Vegetarianism; why bother?

Yes, it does make me feel better (both physically and mentally), because I know it makes a difference. I don't know what it's like where you live, but there are a lot of vegetarians here, I live in a pretty progressive city. I don't just think about the cow, pig or chicken that I've saved, but much more importantly, the endangered species/habitat/ecosystem I've saved by chosing to avoid meat. Eating meat wastes a lot of water too in addition to land. Pollution is greatly increased by consuming meat. I wouldn't care if I was the only one anyways, I'll do what I feel is right regardless of how many others may join me.

 

But it's about more than saving a single life.

Each time you choose a veggie-based meal, you are using less water, less energy, less resources altogether, especially if you eat local.

The taking of an individual life is not the issue with me. The only PETA video that ever had an effect on me was the one with the mountains of cow shit. That winds up in drinking water, resulting in a lower quality of life for all.

What you eat has impact in every area of your life. Opposed to the war? Think about every aspect of your life that consumes oil. Trucking cattle around is certainly a big one.

I don't see myself as "fighting a battle," and even if it is one, I don't see it as being between me and the meat-eaters.

My life is a series of conscious choices that help to bring about the ends I most desire, harming as little as possible, and improving where I can.

 

I don't know what it's like where you live, but I live in a pretty progressive city, there are a lot of vegetarians here. Yes, it does make a difference, it's not just about the cow, pig or chicken that's saved, but moreso about the water, land and other resources.

 

I don't know what it's like where you live, but I live in a pretty progressive city and there are a lot of vegetarians here. Yes, it does make a difference. It's not just about the cow, pig, or chicken that you save, it's moreso about the water, land and other resources that are conserved.

 

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~

 

quadruple post wtf

 

arghh

 

Why bother?

I can give you a few reasons...

Besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
Consider that they contain 70-90% of all the world's species of plants, animals, and insects that call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 50% (HALF!!)of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 2 acres of rainforest are lost every second.

Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

See for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html



So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated 10 million indigenous people living in the Amazon Rainforest five centuries ago. When the rainforest dies, so do they. Today there are less than 200,000. Many of the shamans and medicine men have died, and when they die, so does the knowledge of the plants.
Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber

Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 70 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2012. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm


And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?


Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.
• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land
• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.
• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.
• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).
• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)
• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.


Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.
• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.
• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)


Deforestation

• About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing -- twice the area used for growing crops.
• The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.
• 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970.
• In Canada, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.

But let us just pretend for a second that this ecological nightmare does not exist. (easy enough since most people do anyway)

Even the hunter-gatherer societies of ancient times, and the indigenous tribes of today consume meat. But what is the difference between them and us? Well for one, they caught wild animals.. we raise them in confined quarters and often inhumane conditions that results in lots of disease. To counter this, the animals are fed "enhanced" grains loaded with antibiotics, and injected with growth hormones and other madness.

Besides this, the US is the leading consumer of meat. Even in the iExperts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber

Indigenous tribes, and hunter-gatherer societies diets consisted of about 5% meat. The largest part of their diet came from the "gatherers" - nuts, berries, and plants. This equates to less than 3oz of meat per day. If you look at other cultures you will see a trend towards less meat and much more whole fruits and vegetables, especially say the mediterranian, oriental, and indian diets.

All meat (especially fatty red meats) contains uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product of purines found in muscle fiber and body tissue. When you exercise, your muscles release uric acid, which you need to rest for it to break down and metabolize. An excess of uric acid is caused by over-production in the body, or by under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys.
The ingestion of foods high in purines (and thus uric acid) will raise uric levels in the body and long term excess can (and will) lead to either and/or: Gout, Obesity, Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and a whole plethora of human diseases. Consider that heart disease is (by far) the leading cause of death among americans, who also, coincidentally enough.. consume the most meat.

On the flip side, dark berries, soybeans, fatty acids found in such fish as salmon, flax seed, olive oil, and nuts all possess anti-inflammatory benefits to help sufferers of such disease. These and a diet rich in whole grain, fruits, and vegetables, will help to eliminate uric acid levels in the bloodstream.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. Dietary cholesterol, which causes heart disease, is found only in animal products. No one has ever died of a heart attack with a cholesterol level below 150, and the average vegan has a cholesterol level of 128.

The incidence of high blood pressure is generally greater among meat-eaters than among vegetarians, and cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are more common among people on a high-meat, high-fat, low-fiber diet.

