WEBVTT

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Hello, everyone.

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(Applause)

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Let's see. OK.

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Today, I want to talk
to you all about meat, OK?

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Delicious, tasty, succulent meat.

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(Laughter)

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Now, I've loved meat my whole life.

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My very first favorite food was hot dogs.

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I loved hot dogs.

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And then, when I turned about, like, six,

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I decided, actually, pepperoni pizza
is the best food in the world.

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And I still think so. It really is.

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My favorite Chinese food? Hong shao rou.

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(Laughter)

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Amazing! So delicious!

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But despite this love of meat,
about two and a half months ago,

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I decided to begin eating a lot less meat,

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and that was partly, you know,
for health reasons,

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and partly because I'd always wanted
to care more about the animals

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that get killed and turned
into bacon, right?

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But it was also because I learned a lot
more about the environmental impact

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that my food choices had
on the world around me.

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Now, there is possibly nothing more manly

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than cutting into a big,
juicy steak, right?

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And I think there's nothing more human.

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Meat has been central
to our identity as human beings,

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and central to the development
of our human characteristics.

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Meat is what gave us bigger brains.

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It's what gave us smaller guts,

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although I'm still working
on mine, I suppose.

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(Laughter)

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It's what allowed us
to begin walking on two legs,

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instead of all four limbs.

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Meat is what made us intelligent.

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Cooperative hunting
is what helped us develop language,

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our social skills,
and again, our intelligence,

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and we have used this intelligence

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to create a world
where we can eat a lot of meat.

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In 1900,

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the total mass or weight of all
of the domesticated animals in the world,

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meaning cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep,

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everything you could put in a fence
and keep right next to you,

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was four times the weight
of all of the wild animals in the world.

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Fast-forward 100 years,

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and the total weight
of all domesticated animals in the world

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is 25 times the amount 
of wild animal mass.

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Our love of meat has transformed the world
and will keep transforming it.

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This is because, ever since
the end of World War II,

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global incomes have been rising.

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Starting in 1950,

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meat consumption worldwide
was equal to 50 million tons.

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Twenty-five years later, that had doubled
to more than 110 million tons.

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Another 25 years, it doubled again
to 220 million tons of meat

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eaten by everyone.

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Ten years later, another 55 million tons,
to 275 million tons,

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totaling an average of about 40 kilos
per person around the world.

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Now, that level of meat consumption
is not the same everywhere.

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Obviously, the more income a country has
the more meat they will eat.

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That's why even before World War II,
and especially afterwards,

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America has been the largest consumer
of meat for a long time,

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followed by Brazil and Spain.

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Also, developing countries

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that have not yet sort of risen up
into developed-country status

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still eat very low quantities of meat.

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African countries like Nigeria and Egypt,

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since the 1940s, have only seen
their consumption of meat levels double,

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whereas a country like South Korea,
which has become much, much wealthier

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in the decades since World War II,

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has seen its level of meat consumption
multiply by 20 times.

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In the next 40 or so years,

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scientists estimate that worldwide
consumption of meat will jump up 55%.

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That rise in meat consumption
is coming from developing countries

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beginning to eat a lot more meat,

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and hopefully, developed countries
slowly tapering off their intake,

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maybe by doing things
like what I'm doing right now.

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Every year, we kill 55 billion chickens,

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3 billion ducks and turkeys,
1 billion sheep and goats,

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300 million cattle.

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In America alone,

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we kill 24 million chickens
every single day.

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Now, this is a lot of meat,

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and we are going to keep creating
more and more of it to kill.

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Take China, for instance.

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China, in 1961, 
had the average per capita rate

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of less than four kilos per person.

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Fifty years later, it had risen
to 57.5 kilograms per person

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of meat intake in one year.

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Researchers estimate that, by 2030,

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China's intake of meat will rise
to 90 kilos per person,

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two-thirds of that being pork.

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And with all of this meat
being eaten in the world,

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it takes up a lot of resources.

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One kilo of meat requires
a whole lot of land and crops

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to support that meat.

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One kilo of beef requires
up to 50 square meters of land,

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to produce the crops necessary
to feed that cow.

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One kilo of pork requires
up to 12 square meters of land.

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One kilo of chicken requires
up to ten square meters of land.

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Now, we are rapidly running out of land
to feed all of these animals

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that we so ravenously want to eat.

