Show Transcript Deconstructing Dinner Kootenay Co-Op Radio CJLY Nelson, B.C
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Show Transcript Deconstructing Dinner Kootenay Co-op Radio CJLY Nelson, B.C. Canada July 6, 2006 Title: Vegan Cattle Ranchers & Oprah Producer/Host: Jon Steinman Transcript: Jennifer D’Souza Jon Steinman : Welcome to Deconstructing Dinner, produced and recorded at Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, British Columbia. My name’s Jon Steinman. Deconstructing Dinner is a syndicated weekly one-hour program available on both radio and as a downloadable podcast. As our daily routines inescapably revolve around food, Deconstructing Dinner is a program designed to foster a greater awareness of how this staple of our lives impacts our health, our communities and our planet. While our food system is currently structured in such a way that it mimics that of an industrial assembly line, very often on Deconstructing Dinner we expose innovative alternatives that in their own way, question the very sustainability of our industrial food system. Now critics of these alternatives often point to the many farmers and producers who recognize no problem with the methods governing how many of our food are grown and produced. In the end, these are the people on the frontlines who see first-hand how our food system operates. But there are countless numbers of farmers, processors, producers and retailers who after spending time within the current industrial food system, have stopped and realized that this system, instead of sustaining us, is only killing us. And one of these individuals is Howard Lyman, also referred to as The Mad Cowboy. Howard was a Montana cattle rancher who after almost 20 years of farming became not only a vegetarian, but a vegan, eliminating all animal products from his diet. And since then, Lyman has devoted his life to educating the public about the dangers of a meat-based diet. Howard Lyman has visited British Columbia on a number of occasions, and was recorded speaking in 2002 at the Taste of Health Expo hosted by Vancouver- based EarthSave Canada. Howard spoke to an audience about his personal experience as a farmer, as a vegan, and as a target in a lawsuit that followed his appearance on Oprah in 1996. Today’s broadcast will feature this very moving and inspiring speech, and this recording is courtesy of the Vancouver-based Necessary Voices society. And should you miss any of today’s broadcast, you will be able to listen to the show from the Deconstructing Dinner website at www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner where there will also be additional information about today’s show. And here’s Howard Lyman. Howard Lyman : Here we are today in probably one of the most beautiful places on the face of the earth at a time that we need to take a look at what’s happening. We might now be the last generation to have the opportunity to live the kind of lifestyle that we have embraced for the last several hundred years. The amazing thing about it is that most of us have no idea in the world about what is going on. What I want to do today is talk to you about the shape of the world, I want to talk to you about what’s happening but the most important thing I want to talk to you about today is what you can do about it. As we sit here today there are 6 billion people on the planet. Out of the 6 billion people, 1.2 billion of them every night will go to bed hungry, malnourished. At the same time another 1.2 billion of the 6 billion will go to bed overweight, obese. The question is, the population of the world is growing, can we continue to feed the number of people on the planet doing what we are doing today. Let’s stop and take a look at it. The Surgeon General of the United States, the ex-Surgeon General by the name of C. Everett Koop, who will never go down in history as a knee-jerk Liberal, said 2 out of every 3 North Americans dying today are dying from something associated with their diet. 1 out of every 2 North Americans dying today will die of one disease, heart disease. Main contributing factors of heart disease, saturated fat and cholesterol. All Cholesterol comes from animal products, no such thing as carrot cholesterol, cabbage cholesterol, you can’t even buy kale cholesterol ( background, laughter ). The majority of saturated fats in the North American diet is coming from animal products. As we sit here today, 1 out of every 3 North Americans will have cancer, 1 out of 4 will die of cancer. The amazing thing that they have admitted in the last month, that 1/3 of all cancers they believe come from the food that we are eating. Isn’t it not about time that we not only look at the amount of food we produce but the kind of food we are producing. You know, we talk about North America as being the bread basket of the world, that we will produce the food to feed a hungry world but look at history. If we look at the Cradle of Civilization, we talk about the Golden Crescent that is Iran/Iraq, this is where civilization started and it was where the food was produced and if we go there today it is nothing more than a desert. In North America the Boat People have only been here a little over three hundred years and we have already lost 75% of all the top soil that was here when the Boat People arrived. Can you imagine that it takes 500 years to produce one inch of top soil. We haven’t been here long enough to produce an inch and we’ve lost 3/4 of what we have. That we have an area in the Gulf of Mexico today that is larger than the state of New Jersey that is absolutely, totally dead because of herbicides, pesticides and top soil washing off of the central part of North America. As we sit here today we talk about global warming. For years the debate has gone on, it’s happening, no it isn’t happening, worry about it, don’t worry about it. Well, the Eskimos have lived in northern North America for over 10 000 years. This year is the first time in the history of the Eskimos that they have seen a bird that we know as the robin. Can you imagine a society of people that their survival has been predicated on the observation of their environment and in 10 000 years, never one time, did they ever see a robin. They do not even have a word in their vocabulary for robin and now we have them showing up for the first time in 10 000 years. And the amazing thing is at the same time the robins show up, insects are showing up for the robins to eat and the Eskimos do not have a name for the insects that are showing up at the same time as the robins. Can you imagine that a year ago Russia sent a cruise ship that tied to the ice off the North Pole and the people got off the ship with their umbrellas and walked to the North Pole and got their pictures taken. The same place that Admiral Byrd, when he was the first known human showing up there, went through the blizzards and the dog sleds and everything and ended up at the North Pole. The first human that we know of to get there and today we have people showing up with their umbrellas to get their picture taken. As we sit here, we have a hunk of ice that has broken off of the South Pole. That hunk of ice is larger than the state of Massachusetts. There is enough water in that one iceberg to cover the state of Texas at a depth of 5 feet. Now I’m not so sure that it isn’t a good idea to cover the state of Texas 5 feet deep in water, depending on who is home at the time ( background, laughter ), but the amazing thing about it is that down in the states, the United States of America, the Administration in the last week has flip-flopped on the global warming issue, from one side to the other and they can’t decide whether they want to go with the facts or if they want to go with the fantasy. I’m telling you as we sit here today, I’m going to talk to you about facts. I’m going to talk to you about the future. I’m going to talk to you about what you can do about it because if it continues at the rate that it is, if global warming continues at the rate that it is, the Arctic Ice Field will disappear in your lifetime. We have found three new islands that we did not even know existed. This isn’t fantasy, this is fact. And how much of it, how much of it is related to our lifestyle. I want to talk to you about that because those are things that we can do something about. I stand in front of you today I’m a 4 th generation farmer, rancher, feedlot operator from Montana. At one time I had 7 000 head of cattle, 12 000 acres of crop and 30 employees. Raised in Montana during the Second World War my parents couldn’t hire help and so my mother and father were milking cows and my brother, two sisters and I were raised by my grandparents.