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Attention, Planet Destroying Carnivores

Car or chicken? Which one contributes more to global warming?

The answer might surprise you, but it's the chicken. More specifically, it's the raising of meat for human consumption, which apparently contributes more to global warning than all sports utility vehicles combined. And in fact, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, raising livestock for food generates more greenhouse emissions than all forms of transportation.

Now, animal rights organizations are pooling their efforts to get this information out, with media surges and PETA-typical tactics, such as dressing someone up in a chicken suit to drive a Hummer, with a banner proclaiming meat the number one cause of global warming, with the attached message that in order to go green, you must also go vegetarian. PETA has gone so far as to say that you simply cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist.

Other organizations take other tactics. The Humane Society highlights the benefits of vegetarianism, including multiple studies saying that "switching to a plant-based diet does more to curb global warming than switching from an S.U.V. to a Camry," while the Sierra Club goes for a more moderate, non-alienating message encouraging efficiency and green behaviour without castigating. Hank Stewart, senior copywriter at Green Team Advertising, explains the rationale behind this as "using global warming as a tactic for advancing the cause of vegetarianism feels a bit opportunistic," and questions the logistics of having "a supermarket [announcing] 'Attention, Planet-Destroying Carnivores' on the in-store radio?"

Regardless of how or what you eat, the fact of the matter is, you do eat. And how you eat is now becoming not only a political statement, it's becoming an ethical one that has moved beyond animals rights and is now about much, much, more. Do you eat local? Organic? Vegetarian? Forage? Raw food? Are you an obligate omnivore? These questions are moving away from announcing your thoughts on how animals should be treated, and are becoming an interconnected, global issue.

The omnivore's dilemma is not only about following food from farm to table, but is about how that very farming itself is done, and what extended effect the growing, shipping, and packaging of food - be it omnivorous or otherwise - has on the global environment.

-Kelly Hills