BIOFUELS--THE ROAD TO A VEGAN WORLD?

BIOFUELS-THE ROAD TO A VEGAN WORLD

As someone who has been trying to promote veganism for over 30 years, I have come to realize how difficult a vegan world will be to achieve.  Most people will turn away and not want to hear about the horrifying abuse animals have to endure. Most people will laugh about animal agriculture killing our planet. Very few will actually consider what I am saying may be true.  They don’t want to hear it and they don’t want to know. According to Stanley Milgram’s studies, the best we will ever achieve will be a 30% population. This 30% might be enough to make it mainstream, but I doubt it. The vast majority of the population “lacks the resources” (as Milgram politely put it) to overcome their conditioning.

During the same time, global warming has risen rapidly.  Scientists use to warn us about a 2 degree increase in earth’s temperature.   Now we are probably looking at a 6 degree increase in the next few decades. Already our climate here in Wisconsin has changed dramatically.  We are having thunderstorms, dewpoints in the upper 60's, and temperatures near 80 degrees in October.  Past decades this was unheard of, now it is daily. As someone who is connected with nature, I can already feel and see the changes. Less butterflies, less bees, less birds, fewer flowers  equal less fruit on our trees and plants.

But at the same time, we are running out of fossil fuels–oil.  Offshore drilling is expensive and dangerous and wouldn’t be done unless we had no other options. Oil companies are cheering the melting of the ice caps, because they will finally be able to drill in the Arctics and get every last bit of oil from our planet. No matter how hard they try, we will eventually run out, and according to scientists that will be within the next couple of decades.

There is a light to all this doom and gloom–biofuels.  All our cars need to run on biofuels is an adjustment to their computers. Current laws prohibit anyone from tampering with even their own car’s computers.  Kits that override the computer can be bought, but they have to be installed by the car’s owners.  It is against the law for anyone else to install these kits. Biofuels will be cheaper and cleaner.

So what does this have to do with veganism?  Plenty. Currently, two-thirds of our land is being used to either raise livestock or grow food to feed the livestock. If we want to make the switch to biofuels, we need land.  As farmers who grow crops for livestock start to see that there is a bigger profit in growing crops for biofuels, they will make the switch.  This will mean livestock feed prices will go up, which will raise the price of meat, dairy and eggs.  People will start to see them as “too expensive.”  As factory farms sell less and less meat, they too will convert to biofuels.  Corporations will start to reprogram the stupid masses.  What vegans have known for decades (how animal products are bad for the human body) will soon become mainstream.  Corporations are greedy and will do whatever it takes to make money, even if it’s doing the right thing.

The byproduct of biofuels is food.  Food that can be used to feed the world.

As vegans, I feel we should be promoting biofuels as a way to make the world vegan.  As John Lennon sang in Imagine, “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. “  

resources:

“Pump”   https://www.fuelfreedom.org/our-work/initiatives/pump/

“Livestock and Climate Change” by Goodland and Anhang
 https://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/LivestockandClimateChange.pdf