglik acisindanmi et yeniliyor? Senede ortalama 82 kilo et yeniliyor adam basi Hollandada. Soyle bir 50 sene oncesine kadar bunun yarisi kadar idi. Gecen seneden beri acliktan cok sismanliktan insanlar oluyor. Cambridge Universitesinden John Powles, asiri et tuketiminin, sismanlikta, ve baska hastaliklarda mesela kanser ve kalp ve damar hastaliklarinda baslica bir sebeb oldugunu soyledi. Ortalama bir Hollanda %30 fazla hayvansal proteyin tuketiyor. Vejetaryan bir hayat tarzi saglikli bir alternatif.

Insanliga karsi ve ekolojik bir felaket

Ap acik olan, batida, Cin’de, Hindistanda cogalan et tuketiminin insanliga karsi ve ekolojik bir felaket yaratacak olmasi. Et uretimi gittikce sekerli su depolarina, tropik ormanlara ve diger tabihat kaynaklarina zarar veriyor. Ustelik ciftcilik % 18 ile en buyuk sera gazi uretici. Bu araba, kamyon, ucak, gemi ve trenlerin herbirlikte urettiginden %40 fazla. 1 Hollanda inegi senede 70.000 araba kilometresinin urettigi gaz kadar sera gazi uretir, yani 4,5 kisisel araba’nin urettigi kadar.

Agiz tadimiza degermi? Bu cocuklarina ve dunyaya kaliteli bir gelecek amaclayan insanlar icin olamaz. Agiz tadini, yardima muhtaclardan, hayvanlardan, tabihattan ve gelecek jenerasyonlardan ustun tutmak buyuk bir bencillik.

Devlet

et tuketimini azaltmak bireysel bir karar, ancak devlet bu karari etkileyebilir. Butun Hollandalilar suanda yediginden bir gun az et yese, hukumet evler icin amacladigi iklim hedeflerine bir kerede ulasacak. Yeni yeni kabine ufak adimlarla hayvansal proteyin tuketimini bitkisel proteyin tuketimine cevirmek icin ugras veriyor. Yinede hukumet et reklamlarina ve etin kalkinma ulkelerine gonderilmesinde para yardiminda bulunuyor. Bu ne etik dolu nede uyumlu bir hukumet hareket tarzi.

suanda Hollandada 750.000 vejetarjan ve 3.5 milyon et birakana sahip. Et toplumsal sorunlarin ilk 3 sirasini alir, mesela ilkim sorunu, topragin kalite kayibi, dunya as sorunu, obesitas, hayvan eziyeti, yagmur ormanlarinin azalmasi, hayvan hastalik krizi, su-, toprak-, ve hava kirliligi. Bicak ve catal bu sorunlarin cozulmesinde en iyi silah.

Onumuzdeki hafta gorusmek uzere!

This week we scored an important parliamentary victory. As early as last year my colleague Esther Ouwehand tabled a motion to prohibit the serving of threatened species in the parliamentary restaurant, particularly cod and eel. The proposal was rejected by a large majority following a poll that even saw an ex-Greenpeace campaigner, Diederik Samson, who now is now a member of parliament for the Social Democrats, vote against it.

This year Esther tabled the motion again at a parliamentary private meeting, and the chair of the lower house decided that from now on the only fish that would be served would be fish included on the ‘viswijzer’, an annual sustainability guide published by the World Wildlife Fund and Stichting de Noordzee.

Agnes Kant

This week the leader of the Socialist Party, Jan Marijnissen, decided to step down after 14 years. Under his leadership, his party grew from 2 to 25 parliamentary seats. He has been succeeded by a woman, Agnes Kant, which brings the number of female chairs of parliamentary parties to a record number: 5 of 11 are women. To celebrate (this is also part of the emancipation our party is fighting for), I have suggested all female chairs of parliamentary parties go out to dinner together, which we will immediately after the summer recess.

