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New Frontier: Linda McCartneyMy New Frontier The Path of the VegetarianBy Linda McCartney"If we are to address this problem ofworld hunger--and who else is responsible for it except those ofus living here?--we need to affect a massive shift in where wefeed the foods of our fields. Instead of feeding grain tolivestock, we could feed the world by feeding the grain direct topeople" It was the title of this magazine that caught my eye. A newfrontier, it seemed so apt because that's what I'm facing nowwith my passion and drive to widen the appeal of vegetarianism. If anything matters in my life besides my family it's thispassion to spread this word--the V word--because so many livesdepend upon it. And it's that that drives me, to try save life. So many people dismiss vegetarianism as if it's some form ofmystic cult with no substance behind it, as if veggies are notquite right in the head. Believe me, I know. In the 20 years andmore since Paul and I stopped eating animals, I've been called itall; cranky, loony, weirdo. There's not an insult in the bookthat hasn't been leveled at me because I eat differently frommost people. Not that I'm complaining. If you strike out againstconvention with what is seen to be a new idea you have to expectthe catcalls and suspicions, because people enjoy the comfortzone of a status quo, and change is always seen as challenging. But the catcalls and jibes are lessening these days. Now, moreand more people are starting to listen to us"nutty"vegetarians, because science, medicine and economics have finallycaught up with our philosophy and the disciples of tradition arerealizing that the vegetarians make sense. How so? Forget the emotional and moral arguments for a moment,and look at the hard facts. Medical studies all around the worldare now proving that those who adopt a vegetarian diet are up to40% less likely to die of cancer, and 30% less at risk to heartdisease. The studies show that vegetarians are also less prone tohigh blood pressure, angina and diabetes. I'm not making all this up. These are the findings ofrespected medical authorities. It's not me, but the FraminghamHeart Study--the world's longest ongoing investigation into heartdisease and diet, which has run since 1949--that says, that onaverage, vegetarian men outlive other American men by six years.It's not me, but researchers at Boston's Brigham & Women'sHospital who claimed that women who eat meat every day are twoand a half times more likely to have had colon cancer than womenwho ate meat sparingly or not at all. As I say, the word is now getting through, and throughoutAmerica more and more people are realizing that as death is notan option, medically a vegetarian diet makes sense. It is in partthe growing realization of this that accounts for the fact thatin the past 10 years the numbers of vegetarians in the USA hasalmost doubled from 6.5 million in 1985 to 12.4 million now. So there's one good reason for heeding this vegetarianargument--saving your life. There are other, more altruistic reasons that are now gainingpopularity with the one-time skeptics. Besides life-saving,vegetarianism is world-saving. As the people of this planetbecome more concerned about its potential longevity--and the factthat Greenpeace has had a 500% increase in its global membership,to five million members, over the past 10 years suggests thatthey are concerned--the methods of meat production are comingincreasingly under ecological scrutiny. For instance, many young people are now finding itunacceptable that, in order to bring beef to the great Americanplate, a huge acreage of Central and South American rainforesthas been razed and cleared to provide grazing land for cattle. Ata time when tree cover of this earth is reducing rapidly, ourkids need to know that for every "quarterpounder" madefrom Central or South American beef, six square yards ofrainforest is hewn for pasture. Our kids also need to know that as they will inherit theplanet they and their children are doomed to inherit a placewhere fresh water tables are dropping dramatically because 70% ofall fresh American water is used in agriculture, and whereas ittakes 25 gallons of that water to produce a pound of wheat, theUniversity of California computed that it takes 5,214 gallons toproduce a pound of beef. Hopefully this new altruism will now extend to the way that wefeed the world, because this is the new frontier that needs mostto be crossed. According to UNICEF data, every 2.3 seconds achild dies on this planet because of hunger; since you beganreading this sentence, and by the time you reach the end of it,four children will have died because they did not have enough toeat. If there was ever a convincing argument for vegetarianism,it's right there because if we did not squander so much of ouragricultural resources on meat production, these children wouldnot die. We waste so much to gain so little as so many others die withnothing. We waste 16 pounds of grain in livestock feed to produceone single pound of beef. We feed 80% of the corn grown in theUSA not to people, but to livestock. If we are to address this problem of world hunger--and whoelse is responsible for it except those of us living here?--weneed to affect a massive shift in where we feed the foods of ourfields. Instead of feeding grain to livestock, we could fed theworld by feeding the grain direct to people. And I'm not asking anyone to suffer here. If, for instance,Americans reduced their intake of meat by just 10%--if just onein every 10 meals was meatless--that would free up enough land,water and energy from growing livestock feed to adequately feed40 million starving people. And that's official, from theWorldwatch Institute. The point is that this problem is not going to go away; theproblem is going to get worse as the population explodes in thenext century like never before. More people are going to haveless to eat, and we have to find new ways of feeding them. It appears to me that as you can grow 40,000 lbs. of potatoesor 10,000 lbs. of beans on an acre of prime land that wouldproduce just 250 lbs of beef, one of these new ways has to be amajor shift away from meat-eating. Of course, to argue for this change is to invite the catcallsagain because by asking people to change their eating habits weare asking them to change tradition and people like to cling totradition. Tradition, the way it is, is only an idea that has hadwidespread acceptance for a protracted period of time. But now wehave to find new, better ideas. Just because something is atradition does not, in itself, make it a good idea. It used to bea tradition for women not to have the vote. It used to be atradition in my husband's home town of Liverpool to ship blackpeople from Africa to America as slaves. These were not goodideas and new, better ideas overcame them. And I have faith that these new ideas for the way we eat willchange the way it is to the way it should be. I have faithbecause so many people who might once have mocked vegetarianism,are now opening up to these new ideas. The very presence of thismagazine in the market proves that minds are opening to the newpossibilities. And that change is coming fast. In England, as I write,newspapers have just reported the findings of a poll of teenageschoolgirls that has found that 57% of those age 14 and under arenow claiming to be vegetarian. Of these kids, 82% said they havestopped eating meat because they don't believe that animalsshould be killed for food. Such poll findings were unheard of 10 years ago. But then, tenyears ago, who would have said that the Berlin Wall would comedown, that the Soviet bloc would collapse under pressure fordemocracy, or that Nelson Mandela would go from a prison to apresidency? But ten years ago, I'd had laughed if anyone told me I couldwrite a vegetarian cookbook that one person would buy, let alone360,000 people who bought it worldwide. Ten years ago I'd havescoffed at the very idea that frozen vegetarian food with my faceon it would be selling in the supermarkets of California, or that60 million meals of the same food would have sold in the UK lastyear. Or that we could create meals from wheat that taste so likemeat you wouldn't know the difference. Ten years ago I wouldn't have believed you if you'd asked meto create ready-made vegetarian meals for Japan, Sweden, Germany,Holland and Australia. There's no demand, I'd have said, peoplearen't that interested. Japan? But they're interested, and areasking me now. Ten years ago I wouldn't have said "there's a foodrevolution going on" Ten years from now I hope we'll say "We told you so"Linda McCartney is a homemaker, mother, author of a book onvegetarian cooking called Home Cooking and has just introduced aline of vegetarian frozen foods. She is also the long time wifeof Paul McCartney of The Beatles. This is her first contributionto New Frontier Magazine.  To Front of Issue 1 | Home | E-mail©1996 New Frontier Magazine. All rights reserved. |
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