Time for Change

[Guest guest]

http://www.veganpoet.com/articles/time-for-change.htm

 

TIME FOR CHANGE

 

It's a widely held belief that people need animal products for survival

and good health, even though there are many long-time vegans who are

very often healthier than the omnivorous majority. Any country whose

economy is largely based on animal exploitation results in its people

believing that there's little left to eat if you don't eat animal

products. When people find out that I'm vegan, they ask me, 'But what is

left to eat?' I tell them that I eat from the vast variety of plants

found in the New Four Food Groups; grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit

as recommended by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

<http://www.pcrm.org>, rather than from the food group charts that were

produced by those who profit from dairy and meat consumption. It's time

for change; even The American Dietetic Association now states in their

2009 report: " It is the position of the American Dietetic Association

that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian

or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide

health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all

stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy,

childhood and adolescence and for athletes. " (Source: Eat Right -

American Dietetic Association)

<http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/media_22003_ENU_HTML.htm>.

 

Because of 'milk mustache commercials' and other economic propaganda,

many people still believe that they need animal products for their

well-being and survival, despite the overwhelming evidence that the very

opposite is true; that in fact, a vegan diet protects us from many

diseases that plague the human race. New studies are finding that a

low-fat vegan diet can treat type 2 diabetes. (Neal Barnard, M.D.'s

study <http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajcn.2009.26736Hv1>).

 

Other studies have found a plant-based diet can reverse heart disease

and prostate cancer. Dr. Dean Ornish showed serum from patients

following a low-fat vegan diet inhibits the growth of cultured prostate

cancer cells eight times more than serum from a standard diet group. Dr

Ornish, founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine

Research, found that patients on a low-fat, plant-based diet experience

a significant decrease in PSA levels, a marker for prostate cancer

progression. Dr. John McDougall <http://www.drmcdougall.com> claims that

" consuming meat, poultry, fish and dairy products is at the root of

heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and

intestinal problems. "

 

THE CHINA STUDY; the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of

the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease,

concluded that a plant-based diet is the healthiest for humans. The

co-director of the Cornell-Oxford-China Study on Diet and Health, T.

Colin Campbell, PhD, did not come from a vegan perspective prior to the

study but due to the overwhelming evidence that was found, he now

recommends a plant-based diet. The opening words on his web site are:

" The science is clear. The results are unmistakable. Change your diet

and dramatically reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and

obesity. " (The China Study <http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html>)

 

Donald Watson, a founding father of The Vegan Society and the man who

coined the word 'vegan' lived to be 95 and climbed mountains till a ripe

old age. I've been vegan for 31 years. I live with 6 other vegans who

are vegan as long as or longer than I, and we are very much alive and

are all in excellent health. There are 'long-time healthy vegans'. It

may have been reasonable to question the health benefits of a vegan diet

in the last century, but now we know! The facts are in!

 

We are the only species that drinks the mother's milk of another

species. Would anyone suck on the udder of a cow for her milk? Of course

not; we would consider it unnatural. Her milk is meant to nurture her

baby calf. The truth is; dairy milk for human consumption is produced in

a very unnatural way: first by artificially impregnating the cow

(sometimes by strapping the cows on to what the industry itself calls

rape racks!), then by stealing her baby within 24 hours of birth,

despite her bellowing cries. (It's horrific what will become of her

calves.) This grim cycle is repeated over and over and over until the

cow is no longer profitable and then she is sent off to slaughter.

 

For those of us who believe in God, we must ask ourselves if God would

want for us to kill innocent, gentle, conscious beings, when the plant

kingdom is able to supply all the nutrients needed by the human body.

Perhaps at one time in history humans HAD TO eat animals for survival.

But now, delicious plant-based foods are readily available almost

anywhere. " I like the taste of meat " is no longer a tolerable rationale.

 

We are destroying our planet; choking it with too many people and all

their pollution. However, we can lighten our footprint on our tired

Earth by choosing to be vegan and purchasing local produce. According to

a report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture

Organization, " the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas

emissions as measured in CO_2 equivalent -- 18 percent -- than

transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation. "

Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO's Livestock Information and Policy

Branch and senior author of the report says: " Livestock are one of the

most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental

problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation. " Educating

ourselves about vegan options shows us that we are not powerless to

change the course of the sad state we find ourselves in, but empowered,

through each and every one of our everyday choices.

(Livestock's Long Shadow 2006 report

<http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm>)

 

Nor is " Humane Slaughter " or " Happy Meat " the answer. " Happy meat " is an

oxymoron. No conscious being is happy to have their life reduced to a

commodity and violently ended. Anyone can go online and see graphic

footage of animals in a slaughterhouse about to meet their death in a

horrific way. It's real; yet people have not been willing to open their

eyes or their hearts to the suffering they are imposing on

others.Becoming vegan makes us a kinder, smarter human being than we

were before taking this step; which is essential to human advancement.

Becoming vegan, by definition, makes of us more compassionate human

beings, and compassion is essential for human evolution. That's why

Nobel Prize recipient; Albert Einstein said: " It is my view that a

vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human

temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind. "

 

Choosing to be vegan is a major component of the solution to many forms

of violence and exploitation, murder, and war. If the world's people

adopted the vegan lifestyle, humanity would, naturally, become more

gentle, more reasonable and more caring.

 

Avoiding animal products is good for people. It's good for the animals.

It's good for the planet we all share. Change is in the air. Many human

beings are realizing that we don't have a right to exploit, enslave, or

be a part of the immense suffering inflicted on other feeling creatures.

Nor do we have a right to continue a practice that is possibly the

biggest contributor to global warming and the devastation of our

environment. We don't have a right to perpetuate the horror that is

human starvation, by using the world's grains to feed animals in order

to feed our own addiction to meat. We don't have a right to over-use and

pollute our diminishing water supply to sustain the farm animal

business; which uses far more water than is needed for growing plants.

 

Veganism has " right " on its side. VEGANISM IS A SOLUTION to our planet's

ailments. The Earth and its people are crying out for change. Veganism

is the next step for humanity that will bring the change we long for.

 

For some helping hands, please visit my 'Vegan Links' page

<http://veganpoet.com/links.htm>

 

M. Butterflies Katz

www.veganpoet.com <http://www.veganpoet.com>

www.gentleworld.org <http://www.gentleworld.org>