As you have heard the past two days, wildfires have devastated towns and
range land. I posted this pic of a wildfire south of where our farm is a few weeks ago. I was home alone and thinking about how I would use my
water hose to wet the house down. After hearing of the fires yesterday, I think my only hope would have been to run to the pond. It is scary to think of the poor people that lost everything, not to mention all the little and large animals that didn't make it. The wind was howling; there was no stopping the fire. A lot of these fires are started by the ranchers wanting to burn off pastureland or to burn off the woodlands to make more pastureland. They do this to make
range land for their cattle to graze and burn off the weeds so feed grasses will grow. The fires always seem to get out of hand and burn for miles until it rains or the fires finally reach a firebreak. But, oh the nature; the flora and fauna that is destroyed in the process. You see, the turtles haven't come out of hibernation quite yet, and if they have, they move too slowly to
escape the firestorm. Ditto for all the other animals, pastured and wild too. One byproduct of the burning happens when the hay grows deep in the spring. The mother deer lay their new fawns down in the grasses to go some distance away to graze. A hay mower told me that the mowers chop up the new baby deer while they are mowing, and also quail nests...you get the picture. And all for the ranchers to raise their cattle and send them to the slaughterhouse. Some relatives in my own family do this. And this goes on on a global scale everyday. Why can't they just burn and mow hay later in the season? I don't have all the answers. What I do know is I quit eating mammals 4 years ago. I haven't missed the red meat at all and my family were big meat eaters. You have heard the old saw, you can't save the world, but do what you can. This was one way I could.
As a postscript~According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the animal agriculture sector contributes to global warming even more than transportation does. Reducing the amount of meat, eggs, and dairy products in your diet is one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Humane Society of the United States, humanesociety.org/food.