One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

Up to 90 percent of federally inspected poultry is infected with bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, which cause sometimes-fatal vomiting and diarrhea.

According to William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running epidemiological study in medical history, "Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now."

Let us not forget that meat is a very inefficient food source. The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%. The claim that meat is a better source of protein is a myth.

So besides the deforestation, besides the pollution, besides the lives destroyed by this industry, besides the hundreds of thousands of people who are not being fed, meat is bad for you. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, taste better (imho), and are much better for you, without the environmental impact the meat and cattle industry has on our world. If you would like me to explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and the wonders of fruits and vegetables, I will.

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind."
- Albert Einstein



Fin.

 

Why bother?
I can give you a few reasons...

Well, besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Consider that over half of the world's ten million species of plants, animals, and insects call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 20% of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 1 1/2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

Here, see for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html

So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000. Pretty strange if you consider the massive surge in global population don't you think?

And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?

Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.

• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land

• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.

• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.

• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).

• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)

• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.

Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.

• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)

Deforestation

• About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing -- twice the area used for growing crops.

• The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.

• 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970.

• In Canada, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.

But let us just pretend for a second that this ecological nightmare does not exists. (easy enough since most people do anyway) and let us assume that you are eating only organic, free range meat.. that is free of alien growth hormones, and chemicals. Surely that should be better for you, right? Well, sort of.

Even the hunter-gatherer societies of ancient times, and the indegenous tribes of today consume meat. But what is the difference between them and us? Well for one, they caught wild animals.. we raise them in confined quarters and often inhumane conditions that results in lots of disease. To counter this, the animals are fed "enhanced" grains loaded with antibiotics, and injected with growth hormones and other things.

Besides this, the US is the leading consumer of meat. Even in the indegenous tribes, and hunter-gatherer societies.. their diets consist of about 5% meat. The largest part of their diet came from the "gatherers" - nuts, berries, and plants. This equates to less than 3oz of meat per day. Even in most modern cultures this is still the case.

All meat (especially fatty red meats) contains uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product of purines found in muscle fiber and body tissue. When you exercise, your muscles release uric acid, which you need to rest ocassionally in order for it to break down and metabolize. An excess of uric acid is caused by over-production in the body, or by under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys. The ingestion of foods high in purines (and thus uric acid) will raise uric levels in the body and long term excess can (and will) lead to either and/or: Gout, Obesity, Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and a whole plethora of human diseases. Consider that heart disease is (by far) the leading cause of death among americans, who also, coincidentally enough.. consume the most meat.
Subsequently, dark berries, soybeans, fatty acids found in such fish as salmon, flax seed, olive oil, and nuts all possess anti-inflammatory benefits to help sufferers of such disease. These and a diet rich in whole grain, fruits, and vegetables, will help to eliminate uric acid levels in the bloodstream.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. Dietary cholesterol, which causes heart disease, is found only in animal products. No one has ever died of a heart attack with a cholesterol level below 150, and the average vegan has a cholesterol level of 128.

The incidence of high blood pressure is generally greater among meat-eaters than among vegetarians, and cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are more common among people on a high-meat, high-fat, low-fiber diet.

One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

Up to 90 percent of federally inspected poultry is infected with bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, which cause sometimes-fatal vomiting and diarrhea.

According to William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running epidemiological study in medical history, "Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now."

Let us not forget that meat is a very inefficient food source. The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%. The claim that meat is a better source of protein is a myth. Nuts are a better source of protein.

So besides the deforestation, besides the pollution, besides the lives destroyed by this industry, besides the hundreds of thousands of people who are not being fed, meat is bad for you. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, taste much better, and are much better for you, without the environmental impact the meat and cattle industry has on our world. If you want me to explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and the wonders of fruits and vegetables, I will.



"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind."

- Albert Einstein


The End.

 

Why bother?
I can give you a few reasons...

Well, besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Consider that over half of the world's ten million species of plants, animals, and insects call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest


The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 20% of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 1 1/2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

Here, see for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html

So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.


The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000. Pretty strange if you consider the massive surge in global population don't you think?

And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?

Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.

• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land

• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.

• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.

• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).

• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)

• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.

Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.

• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)

 

Why bother?

I can give you a few reasons...


Well, besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

Consider that over half of the world's ten million species of plants, animals, and insects call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 20% of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 1 1/2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.


Here, see for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html


So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.
There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000. Pretty strange if you consider the massive surge in global population don't you think?

