Modern-day Slavery?

In a recent op-ed, Jim Motavelli, senior writer at E/The Environmental Magazine and blogger for the Mother Nature Network, argues that meat-eating is the slavery of our time. Motavelli believes that we simply must become a vegetarian planet. The writer bases much of his argument on the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2006 report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow.” The FAO’s report reveals that livestock accounts for 18 percent of all greenhouse emissions, which is more than the entire global transportation system. Adding to that, 33 percent of fertile land is devoted to growing crops for animal feed while grazing leads to deforestation. Motavelli posits that we’ll be forced into vegetarianism by 2025 because “we simply won’t have the resources to keep up the [meat-eating] habit.”