go veg

[Guest guest]

Inspired by PETA and other sources, I typed up the flyer below. Please feel

free to comment, constructively criticize, send corrections, and spread far

and wide. I've been sending it via e-mail and physically posting it up in

laundry rooms, on windshields, etc. I can send anyone an attached RTF file

for better viewing/printing/whatever if interested.---Dan

 

Think you can be a meat-eating environmentalist?? Think again!!

The best way to protect the environment and your health is to go vegetarian.

 

Recycling, conserving energy, planting trees, and cutting consumption are

all Earth-friendly activities,

but the decision to eat vegetarian is the one of the most important ways you

can help save the environment.

 

Consider the facts:

• Rainforests: Every year, about 125,000 square miles of

rain forest (along with the 1,000 plant and animal species that live there)

are lost (or become extinct). More than half of that land is now used for

grazing cattle. Vegetarians save more than an acre of trees every year as

well as protecting valuable ecosystems and saving species.

 

• Global Warming: Cattle feedlots produce millions of tons

of methane per year, a major greenhouse gas, contributing to about 13% of

global warming. Vegetarians help keep the planet cool!

 

• Fossil Fuels: To produce 1 lb. of beef requires burning

40 times more fossil fuels than to produce 1 lb. of soybeans. Of all the raw

materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S., more than 1/3 goes toward

raising animals for food.

 

• Land: 45% of U.S. land is used to raise animals for food

or for crops to feed these animals. Vegetarians tread lightly, requiring

only 1/6 an acre of land to feed themselves each year; carnivores, 3 1/4

acres. More than 3/4 of U.S. topsoil has been permanently lost; 85% of this

loss was directly caused by the raising of animals for food.

 

• Water: In an effort to conserve water, you can install a

water saver on your kitchen faucet, saving up to 6,000 gallons of water per

year. Your savings will be lost, however, if you consume just one pound of

California beef (which requires over 5,000 gallons, and as much as 12,000

gallons, of water per pound to produce). A typical meat-based diet uses over

4,200 gallons of water per person every day while a vegetarian diet uses

only 300 gallons. More than half of the water consumed in the U.S. irrigates

land to grow feed for livestock.

 

• Waste: Every second, 125 tons of waste are produced by

animals raised by the meat industry. A typical hog factory farm generates

raw waste equivalent to a city of 12,000 people. The EPA estimates that

almost half of America's surface streams and wells are contaminated by

" agricultural pollutants " , including chemicals and animal feces.

 

• Health: Eating meat is associated with heart disease (the #1 cause

of death in the U.S.), high blood pressure, cancer (including breast,

prostate, and colon), strokes, asthma, osteoporosis, diabetes, constipation,

impotence, and other ailments. It is estimated that over 2/3 of diseases in

the U.S. are diet-related and vegetarians are much less afflicted. Further,

since more than half of all antibiotics in the U.S. are given to livestock

(plus tons of chemicals, steroids, and hormones), resistant bacteria strains

are increasing at an alarming rate. And don't forget mad cow disease, foot

and mouth, e. coli, salmonella, strychinosis, and food poisoning. Fish can

contain toxic PCBs, DDT, dioxin, mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium which

can't be removed and which bioaccumulates in consumers.

 

• Externalities: The price of meat would at least triple if

the full ecological costs—including fossil fuel use, greenhouse gases, ozone

layer depletion, groundwater and topsoil depletion, agro-chemical pollution,

and deforestation —were included in the price tag. The price of meat would

increase much further if we factored in health care costs, lost

productivity, and corporate welfare, not to mention the suffering and death

of billions of animals. The meat-industrial complex is extremely

inefficient, while vegetarianism is much more environmentally and

economically sustainable.

 

Vegetarians live more sustainably and are therefore part of the solution,

not the problem.