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One quarter of all of the continental
surface that doesn't have ice

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is already taken up by livestock raising,
meaning cows and other animals,

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eating grass and wandering
around pastures and meadows.

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It's the same amount of land
that is devoted to forests,

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or at least, hopefully, will still be
remaining forests in the future.

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One-third of all arable -
made suitable for farming -

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one-third of all arable lands right now
is devoted to feed crops,

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meaning crops that we grow specifically
to feed the meat that we want to eat.

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In total, humans devote
eight times more land

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to feeding the animals 
that we want to eat

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than we do to feeding ourselves.

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Now, this brings us to South America.

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China is running out of land

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to feed its insatiable appetite for meat.

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As I already mentioned,
China's meat consumption

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is about 60 kilos per person
per year right now,

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and two-thrids of that is devoted to pork.

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Now, Chinese pigs do not have
enough land available in China

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to grow the soybeans
or the corn that feed those pigs,

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which means that China
has to import all of this food

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to feed the pigs that it wants to eat.

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And a lot of that food
comes from South America.

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China buys one half
of the global market for soybean,

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and it buys one-fifth
of all the corn made in the world.

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It buys that soybean from countries
like Argentina, Chile, Brazil.

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And one of the rapidly rising problems
that the world is facing

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is that a lot of that land,

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which is slowly being 
turned into crop land

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to produce soy to feed the pigs
that are in China,

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is right now rain forest.

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And so, deforestation is when rain forests
and other forests are cleared

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in order to turn it into crop land
that can feed these animals.

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And rain forests deforestation,
in particular, is very dangerous

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because the rain forests are a sponge

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for the greenhouse gases
that create global warming.

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Right now,

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the meat that we eat

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creates more soybean,
which creates less rain forests,

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which creates more greenhouse gases,

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which create hotter temperatures
and weirder weather for all of us.

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Now, let's talk about 
the other feed crop, right?

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Remember, there are two feed crops:
soybeans and corn.

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Soybeans are grown
for the protein to feed these pigs.

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Corn is grown for carbohydrates,

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and almost all of the world's corn
is grown in America.

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Now, American-made corn

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is tremendously productive,

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and the reason it's so productive
is because we pour lots and lots of oil,

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and gasoline, and fertilizer 
into that land

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to create these amazing amounts of corn.

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It takes about 50 gallons of oil
to create one acre of corn,

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and all of that oil is used
to build fertilizer.

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Fertilizer's magic ingredient is nitrogen.

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Now, nitrogen is not very good
for the environment

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in really large quantities,

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and those are the quantities
that we are feeding our lands.

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When nitrogen seeps into the soil,

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it can enter our drinking water supply,

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and that can be harmful for our health,
especially the health of little children.

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However, the real problem
with nitrogen and water pollution

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is when nitrogen leaks into the soil
and travels down into a river,

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and travels down that river
and enters the ocean,

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and enters shallow coastal waters,

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like the Gulf of Mexico.

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A huge portion of the nitrogen in America

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has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico,

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creating what's called eutrophication,

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and eutrophication is what happens
when nitrogen enters water

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and creates a massive growth of algae,
these big algae blooms.

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And when all of that algae
enters a huge space in water,

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it sucks up all of the oxygen,

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leaving what are called hypoxic dead zones
where fish cannot breathe

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and where all of the fish
and the sea life in that region dies.

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And what America's amazing and incredible
sort of industrial factory farming

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has done to the water 
in the Gulf of Mexico

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has created a hypoxic dead zone
that is as big as the state of New Jersey.

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Now, that's not the only
sort of euthophication

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that's happening in the globe.

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Eutrophication is happening all over,
and it is a rising problem.

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Next, I want to talk about meat
production's effects on the atmosphere,

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on greenhouse gases and global warming.

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Every kilo of meat, as we've seen,

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has a particular price that we pay 
to the environment.

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Beef, in particular, 
is the most expensive.

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Now, meat production is responsible
for three primary greenhouse gases:

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carbon dioxide, which, hopefully,
you are all aware of;

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methane, which is produced
when cows burp and fart out,

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(Laughter)

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after eating lots and lots of grass
or, nowadays, corn -

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Methane is 21 times more poisonous
than carbon dioxide.

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Nitrous oxide is created
from animal manure

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and from these nitrogen fertilizers
leaking into the soil and the atmosphere.

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Nitrous oxide is even more
poisonous than methane.

