The short clip from the documentary “Cowspiracy” shows us how much environmental destruction comes from
industrial livestock farming and from industrial fishing. The film eventually makes a case for a vegan diet
because it vastly impacts climate change, population, and ecological destruction.
But can't a vegetarian diet make a massive impact too? Both diets reduce agricultural methane and the water
used to feed animals.
These facts raise what can be called the omnivore’s dilemma: if you are uninterested in vegetarian or vegan
eating, should you give up now? What should you have for dinner?
On this issue, author Michael Pollen wrote -- and I put into bullet points for emphasis:
"'Eating is an agricultural act,' as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act,
too. Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact,
how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world
- and what is to become of it."
From The Omnivore's Dilemma, (https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3287769-the-omnivore-s-dilemma
(Links to an external site.))
Your assignment: discuss whether:
1) An omnivore can do anything to make a difference impacting climate change by naming 1-2 things he/she
can do and the impact it would/could have. (15 points)
(Higher points will be given to students who cite a source and its statistics to illustrate an impact of the
omnivore's eating habits
and:
2) Answer: is eating (in US society) a political act? Why/why not? (5 pts)
Sample Solution