Item 3 - Desk Item Report and Attachment 6
PREPARED BY: JENNIFER ARMER, AICP
Senior Planner
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
MEETING DATE: 12/12/2019 ITEM: 3 DESK ITEM
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
GENERAL PLAN UPDATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
REPORT
DATE: December 12, 2019
TO: General Plan Update Advisory Committee
FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Review Land Use Alternatives Report and Develop Preferred Land Use
Alternative Recommendation.
REMARKS:
Attachment 6 contains public comments received after the completion of the staff report.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachments previously received with December 12, 2019 Staff Report:
1. Land Use Alternatives Report, dated December 2019, available online here:
www.losgatos2040.com/documents.html
2. GPAC Process Schedule
3. Changes in Housing Element Law
4. Missing Middle Housing Information
5. Public Comment received before 11:00 a.m., Friday, August 9, 2019
Attachments received with this Desk Item Report:
6. Public Comments
This Page
Intentionally
Left Blank
From: Sue Ann Lorig
Subject: Comments for GPAC meeting Dec 12, 2019
Sue Ann Lorig
132 Loma Alta Ave.
Los Gatos
Los Gatos General Plan Advisory Committee meeting
December 12, 2019
Los Gatos Town Council Chambers
I’m Sue Ann Lorig and a resident of Los Gatos. I’m here to talk about the environmental impacts of
industrial animal agriculture.
Industrial animal agriculture currently occupies more than half of the world’s arable land resources, uses
the majority of our freshwater stores, and expels more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire
transportation sector. Additionally, it causes rampant air and water pollution, land degradation, and
deforestation, and is pushing countless species to the brink of extinction.
It takes 160 times more land resources to produce beef than it does to produce vegetables, fruits, and
legumes. The rainforests, the planet’s lungs, are being burned as we speak to clear land for more animal
agriculture.
But it’s not just beef. It’s also chickens, pigs, dairy cows, and the other farm animals that make up our
current farming system. The entire livestock system currently occupies 45% of the planet’s land
surface. In comparison, 95% of the human population occupies 10% of the world’s land.
In addition to using scarce land, we’re using scarce water resources to grow food to feed animals for
food. In the U.S., 47% of soy and 60% of corn is consumed by livestock. An average cow will consume
around 1,000 pounds of feed every few months. Within a short lifetime, that cow will use about
183,500 gallons of water through feed alone.
When you include the millions of gallons for everything from hydration to washing excrement off
concrete floors, cleaning blood and grease from the equipment in the butchering process, etc., it takes
about 1,800 gallons of water on average to produce 1 pound of meat.
Dairy cows use tons of water, too, with about 2,000 gallons of water being used to create just one gallon
of milk.
In 1 year, the average American consumes roughly 58 pounds of beef, 50 pounds of pork, and 91 pounds
of chicken. The water that it takes to produce just a pound of each one of those meats is approximately
1,800 gallons, 576 gallons, and 468 gallons, respectively. To put this into perspective, it only takes 119
gallons of water to produce 1 pound of potatoes.
Simply stated, if we used all of this water to produce food for direct human consumption, rather than
the roundabout process of industrial meat farming, we would have a lot more food and a whole lot
more water to go around.
ATTACHMENT 6
From: Karen Rubio
Subject: speech to GPAC committee
Los Gatos GPAC Meeting
12/12/19, Los Gatos Council Chambers
My name is Karen Rubio and I have lived in Los Gatos for 35 years. I am a retired business owner and
advocate for plant-based living.
I am here tonight to emphasize the urgency of what our group is talking about. You have heard
everyone talk about how our meat and dairy heavy diet is responsible for environmental devastation,
species extinction, health problems, and greenhouse gas emissions. It is now a certainty that human
activity is driving climate change.
Animal agriculture is one of, if not THE MOST primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
The last five years—from 2014 to 2018—are the hottest years ever recorded in the 139 years that the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has tracked global heat.
If your house were on fire would you want me to tap lightly at the door and whisper, “Get out”? Or
would you want me to scream at the top of my voice and break down your door to save you and your
family?
That is how urgent this issue is. We have a very short timeframe to correct the path we are on. The
best way, the most impactful way to do this is to transform our food system from using animals, to a
plant-based one.
This committee is responsible for setting goals and priorities for our town’s 2040 plan. I submit that
the most important issue that needs to be addressed is climate change. Without addressing climate
change, nothing else matters.
We don’t have months and years to talk about this. We need to make this a priority NOW and get to
work. We are asking this committee to make the shift to plant-based diets a cornerstone of the
Sustainability portion of the Los Gatos 2040 General Plan. We need a commitment of money,
resources, and political will in order to accomplish this. Will you help us?