JEWISH GROUP URGES DIETARY SHIFTS ON “WORLD WATER DAY” TO ALLEVIATE SEVERE ISRAELI DROUGHT

For Immediate Release:
March 20, 2009
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
President@JewishVeg.com  Phone: (718) 761-5876  Cell: 917-576-0344

Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) issued the following statement today:

With Israeli facing the worst drought in its history, we urge that Jews consider on “World Water Day' (March 22, 2009). a shift toward plant-based diets as an important step to alleviate the drought. At a time when Israel is unable to pump water from The Sea of Galilee because the water level is so low and other water sources are also threatened by pollution and diminished levels, it is scandalous to continue animal-based diets that require up to 14 times as much water as completely plant-based diets.

Another factor is that of global warming., which, according to the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense, could cause a reduction of rainfall of up to 30 percent. The IUED also projects that global warming will result in Israel soon facing major heat waves, , severe storms causing major flooding, and a rising Mediterranean Sea which would inundate the coastal plain where most Israelis live. The dietary connection is that, according to a 2006 UN report, livestock agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) than all the cars and other means of transportation worldwide combined (18 percent vs. 13.5 percent).

Actually water scarcity is a worldwide problem, at a time that some have called “the Century of drought,” Australia has had a ten year drought, and California's three-year drought is so severe that Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has stated that the fire season, which used to last only a few months, is now all year round. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization , by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.

There are many additional reasons that Jews should seriously consider a shift to plant-based diets:

* At a time when food prices are skyrocketing, food riots are occurring in many areas and an estimated 20 million people are dying annually worldwide from hunger and its effects, over 70 percent of the grain produced in the United States and over 40 percent produced worldwide are fed to farmed animals.

* The raising of 60 billion farmed animals annually worldwide for slaughter also contributes significantly to rapid species extinction, soil erosion and depletion, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other valuable habits, and many more environmental problems.

* Making all of the above points more serious, the consumption of animal products is projected to double in 50 years. If this happens, it will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to reduce greenhouse emissions enough to avoid very severe effects from global climate change.

* Animal-centered diets are contributing to an epidemic of heart disease, several types of cancer and other diseases in the Jewish and other communities;

* Even if animals are slaughtered strictly according to Jewish law, with  minimum pain, billions of animals still suffer greatly from cruel treatment on factory farms.

* The production and consumption of animal products arguably violate  basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help hungry people and pursue peace.

It is essential that our rabbis and other Jewish leaders recognize that a major shift toward plant-based diets is essential to avoid the unparalleled disaster that the world is rapidly approaching and to help move our precious, but imperiled, planet to a sustainable path.

It is urgent that tikkun olam-the healing and repair of the world -- be a central issue in synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish institutions. Judaism has splendid teachings on environmental conservation and sustainability, and it is essential that they be applied to respond to the many current environmental threats.

JVNA would very much welcome respectful dialogues/debates with rabbis and other Jewish leaders on “Should Jews be Vegetarians?” Such discussions would constitute a kiddush Hashem (a sanctification of G-d's Name) because it would show the applicability of eternal Jewish teachings to dietary issues.

Further information about these issues can be found at the JVNA web site JewishVeg.com. We will provide complimentary copies of its new documentary A SACRED DUTY: APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD to rabbis and other Jewish leaders who will contact us (president@JewishVeg.com)  and indicate how they might use them to involve their congregations on the issues. The entire movie can be seen and further information about it can be found at ASacredDuty.com.

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Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island
Author of "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global Survival," and "Mathematics and Global Survival," and over 130 articles at www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz

President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) www.JewishVeg.com

and Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV) www.serv-online.org

Associate Producer of A SACRED DUTY (asacredduty.com)
Director of Veg Climate Alliance (www.vegclimatealliance.org)
president@JewishVeg.com