Issues > September/October 2003 (#98) > Matters of Scale: Fat of the Land

Matters of Scale: Fat of the Land

by World Watch Magazine

World Watch Magazine

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Americans, overfed and over-fueled, are overweight. It's no wonder to James O. Hill, a physiologist at the University of Colorado, who argues "becoming obese is a normal response to the American environment." The fast food industry has shaped not only what we eat but how food is made, taking full advantage of human's insatiable appetite for sugars and fats. There is a price for such over-indulgence, both to our health and to the environment, as these facts put in such bold relief. Reprinted with permission from World Watch Magazine, March/April 2003.

Fat in one foil-packaged restaurant serving of butter

 

  

6 grams

 

Fat in one Burger King “Whopper”

 

  

40 grams

 

Amount of global-warming carbon dioxide released by driving a typical American car, in one day

 

  

3 kg

 

Amount released by clearing and burning enough Costa Rican rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger

 

  

75 kg

 

Amount spent annually by McDonald’s advertising its products

 

  

$800 million

 

Amount spent annually by the National Cancer Institute promoting fruits and vegetables

 

  

$1 million

 

Average cholesterol level in the United States

 

  

210

 

Average cholesterol level of vegetarians in the United States

 

  

161

 

Gallons of oil spilled by the Exxon-Valdez

 

  

12 million

 

Gallons of putrefying hog urine and feces spilled into the New River in North Carolina (immediately killing over 10 million fish) when a “lagoon”holding 8 acres of excrement burst

 

  

25 million

 
Prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens in Denmark prior to a ban on routine use of antibiotics in chicken production   82 percent
Prevalence three years after the ban   12 percent

•         •         •         •

 

Reprinted from World Watch Magazine,July/August 2003

SOURCES: John Robbins, The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World (Berkeley: Conari Press, 2001). Robbins citations: Burger King Corporation, 2000 (Whopper); Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly, January 2, 1997 (McDonald’s); Archives of Internal Medicine, 1986 (cholesterol); Feedstuffs, July 3, 1995 (hog waste); World Watch, July/August 1994 (carbon dioxide); Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1999 (antibiotics).

 

Worldwatch is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society. For more information, visit them on the web at www.worldwatch.org.

Filed under: Industrial agriculture, Obesity and Overweight

For Your Community | posted September 29, 2003