And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.

 

test

 

Why bother?
I can give you a few reasons...

Well, besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Consider that they contain 70-90% of all the world's species of plants, animals, and insects that call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 50% (HALF!!)of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

See for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html

So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated ten million indigenous people living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. When the rainforest dies, so do they. Today there are less than 200,000. Pretty strange if you consider the massive surge in global population don't you think?

Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2012. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm
And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?

Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.

• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land

• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.

• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.

• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).

• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)

• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.

Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.

• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)

Deforestation

• About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing -- twice the area used for growing crops.

• The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.

• 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970.

• In Canada, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.

But let us just pretend for a second that this ecological nightmare does not exist. (easy enough since most people do anyway)

Even the hunter-gatherer societies of ancient times, and the indigenous tribes of today consume meat. But what is the difference between them and us? Well for one, they caught wild animals.. we raise them in confined quarters and often inhumane conditions that results in lots of disease. To counter this, the animals are fed "enhanced" grains loaded with antibiotics, and injected with growth hormones and other madness.

Besides this, the US is the leading consumer of meat. Even in the indegenous tribes, and hunter-gatherer societies.. their diets consist of about 5% meat. The largest part of their diet came from the "gatherers" - nuts, berries, and plants. This equates to less than 3oz of meat per day. If you look at other cultures you will see a trend towards less meat and much more whole fruits and vegetables, especially say the mediterranian, oriental, and indian diets.

All meat (especially fatty red meats) contains uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product of purines found in muscle fiber and body tissue. When you exercise, your muscles release uric acid, which you need to rest for it to break down and metabolize. An excess of uric acid is caused by over-production in the body, or by under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys. The ingestion of foods high in purines (and thus uric acid) will raise uric levels in the body and long term excess can (and will) lead to either and/or: Gout, Obesity, Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and a whole plethora of human diseases. Consider that heart disease is (by far) the leading cause of death among americans, who also, coincidentally enough.. consume the most meat.
Subsequently, dark berries, soybeans, fatty acids found in such fish as salmon, flax seed, olive oil, and nuts all possess anti-inflammatory benefits to help sufferers of such disease. These and a diet rich in whole grain, fruits, and vegetables, will help to eliminate uric acid levels in the bloodstream.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. Dietary cholesterol, which causes heart disease, is found only in animal products. No one has ever died of a heart attack with a cholesterol level below 150, and the average vegan has a cholesterol level of 128.

The incidence of high blood pressure is generally greater among meat-eaters than among vegetarians, and cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are more common among people on a high-meat, high-fat, low-fiber diet.

One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

Up to 90 percent of federally inspected poultry is infected with bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, which cause sometimes-fatal vomiting and diarrhea.

According to William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running epidemiological study in medical history, "Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now."

Let us not forget that meat is a very inefficient food source. The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%. The claim that meat is a better source of protein is a myth.


So besides the deforestation, besides the pollution, besides the lives destroyed by this industry, besides the hundreds of thousands of people who are not being fed, meat is bad for you. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, taste better (imho), and are much better for you, without the environmental impact the meat and cattle industry has on our world. If you would like me to explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and the wonders of fruits and vegetables, I will.

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind."
- Albert Einstein


The End.

 

Why bother?
I can give you a few reasons...

Besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Consider that they contain 70-90% of all the world's species of plants, animals, and insects that call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 50% (HALF!!)of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

See for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html

So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated 10 million indigenous people living in the Amazon Rainforest five centuries ago. When the rainforest dies, so do they. Today there are less than 200,000. Many of the shamans and medicine men have died, and when they die, so does the knowledge of the plants.

Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber

Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 70 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2012. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm
And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?

Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.

• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land

• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.

• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.

• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).

• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)

• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.

Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.

• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)

Deforestation

• About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing -- twice the area used for growing crops.

• The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.

• 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970.

• In Canada, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.

But let us just pretend for a second that this ecological nightmare does not exist. (easy enough since most people do anyway)

Even the hunter-gatherer societies of ancient times, and the indigenous tribes of today consume meat. But what is the difference between them and us? Well for one, they caught wild animals.. we raise them in confined quarters and often inhumane conditions that results in lots of disease. To counter this, the animals are fed "enhanced" grains loaded with antibiotics, and injected with growth hormones and other madness.

