Eating meat eats up oil reserves

Editors, Asheville Global Report, There is no doubt, after years of fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, about the importance of oil to the overall US commitment, and it can't be understated. We are, as a nation, shuffling about on the sidelines while genocide rages in Sudan, even as we devote half a trillion dollars and thousands of lives to oil rich Iraq in a war for its supposed freedom. It also stands that our government is a representative of we the people, and its addiction to oil is our addiction to oil. When we decide to remove the petro teat from our collective mouths, our government is less motivated by oil lust. When you and I, as individuals in communities all over our country, decide to take steps to reduce oil usage the war has less and less of a motivator. You can blame Cheney and Bush all you want, but we are all to blame for the catastrophe of environmental loss and war because of our patterns of oil consumption. How can you reduce your oil burden? The biggest single effect you can have is to go vegetarian or vegan. Meat eating is devouring oil reserves at an alarming rate. It takes nearly 78 calories of fossil fuel (oil, natural gas, etc.) energy to produce one calorie of beef protein and only two calories of fossil fuel energy to produce one calorie of soybean. If every human ate a meat-centered diet, the world's known oil reserves would last a mere 13 years, if humans stopped eating meat altogether they would last 260 years. If you're against this abomination of a war, do more than drive a hybrid car or wear a peace t-shirt, make the step and go veg, and put your life's choices in step with your beliefs about peace. Jade Finn Asheville, North Carolina