Kicking the meat habit is the most effective way for us to save the Earth,

the animals, and ourselves.

www.PETA.org www.VRG.org VegSource.com

www.IVU.org

 

 

" Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life

on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. " — Albert Einstein

 

• Protein: Protein is important for the body, but studies

convincingly show that it's easy to get enough protein. The protein myth is

just that. Average Americans eats twice the protein recommended by the FDA,

while average U.S. vegetarians consume more reasonable amounts. Some people

erroneously worry about the almost non-existent problem of protein

deficiency in the U.S., but consuming too much protein is dangerous and is

associated with cancer, kidney disease, osteoporosis, cardiovascular

disease, and infertility. High protein diets, especially ones derived from

animals, are unhealthy and unwise.

 

• Calcium: Animal protein leaches calcium from the bones,

contributing to osteoporosis, whereas plant-based proteins do not have this

effect. People who eat little or no meat and dairy and instead eat

calcium-packed fruits and vegetables, as in much of Asia and Africa, have

very low rates of osteoporosis, while populations that consume large

quantities of calcium-rich dairy have much higher rates of this

bone-weakening disease. Additionally, cows and other vegetarian animals

easily get enough calcium to maintain their strong bones.

 

• Fat, Cholesterol, & Fiber: Eating fat, especially

saturated fat and cholesterol (found only in animal products), has been

linked to higher rates of cancer and other grave diseases, including

Alzheimer's. In contrast, fiber is an important weapon in the body's

continuous fight to excrete toxins, and fiber reduces the risk of cancer.

Meat (and other animal products) contains absolutely no fiber, but animal

products do contain unhealthy saturated fats and cholesterol. The human body

doesn't need any extra cholesterol because it produces its own. In stark

contrast, fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds—a vegetarian

diet—contain healthy and necessary fiber, along with important vitamins and

minerals, while they have no unhealthy and unnecessary cholesterol.

 

• Strength: The winningest triathletes, Dave Scott and

Sixto Linares, are vegetarians. Many other successful athletes are also

vegetarian. Interestingly, all infants start out on vegetarian diets and

thrive. There are many large, powerful animals, of past and present, that

eat strictly vegetarian diets, including the antelope, bull, camel, cow,

elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippo, horse, kangaroo, manatee, ox, rhino,

stegosaurus, triceratops, zebra, and others. Many famous people are or have

been vegetarian, along with millions of other people in the U.S. and around

the world.

 

• Economics: Our economic system does not value animals or

the environment, unless they're consumed for human purposes and money is

exchanged. Wild animals living their lives in freedom, the majesty of a

forest, and the sparkle and ripple of a clean river all have no economic

value. If a mother breast feeds a baby, there is no money exchanged, yet if

she buys less healthy infant formula, it contributes to economic growth. If

one opens a window to feel a cool breeze on a hot day, it has no consequence

to our capitalist economy, yet turning on an air conditioner increases our

gross domestic product. The former activities are clearly more sensible and

more healthy; the latter are less healthy, more costly, more alienating, and

damage the environment. Further, meat-based illnesses cost the U.S. over $60

billion in additional health care costs. The meat industry is exceptionally

wasteful, inefficient, costly, and destructive.

 

• Compassion: Every year, over 8 billion animals (22

million per day!) are tortured and killed. Lambs are shackled and boxed to

keep them " tender " , cows and pigs are crammed for " efficiency " , chickens are

de-beaked to " protect " them, animals are hung upside-down by their limbs,

entire schools of fish are netted along with turtles, dolphins, whales,

sharks, seals, birds, and others, animals are terrorized and slaughtered

with their blood, guts, pus, vomit, tears, mucus, urine, and feces being

splattered everywhere, some left to suffer and die in piles of other dead

and dying animals. The effects on the workers who torture and kill these

innocent animals, like soldiers or the workers who execute condemned

prisoners, cannot be underestimated. Sociologists have studied the

" brutalization effect " , whereby people feel more free to commit violence

when it's legitimated. Like racism and sexism, we engage in unjust

species-ism when we treat animals as means to our ends. " [Animals] were not

made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for

men " (Alice Walker). Meat begins with violence. Love animals, don't eat

them!

 

Make a meaningful choice and make a difference!

You'll be doing yourself, the animals, and the planet a big

favor.

 

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