Besides this, the US is the leading consumer of meat. Even in the iExperts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber

Indigenous tribes, and hunter-gatherer societies diets consisted of about 5% meat. The largest part of their diet came from the "gatherers" - nuts, berries, and plants. This equates to less than 3oz of meat per day. If you look at other cultures you will see a trend towards less meat and much more whole fruits and vegetables, especially say the mediterranian, oriental, and indian diets.

All meat (especially fatty red meats) contains uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product of purines found in muscle fiber and body tissue. When you exercise, your muscles release uric acid, which you need to rest for it to break down and metabolize. An excess of uric acid is caused by over-production in the body, or by under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys. The ingestion of foods high in purines (and thus uric acid) will raise uric levels in the body and long term excess can (and will) lead to either and/or: Gout, Obesity, Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and a whole plethora of human diseases. Consider that heart disease is (by far) the leading cause of death among americans, who also, coincidentally enough.. consume the most meat.
On the flip side, dark berries, soybeans, fatty acids found in such fish as salmon, flax seed, olive oil, and nuts all possess anti-inflammatory benefits to help sufferers of such disease. These and a diet rich in whole grain, fruits, and vegetables, will help to eliminate uric acid levels in the bloodstream.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. Dietary cholesterol, which causes heart disease, is found only in animal products. No one has ever died of a heart attack with a cholesterol level below 150, and the average vegan has a cholesterol level of 128.

The incidence of high blood pressure is generally greater among meat-eaters than among vegetarians, and cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are more common among people on a high-meat, high-fat, low-fiber diet.

One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

Up to 90 percent of federally inspected poultry is infected with bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, which cause sometimes-fatal vomiting and diarrhea.

According to William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running epidemiological study in medical history, "Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now."

Let us not forget that meat is a very inefficient food source. The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%. The claim that meat is a better source of protein is a myth.


So besides the deforestation, besides the pollution, besides the lives destroyed by this industry, besides the hundreds of thousands of people who are not being fed, meat is bad for you. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, taste better (imho), and are much better for you, without the environmental impact the meat and cattle industry has on our world. If you would like me to explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and the wonders of fruits and vegetables, I will.

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind."
- Albert Einstein


Fin.

 

Why bother?
I can give you a few reasons...

Besides the obvious environmental repurcussions - pollution, deforestation, the extreme use of water, and the impact on land.. meat is bad for you.

Consider that the Amazon Rainforest - also called the "Earth's Lung" because it provides a huge amount of oxygen and recycling carbon dioxide and filtering the air, an essential service to the Earth. More than 20 percent of the world's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. Consider that they contain 70-90% of all the world's species of plants, animals, and insects that call the rainforest their home. Consider that one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon basin. Consider that one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest

The rainforest is routinely being clear-cut, to sustain the agriculture industry. It is thought nearly 50% (HALF!!)of the 4.1 million square miles of rainforest has already been destroyed by legal and illegal logging, and clearance for cattle ranching, and soya bean production to feed those cattle. In just one year, the rate of deforestation in the rainforest has increased by almost 40%. 2 acres of rainforest are lost every second. Where the rainforest once covered 14% of the Earth's surface, it is now
less than 6%. It is also likely that these figures are underestimated, because many of the statistics used are over a decade old.

See for yourself - http://www.solcomhouse.com/nasarainforest.htm
http://www.solcomhouse.com/rainforest.html

So what is the effect of deforestation? Well consider where there was once a lush rainforest, with an immense root system, there is now a huge flat area of dirt. What does dirt do to the surrounding areas in an area that was once a rainforest, which recieves over 144 inches of rainfall annually? Well let me tell you - Soil Erosion. Drought. Floods. Fires. Mudslides. Death and Destruction. For hundreds of miles around the so called "farm land"

Consider that we lose 137 plant, animal, and insect species every day due to rainforest deforestation. This equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest dissapears, so does our possible cures for life-threatening disease. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

There were an estimated 10 million indigenous people living in the Amazon Rainforest five centuries ago. When the rainforest dies, so do they. Today there are less than 200,000. Many of the shamans and medicine men have died, and when they die, so does the knowledge of the plants.



Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber

Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 70 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2012. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years.

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm
And that's just in the Amazon Rainforest.
Let's take a look at the US shall we?

Pollution

• The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated.

• One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 12,000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.

Land

• Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is used to raise animals for food.

• Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.

• The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).

• "It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. ... And the same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries." (Veganism in a Nutshell)

• A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.

Energy Use

• Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.

• Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.