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Nitrous oxide is 310 times
more dangerous for the environment

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than carbon dioxide.

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Now, altogether,
meat production produces 10%

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of all carbon dioxide
emissions worldwide.

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It creates 40% of all of the released
methane into the environment,

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nearly two-thirds of all human-caused
emissions of nitrous oxide.

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Altogether, this means 
that meat production

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is the second highest leading cause
of greenhouse gases,

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accounting for one-fifth of all
greenhouse gases produced in 2004,

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and it's rising every year.

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This is more than the greenhouse gases
produced by all of transportation,

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meaning planes, trains, automobiles,
trucks, ships combined.

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Let's look at American cows in particular.

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Now, American cows produce
more greenhouse gases

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than 22 million cars on the road per year.

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And American cows produce
that many greenhouse gases

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because Americans eat a lot of beef.

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The average American eats
about three hamburgers per week,

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which equals 156 hamburgers per year,

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which, if you multiply
by the population of America,

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means that Americans going
to McDonald's, and Wendy's,

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and Burger King, and all the other
delicious restaurants that we have

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are eating 40 billion hamburgers per year,

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and those 40 billion hamburgers are
exacting a huge toll on our environment.

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Every single quarter-pounder that we eat
needs 100 gallons of water,

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1.2 pounds of grain, 1 cup of gasoline,

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and creates 1.5 pounds of topsoil,

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meaning the best kind of soil
for the most fertile crops,

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that is lost due to erosion.

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All of these sort of economic ingredients

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pay a big price when it comes
to the environment.

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Every quarter-pounder hamburger

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accounts for about 6.5 pounds
of carbon dioxide equivalents.

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That means that Americans'
massive hamburger habit -

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we've got to have it! -

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three hamburgers per week,
again, multiplied every American,

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means that American hamburger habit

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is the cause of about 158 million tons
of greenhouse gases

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released into the atmosphere every year,

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which is equal to 34 coal-fired
power plants running year-round.

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Now, that is a big figure,
and that's all because of what we eat.

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So now, I want to talk to you a little bit
about what you can do about this.

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So, the reason I'm giving this talk

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is because, a couple of months ago,
I started reading a book.

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You know, I'm not a scientist,
I'm not an expert.

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I'm just someone who's very hungry
and wanted to read about it.

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(Laughter)

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Alright?

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It turns out that if you reduce -

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let's say you eat two hamburgers a week.

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If you start switching to a diet
of only one hamburger per week,

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you are saving the equivalent of about
350 miles of one car taken off the road,

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for a whole [year].

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If all of us make the decision
to reduce our meat intake,

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we can all make a difference.

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I have decided to drop
my sort of meat intake

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from 12 meals every week
to about four meals every week.

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I can't give up meat
because it's way too good, right?

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However, every small little choice
that we make matters.

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I want to leave you with a quote,

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by an American writer, poet,
and environmental activist

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named Wendell Berry.

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He says that "eating 
is an agricultural act."

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What he means by that

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is that every decision we make
about what we are eating

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affects what the farmers grow and produce.

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It affects what
the restaurants serve to us.

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It affects what our mom
will cook us for dinner, right?

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Eating is a political act.

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We can vote with our mouth
and with our stomachs,

00:18:12.403 --> 00:18:18.224
and by choosing to eat less meat,
we can make the world a better place.

00:18:18.224 --> 00:18:21.895
So, please, I would love it
if all of you guys left today thinking,

00:18:21.895 --> 00:18:26.343
"OK, when I go to McDonald's,
I'm not going to choose the hamburger.

00:18:26.343 --> 00:18:28.917
Instead, I'll choose the apple pies."

00:18:28.917 --> 00:18:30.608
(Laughter)

00:18:30.608 --> 00:18:32.187
Those are delicious.

00:18:32.566 --> 00:18:36.067
Or, when you're out
at a restaurant with friends,

00:18:36.067 --> 00:18:40.053
and you're all sharing a couple
of meat dishes and some veggie dishes,

00:18:40.053 --> 00:18:45.267
switch out one of the pork dishes
for another vegetable dish.

00:18:45.668 --> 00:18:50.283
Every little decision that we make
has an effect on the world.

00:18:51.407 --> 00:18:57.877
So, together, let's eat better
and let's make the world a better place.

00:18:57.877 --> 00:18:59.148
Alright. Thank you.

00:18:59.148 --> 00:19:00.549
(Applause)