By Lee Hall
Part 2 of a Series
Sustainable Development Goals: They’re a major topic on social media. But if humans want to be sustainable, we’ve got to get serious. We must divest from customs and businesses that treat animal life as commodities.
This blog entry is the second in a series, as we look at each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The second goal is “Zero Hunger.”
Animal agribusiness isn’t the best way to feed the world. Growing feed rather than food means dependence and depletion.
The United States helped establish Saudi Arabian dairies in the 1940s. The U.S. State Department invited Saudi royals to Arizona “to tout the state’s spectacular desert agriculture,” as Natalie Koch observes. Then, the Saudis set up unsustainable alfalfa and dairy enterprises that depleted their groundwater. That’s why Saudi companies are now buying Arizona’s water.
Pulses such as lentils are our most sustainable base of nourishment. Desert farmers can grow them.
To feed people, animal-free agriculture is what we need.
Lee Hall is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of the American Vegan Society. Lee’s entry on “Nonhuman Rights and Human Sustainability” appears in the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Springer). Lee holds a Master’s degree in environmental law with a focus on climate change from Vermont Law School, and has taught environmental law at the University level.
