Berkeley, Ca. May 20, 2010
by Chef Tanya Petrovna
David Rosenthal Center
Host-Earth Island Institute and VegNews magazine.
Berkeley, Ca. May 20, 2010- The only place in the world where a debate would take place with a vegetarian turned cattle rancher v.s. a cattle rancher turned vegan.
Synopsis:
Howard Lyman-5th Generation cattle rancher and farmer, took his organic family farm and made it a "modern" farm, didn't like the results he saw and became vegan and started a grassroots movement to educate other farmers and consumers on the the negative impact of factory farming and modern chemical agriculture. Began to be very active in the 90"s
informing the public about the threat of Mad Cow Disease and landed on the Oprah Show, where Oprah made her classic statement that she'd never eat another burger and was sued by the cattle industry which led to a famous trial in Amarillo, Texas. ( Oprah won and upheld our first amendment right for free speech-but that's another blog).
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Nicolette Hahn Niman- A vegetarian and biology major who worked for Bobby Kennedy doing full time work to reform livestock & poultry issues. Did a lot of lobbying to EPA to get Clean Water Act inforced. During her work she met a cattle rancher who believed in humane raised beef and small farm ranching, his name is Bill Niman and his ranch is called Niman ranch. They fell in love and got married. She now advocates for humane raised meat, though still a vegetarian.
Chef Tanya Petrovna of Native Foods Cafe with Howard Lyman
The debate centered on if meat can truly be sustainable. Bottom line is both agreed any kind of meat from factor farmed animals can not, is not and will not ever be sustainable (99% of farms in the US are factory farms). On the topic of concern if even humane raised meat is sustainable Howard argued not, as deforestation of the Amazon is due to livestock raising and those animals are humanely raised (not factory farms), he brought up the huge amounts of not only CO2 but methane that are caused by animal agriculture, and that bottom line you can'ttake animals raised as humane and increase and increase the livability of the planet.He called the Amazon rainforest the "lungs of the earth."
Niman argued that most of the problem of global warming was not from the gases emitted from animal ag but by the decrease of healthy soils and stated David Pimental research. She said he said (hey it's a debate, that was ok writing style) promoting livestock helps build the soil.
When the ethics issue came up Nicolette felt it much better to keep animals in good condition on ethical farms than to fend for themselves in the wild and that killing each other is a natual cycle of all animals and we are animals. Howard said cows (and domestic farm animals) aren't wild animals they are raised to be killed and that all animals have the will to live, avoid being killed and feel pain. Howard then mentions what I call to"Howardisms" and said "Nothing has to die in order for me to live. Nicolette's rebuttal was that many animals are killed for the vegan diet too, she didn't elaborate, and Howard then made it clear he was talking about farm animals.
When asked the question if either had an animal on the farm that they befriended and just could kill, Nicolette has a cow named Girlfriend of 14 years and one other cow. Howard had a few and most notably was the pig that stood on his back legs and opened the door with his front legs. It scared his mother and law so much that each time the pig did this she left. Howard said he never got rid of that pig.
Mrs. Niman mentioned that she had just read Howard Lyman's book Mad Cowboy just a few months ago as she was asked to do this debate. In the audience participation we were allowed to ask questions, so I asked if she had read Howard's book before she met her husband would she have married him? The event ended with all sides laughing.
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