Being the Change – Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution by Peter Kalmus, published in 2017, is an account of his own transition from a high CO2-emission life to one that is about a tenth of his fellow citizens in the United States [1]
It covers his growing awareness of the impact of his lifestyle on the environment. He describes taking time to reflect on the world of which we are part, and the steps taken to reduce his environmental impact in every area of his life, including transport, food, work, and around the home.
More than this, Kalmus also points out that change means living in harmony with the biosphere, and as a consequence improving the quality of life.
The book is full of memorable observations and ideas on living sustainably.
Kalmus has not taken up a vegan diet, and keeps a few hens, but is very aware of the impact of food choices on the planet.
On factory farming he writes,
“As a society, we are radically disconnected from our food sources. We buy bloodless, commodified chicken legs in shrink-wrapped plastic, and we don’t think about where the meat comes from. We don’t want to know. Disconnecting from our empathy allows us to voluntarily – even eagerly – participate in a system that brutalizes other beings. (I believe that a similar disconnection allows us to wage war.)
When keeping a small backyard flock, you know that your hens are healthy and happy. But in factory farms, hundreds of thousands of birds are packed together under one roof. Hens live short and brutal lives in terrible conditions. Like other livestock within our industrial food production system, they are seen not as beings, but as raw material from which to extract wealth. Hens are killed after about a year of laying, when their egg output slows, and ground up for pet food. Such systems of wealth extraction are not aligned with the biosphere. Apart from being cruel, these systems are vulnerable to collapse.
Birds and other livestock are more susceptible to disease when they are crowded and stressed, so producers prop them up with antibiotics. Close quarters, poor health, and antibiotics make factory farms perfect breeding grounds for new strains of viruses and multi-resistant bacteria. And these new bacteria and viruses occasionally cross over to humans. In 2015, a surprise outbreak of Avian flu in the US killed 50 million commercial hens, turkeys and ducks. A mountain of birds. The poultry industry is nervous for the next pandemic, as are epidemiologists and public health experts – for far more ominous reasons.”
