Thread by @elleprovocateur

I finally got around to watching the Apocalypse Cow documentary (Channel 4, George Monbiot) the other night. Like Monbiot, I do not eat meat/fish or drink milk. I'm still gathering my thoughts on the doc,. however, here are my thoughts thus far.

All nature is now being recognized as an object to be bought/sold, traded on wall street. And this is what perhaps bother me most about the doc. As I can see the intent / purpose behind it. It's not as though Monbiot does not know about the #NewDealForNature. He does.

Consider most, if not all of his "allies" are at the helm or support the #NewDealForNature, led by WEF, WWF, UN, Natural Capital Coalition, Conservation Int., etc. And of course, both Monbiot & Thunberg did the promotional video for CI. #Celebrity is utilized to serve capital.

Monbiot quips that "We are on the cusp of the biggest economic transformation, of any kind, for 200 years." (Jan 8 2020, The Guardian), yet never mentions the #NewDealForNature. His doc brings to mind all types of terms for #EmergingMarkets including "Land Degradation Neutrality"

The doc highlighted the environmental impacts of the grazing sheep as far more detrimental than the impacts of industrial factory farms. To start with small farms where the animals have superior lives to those condemned to the massive factory farms was, for me, unforgivable.

That industrial farming, in which the animals are subjected to unsurpassed levels of cruelty & terror that mere words could not possibly articulate, is not the first to be terminated, is shameful. These horrific "farms" supply the
$570 billion global fast-food sector.

Monbiot has an issue with efficiency, but apparently unsurpassed cruelty is a lesser problem. It's not as though these massive & horrific "livestock" production facilities are not part & parcel of our present ecological nightmares.

But of course the focus is not on industrial factory farms, as it is not this billion dollar industry that corporations wish to seize – they already own it. They want the natural land. They want nature. All of it. The more pristine, the more carbon rich, the more coveted.

The lab produced flour is a dangerous concept. We are told that the hydrogen pathway used by Solar Foods is about 10 times as efficient as #photosynthesis. We are reminded that only part of a plant can be eaten, while the bacterial flour is far more efficient.

Yet, we are at this very dangerous precipice, precisely because of our fractured & devolving relationship with nature. Valuing the science of hydrogen over Nature's process of photosynthesis only feeds this broken relationship.

Further, this path would deepen our dependence on the global industrial capitalist system, that is killing our natural world, rather than liberating us from it.

It feels like ancient grains are as old as time itself, embedded in cultures that have not contributed to climate change. Tiny seeds that hold life itself – coming alive with rain, sun, & nourishment from the soil.

This course of thought requires further contemplation.

Again, speaking of efficiency, Monbiot tells us "because it [the flour]will be brewed in giant vats the #land efficiency, the company estimates, is roughly 20,000 times greater."

This is where the hypocrisy makes one feel a bit nauseous, and even bamboozled.

New Scientist: "The head of Solar Foods, [], tells me that the efficiency figure Monbiot cites applies only to the area of land taken up by the factories. If the energy were derived from solar, says Vainikka, then it would be only 10x more land efficient than farmed soya."

Monbiot promotes the use of hydrogen. New Scientist: "There are grand plans to use hydrogen for everything from heating homes to powering aeroplanes. But we don’t produce enough hydrogen for this, & 99% of it is made from fossil fuels, so using it won't reduce emissions".

Here is the part I find so hypocritical - and transparent.

Liberals such as Monbiot applaud colossal solar installations as massive victories for climate change.

And yet, these installations are covering/destroying land & biodiversity. There are no tears, only accolades.

Grazing deer that do not allow trees to grow, due to grazing – very bad.

Thousands of industrial solar panels – that do not allow trees to grow – & displace animals/insects/biodiversity - victory for climate.

Monbiot used this image - deer surrounded by biodiversity - to accompany a 2018 article he wrote for The Guardian (an article against putting a price on nature!)

"Deer roam through bluebells in Micheldever Wood, Hampshire. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA"

Monbiot suggests the solar can be produced in the desert.

Life exists in the deserts. Just ask the desert tortoises, the endangered Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly & cacti.

Industrial sacrifice zones - to further serve the West - is not environmentalism. It is displacement.

When I looked, I found the UK actually does have a single desert: the #Dungeness. Rich in biodiversity, 77 miles long. Is this where the panels will go? Or is Africa to provide the solar energy required for the Western lab food?

#Colonialism #Speciesism

Monbiot warns us of UN forecasts "that by 2050 feeding the world will require a 20% expansion in agriculture's global water use" – while approval for water intensive #CCS & #BECCS facilities accelerate unabated. #CCS at scale may double our freshwater consumption by 2050.

Here I thought it was the global economic capitalist system, imperialism, colonialism, militarism, & industrial civ - including livestock/farming devouring the Earth –– and all along it was the sheep grazing in the hillsides of the UK, belonging to mom & pop.

If we want to address grass & #rewild – by all means let's do so. Unnatural grass in North America is the #ApocalypseLawn. This grass is an environmental nightmare that gorges on chemicals, fertilizers, fresh water - a trillion $$$ industry – for dead "green" spaces.

#ApocalypseLawn: "green" spaces that support no biodiversity & offer no food. Further, the apocalypse lawn propels sales of lawnmowers, "weedwackers", leaf blowers – all massive contributors of both air & noise #pollution - while consuming huge amounts of fossil fuels.

Maintaining/mowing the #ApocalypseLawn ensures no seedlings will ever grow into trees. If we are in a climate & ecological emergency (& I agree we are & have been in one for decades) – in which we require a war time mobilization - where is the campaign to rewild these spaces?

Again, speaking to the "war time mobilization" we hear so often, a grassroots effort that would transform the #ApocalypseLawns into Victory Gardens - would negate the so-called need for lab food.

NGOs could do it tomorrow. But they won't- as it is not an #EmergingMarket.

We witness a declared #ClimateEmergency – but with no war time mobilization outside of market "solutions" which will only worsen our crises. There is no drafted legislation to rewild our communities because foundations (corp. profits) no not wish to touch a trillion $ industry.

The ruling classes do not want citizens to learn to grow their own food, or become independent from the system in any way. They do not care in we are languishing in communities void of beauty, void of trees, void of biodiversity, void of life.

The lab food leads us further away from the natural world, & the beautiful natural food that she provides. This is what gives life itself actual meaning. Anyone who has ever picked a fresh peach off a tree & eaten it knows this, as do those who have dug potatoes from the Earth.

Natural food is the very essence of life. The lie that lab food is the exciting solution of our environmental nightmares – as militarism, imperialism & capitalism continue unchecked, is yet another nightmare they are trying to sell you.

In the future that the ruling class intends, they will eat the finest organic grains.

The working class & peasantry (whose labour will grow, pack & ship the fine grains) will eat lab food.

[The land that the fine grains will grow on will be owned/controlled by the elite.]

Add:

The doc focus is on sheep/deer grazing destroying the hillside while over past 25 yrs as much as 76 million acres of forest in Indonesia alone has been cut down for palm plantations. In 2013, Mongabay cited the global deforestation accredited to palm at 136 million acres.

Monbiot touches on palm - as a source of feed for the "big carbon releasing machines" (what he sees when he looks at a cow), etc., - but surely the bulk of palm is used for industrial processed food/products that offer not only no nutritional value, but contribute to sickness.

Of course, this will not be touched as "responsible" palm certification is a billion dollar industry for Monbiot "ally" #WWF. The same WWF responsible for the tortures, murders, rapes, displacement of Indigenous/Tribal Peoples.

Round & round we go.