One of the Netherlands’ largest newspapers organised a major debate on meat consumption last Sunday. As a participant, I was invited to publish my vision in the newspaper. The article excited a lot of interest. For those who can read Dutch, the article and the responses can be found here: http://extra.volkskrant.nl/opinie/artikel/show/id/846

Meat, the societal problem on our plate! Many meat-eaters justify their consumption of meat with nonsense arguments. But anyone who cares about the environment would go vegetarian, says Marianne Thieme.

Meat triggers emotions. There are many arguments for making your consumption pattern more sustainable: improving the well-being of billions of animals, helping the 850 million hungry people in the developing world and conserving biodiversity, the supply of drinking water and the climate. There is just one counter-agrument: meat tastes so good. And to justify that emotion, meat-eaters have thought up countless urban legends, such as the legend that bio fuels will lead to hunger.

According to agricultural expert Louise Fresco, less than 2 percent of the planet’s land used for agriculture is set aside for bio fuels. On the other hand, 80 percent of the world’s agricultural land is used for cattle-raising. Meat intended for consumption in the West undeniably accounts for the lion’s share of this. Our steak competes with ten plates of grains. Currently, only 15 percent of the vegetable proteins from grains and soya ends up in the stomachs of meat-eaters; 85 percent is wasted or, even worse, is largely turned into surplus manure. In the Netherlands alone, more than 4,000 kilos of excess manure are produced each year for each resident!

Another myth is that animals, especially pigs, are champion waste-disposers. It asserts that farm animals convert the waste products of the food industry into meat. Without animals, our mountains of trash would only keep growing. We also hear that grasslands, too, which account for about two-thirds of the world's total agricultural acreage, can only be used to feed animals.

Feed

What is always conveniently left to one side is the fact that animals also require energy: almost half of the world’s grain harvest is fed to animals. Harry Aiking of the Free University has calculated that as much as three-quarters of all soya produced goes to cattle. What is more, large tracks of grassland are indeed suitable for growing crops. The world’s current agricultural acreage could feed billions of extra mouths with grains and legumes, provided it isn’t first fed to our livestock.

Do we eat meat for health reasons? Each person in the Netherlands eats an average of 82 kilos of meat a year. That's double the amount of fifty years ago. Since last year, more people have been dying of obesity than hunger. John Powles of Cambridge University says that excessive consumption of animal proteins is major cause of obesity and other illnesses, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The average Dutch person eats 30% too much animal protein. A vegetarian lifestyle is a healthy alternative.

Humanitarian and ecological disaster

It is clear that the growth of meat consumption in the West, China and India will lead to a humanitarian and ecological disaster. Meat production is slurping up a growing proportion of our supply of fresh water, causing ever-more damage to our tropical rain forests and other natural resources. Moreover, the cattle-raising industry is one of the major producers of greenhouse gases, contributing 18 percent of the total. That is 40 percent more than all cars, trucks, airplanes, ships and trains combined. A single Dutch cow emits the same quantity of greenhouse gases as 70,000 kilometres driven. That’s 4.5 average cars.

Is the good taste of meat worth all of this? That cannot be true for people who wish for a sustainable future for their children and for our planet. Allowing a desire for tasty food to prevail above compassion for the needy, animals, nature and future generations attests to enormous selfishness.

Government

Reducing meat consumption is an individual choice, but the government can encourage a shift in our eating habits. If everyone in the Netherlands reduced their consumption of meat for one a day a week, we would meet all government climate objectives overnight. The government has begun taking tentative steps to promote the move from animal to vegetable protein consumption. Yet the government still subsidises advertising of meat and the dumping of excess meat in development countries. This is unethical and evidence of a lack of coherence in government policy, to say the least.

The Netherlands currently has 750,000 vegetarians and 3.5 million people who consciously reduce their meat intake. Meat is among the top 3 causes of a host of social problems, such as the climate crisis, land degradation, the world food crisis, obesity, destruction of the rain forest, the sharp increase in animal disease, and water, soil pollution and air pollution. Your own knife and fork are the most powerful weapons you have in combating this problem.

Until next week!