Ecology and the food chain

By A. Chisholm VEGETARIANISM IS COMMONLY CONSIDERED a choice made for reasons such as animal rights, or for personal health. However, adopting this diet can also bean environmental choice.

Our diet is our primary connection

sion then occurs.rapidly. It has been said that overgrazing is only the result of poor manage- ment and carelessness. However, every sys- tem in history that has used large scale grazing has suffered large losses of soil. According to “A Vegetarian Source” by Kieth Akers, “‘A total

with the earth’s resources. What we choose to eat affects all facets of the world’s ecology. Our forests, land, and water can be destroyed and damaged. Or they can be saved.

We should begin by clarifying the term vegetarian. In common understanding, a veg- etarian is a person who meets their nutritional needs with plant sources instead of animal sources. Degrees of vegetarianism can vary rom lacto-ovo vegetarians who eat no meat but will consume milk and eggs, to vegans who vill not consume anything of animal origin, including milk, eggs, cheese, and even honey. There is no question of meeting nutri- ional needs with only plant sources. All utrients found in meat, including protein, can ¢ provided through careful selection of plants, uts, and seeds. Vegetarian information and ecipe books are readily available.

By subsisting on plant life, we can make e best of the earth’s potential while doing minimum of damage to her dwindling esources. The production of livestock for luman consumptions requires a much greater vestment of resources than plant food agri- ture for the same nutritional return. Many { today’s environmental problems can be inked to meat consumption-- soil erosion, eforestation, and water pollution.

Much of the worlds soil erosion is due livestock agriculture. It is inevitable that @ erosion will occur, and it is balanced by © process of soil formation. However, stock agriculture increases the rate of "osion. Grazing cattle has a dramatic effect. € trampling of the animals first pulverizes € soil, and the grazing removes vegetation t would anchor the soil. The trampling inds the soil into such small particles that it ‘Omes much more susceptible to wind and ter erosion. When the water cannot infil- ® the soil, the rainfall runs off the surface the soil underneath to dry out. Ero-

vegetarian economy, even in the absence of other reforms, would eliminate 90% of such erosion.”

Our forests are depleted for many reasons but the demand for cattle land re- mains the primary enemy of forest lands. While it is possible to reforest lands that have been overgrazed, we must remember the time it takes to grow a forest compared to the rates at which they are being cut down.

Water is our most precious resource. It is critical to our daily survival. Not only does it take 50 times more water to produce beef than wheat, but water is also becoming pol- luted. Livestock pollutes the water in two ways: through direct waste, and waste prod- ucts from slaughterhouses. Oxygen is taken from the water by the bacteria which decom- pose waste. If the bacteria cannot be sus- tained, the water will become unsuitable for any human purpose. Oxygen depended life, such as fish will also die as a result.

Allof these effects can be prevented, or lessened by adopting a vegetarian diet. Plant agriculture is more efficient ecology and nutri- tionally. For example, an acre of cereal prod- ucts will produce five times the protein than the same amount of land devoted to meat production. Animal based diets, as opposed to vegetable based, have higher incidents of dis- eases such as heart disease, high blood pres- sure, and cancer.

Reasons such as these are enough to encourage a complete vegetarian diet, although many of us are not willing to make that lifestyle change. By incorporating vegetarian aspects into your diet, like making meat-based meals the exception and not the rule, we are doing as much for the environment as when we

recycle or compost.

*For more information on this subject refer to

Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe and A Vegetarian Sourcebook by Keith Akers.

Environmentally friendly com- pany celebrates anniversary

By Colleen Easter WHEN YOU MEET MARK MACLEAN THE first thing that you notice is the enthusiasm he has for his work. Mark, a 1993 business administration grad from UPEI, and his previ- ously retired dad, Dave Bagnall, started the ‘Island distributorship of LaserWorks, which celebrates its one year anniversary this month. And this company has a lot of other things to celebrateas well. Not only is it totally commit- ted to helping the environment, and saving businesses money, it also seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. In the last year it has converted 200 businesses into green ones. LaserWorks is a Maritime company started about six years ago by three Dalhousie graduates, and now has distributors all over the Maritimes and in Bermuda. LaserWorks’ biggest function is recycling toner cartridges from laser printers. Normally this big hunk of plastic is just thrown away and a new one is bought. LaserWorks takes this contraption, completely disassembles it-- all 126 parts-- cleans and repairs it, installs a new drum and toner, and then reassembles the cartridge. The remanufactured toner cartridge is just as good as a new one, and you wouldn't believe how much garbage is saved.

It is said that if all the printer cartridges and their packaging thrown away in the last year in Canada were piled up, it would make a pile 16 feet square and as high as the CN Tower! And every year this figure is increasing at over fifty percent. “We tell out clients that each cartridge represents about 0.7 cubic feet so that they get a mental picture of exactly how much their efforts are contributing to solving the landfill situation,” says Mark McLane. That means small businesses save at least 5 cubic feet of landfill a year and big businesses that use recycled cartridges, such as law firms, can probably save five times that amount of garbage. LaserWorks. on P.E.I. has saved approximately 1000 cubic feet of garbage in the year it has been operating.

LaserWorks is even more environ- mentally friendly than it first sounds. Their

reusable boxes are made so they don’t need any tape. They don’t use styrofoam in the packaging but a more friendly foam. The foam, box and just about everything else is reused along with the cartridge. 98% of the material used at LaserWorks is reused. The business cards and paper are recycled. Even the pens they give out are specially made out of recycled paper!

This environment friendly company has another way to make their customers green - - by saving them money. The remanufactured cartridges are 25% cheaper than the new ones. There seems no reason not to deal with this company since the cartridges are certified and meet government standards. They are also unconditionally guaranteed and do not void the manufacturer's warranty. They also sell and service the printers and deal with photo- copiers. So LaserWorks can meet all your needs as you save money and the Earth.

When asked about why he thought he could runa small business Mark is fairly confi- dent. He says that UPEI provided him with a good business education, and managing the Barn was invaluable experience. Now LaserWorks sells cartridges and services the printers at the X-Press, AVC, the Student

Union and Computer Services.

Starting the business was almost a mat- ter of necessity. For Mark it was a case of graduating and just not seeing any work. Mark and his father both believe that this is the wave of the future, graduates not waiting around to find a job but creating their own. The only other option seems to be leaving the Island, which Mark has seen many of his classmates do. Instead he has build up this Island branch of this unique Maritime company.

So when you deal with LaserWorks you save an incredible amount of garbage, you save money, deal with an Island company, and \ help support a young entrepreneur. The next time you change your cartridge think about what you want ina business. They even pick up and deliver.