Climate and food

 An article in the Reuters newsfeed by Leah Douglas on" Food, farming and forestry must be transformed to curb global warming, U.N." says: " Protecting forests, changing diets, and altering farming methods could contribute around a quarter of the greenhouse gas cuts needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations' climate panel." (LINK) 

Protecting forests is a long term issue in Germany as well as in the UK. Of course it is not just European forests that need protection, but also those in Brazil and the Congo and elsewhere. It seems easy to persuade governments to sanction countries for invasions, but even restricting entrepreneurs within our countries from funding the destruction of forests seems to be challenging. Banks and pension companies will listen if enough people put pressure on them to fund environmentally  responsible projects.

The personal decision to change diets should be easier, even though changing habits is hard. A vegetarian diet would be best for the planet, but even a half-vegetarian diet that includes occasional grass-fed beef, free range chicken, and fish from controlled waters would be help. Every one of us can do that.

Factory farming is harder to control in a world with ever more demand for food, but every step toward environmentally conscious farming helps. As consumers we have choices. It is true that "bio" products are often more expensive, but members of our parish are not generally poor, and it is a pro-environment choice that we can make every time we go to buy groceries. 

Let us do all we can personally to protect God's creation.

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