Water

• Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. Why? It's a water intensive industry. You grow the food to feed the animal over its life, which in and of itself is quite a lot, and then need lots of water to hose down its blood at the slaughterhouse. (By comparison, it takes only 60 gallons to produce a pound of wheat)

Deforestation

• About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing -- twice the area used for growing crops.

• The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.

• 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970.

• In Canada, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.

But let us just pretend for a second that this ecological nightmare does not exist. (easy enough since most people do anyway)

Even the hunter-gatherer societies of ancient times, and the indigenous tribes of today consume meat. But what is the difference between them and us? Well for one, they caught wild animals.. we raise them in confined quarters and often inhumane conditions that results in lots of disease. To counter this, the animals are fed "enhanced" grains loaded with antibiotics, and injected with growth hormones and other madness.

Besides this, the US is the leading consumer of meat. Even in the iExperts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber



Indigenous tribes, and hunter-gatherer societies diets consisted of about 5% meat. The largest part of their diet came from the "gatherers" - nuts, berries, and plants. This equates to less than 3oz of meat per day. If you look at other cultures you will see a trend towards less meat and much more whole fruits and vegetables, especially say the mediterranian, oriental, and indian diets.

All meat (especially fatty red meats) contains uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product of purines found in muscle fiber and body tissue. When you exercise, your muscles release uric acid, which you need to rest for it to break down and metabolize. An excess of uric acid is caused by over-production in the body, or by under-elimination of uric acid by the kidneys. The ingestion of foods high in purines (and thus uric acid) will raise uric levels in the body and long term excess can (and will) lead to either and/or: Gout, Obesity, Arthritis, Heart Disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, and a whole plethora of human diseases. Consider that heart disease is (by far) the leading cause of death among americans, who also, coincidentally enough.. consume the most meat.
On the flip side, dark berries, soybeans, fatty acids found in such fish as salmon, flax seed, olive oil, and nuts all possess anti-inflammatory benefits to help sufferers of such disease. These and a diet rich in whole grain, fruits, and vegetables, will help to eliminate uric acid levels in the bloodstream.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. Dietary cholesterol, which causes heart disease, is found only in animal products. No one has ever died of a heart attack with a cholesterol level below 150, and the average vegan has a cholesterol level of 128.

The incidence of high blood pressure is generally greater among meat-eaters than among vegetarians, and cancers of the breast, colon, and prostate are more common among people on a high-meat, high-fat, low-fiber diet.

One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

Up to 90 percent of federally inspected poultry is infected with bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter, which cause sometimes-fatal vomiting and diarrhea.

According to William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running epidemiological study in medical history, "Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country ... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now."

Let us not forget that meat is a very inefficient food source. The energy return ratio (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of the most energy efficient factory farming of meat is 34.5%, while that of the least energy efficient plant food is 328%. The claim that meat is a better source of protein is a myth.


So besides the deforestation, besides the pollution, besides the lives destroyed by this industry, besides the hundreds of thousands of people who are not being fed, meat is bad for you. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains, taste better (imho), and are much better for you, without the environmental impact the meat and cattle industry has on our world. If you would like me to explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, and the wonders of fruits and vegetables, I will.

"Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind."
- Albert Einstein


Fin.

 

forget the health reasons, and the arguements, i really don't care for them

meat's bad for your soul. Everyday your living off another death
they can't be good for you spiritually

 

I went vegan at 14 and have been fruitarian for about 9 months. I will be raising my kids as vegans. My reasons are...

1. Animal rights. I believe all members of the animal kingdom, including humans, have the right to live. I would no more eat a chicken than I would eat a person.

2. Human rights. We can feed more people planting grains than we can using those grains to feed cows.

3. Environment. Factory farming is the #1 polluting factor in our world.

4. Health. I would rather not put things in my body that I know are bad for it.

 

yea, definitely not making any difference, let's give up and murder animals because we might as well face reality
change takes time, but we are making a diffener but it's hard because people like you say 'o well, it's an uphill struggle and the majority of people are against you, too hard, don't even care' - sorry, but those are shitty things to say, the majority of people 150 years ago had no problem with slavery and racism, so maybe they shouldn't have fought for anything because it obviously got them nowhere
sorry, but people who say things like that are just copping out and making up lame excuses
and yes, sometimes it does feel like i'm fighting a battle that is already lost, but that's not going to stop me, even if i make life better for a few it will be worth it.
~Dan