“The Betrayal of Point Reyes”: An Environmental Travesty - A Plea to Protect Precious Habitats, Part 2 of 2

On today’s program, Julie Phillips, a Tule elk-people biologist and educator shares her thoughts on the inappropriateness of having ranches in a national park. “I just briefly read the mission of the national park because I think that's really important. ‘The purpose of the National Parks system is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner (and) by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.’ We need these special protected lands so we can be sure we have Tule elk over time.”

“There's about a thousand acres of silage that's both planted and then mowed down as feed for the cattle operations. And they mow the lawn multiple times, including during bird nesting season. So, we have documented footage of these huge lawn mowers going over this silage grass field, and native birds just being demolished during their nesting season. And then on top of this, with so much land degradation and 30% of the land being dedicated to these ranchers, it basically creates a biological graveyard for wildlife.”

“I really think that if we can phase out the commercial industry and we can give the land a chance to breathe and a chance to recover… So, if we can remove the destructive force on the land, the land will heal itself. But the first thing we have to do is get rid of all the harm that's being caused by these commercial beef and dairy operations.”

For decades, our most beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai has warned that raising animal-people livestock not only destroys the environment, but is the primary cause of global warming. She says that a global shift to a vegan lifestyle is essential if we want to save our planet. “If you really love your children, you would do anything, right? You would even lay down your life, but you don’t even have to lay down your life; you will be even more healthy. You just lay down piece of animal-people’s meat, which is poisonous and bad for you, bad for the environment and damaging the planet anyway, the planet that they want their children to inherit.”