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• promote their own health;
• lessen the damaging impact of their lifestyle on the global environment; and
• help create a more humane world.

Meat Production = Environmental Devastation.

The reason why many tropical rainforests and other ecosystems are destroyed is so land can be planted with grass to graze livestock for meat production. This environmental destruction leads to the growth of deserts which now account for a massive 29% of the land on Earth. More than half the water used in the United States is used for raising animals for food. It takes 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, but 2500 gallons water to produce a pound of meat. Furthermore, feedlots and slaughterhouses are major polluters of rivers and streams, filling them with poisonous residues and untreated animal wastes. For instance, it is estimated that 250,000 pounds of animal excrement are produced in the US every second and there are no sewage systems to treat these wastes.

Meat Production = A Huge Waste Of Grain That Could Feed Starving People.

Over 40% of the world's grain harvest is fed to animals going to slaughter for meat consumption in the First World. At the same time there are millions of people starving in the Third World. Consider the wastage of food energy when it takes 16 kilograms of grain and soy to produce just 1 kilogram of beef, or 3 kilograms of chicken. If the grain which is now fed to livestock was fed to people, there would be more than enough food to support a much larger human world population.

Health Benefits of Vegetarianism.

Numerous medical studies have shown that vegetarianism yields many health benefits. The meat and dairy industries have an obvious interest in promoting the sale of their products, and to do this they often obscure the truth.

The Iron Myth.

For instance, they do not tell consumers that most adults in Western countries have too much iron in their diet, due to meat, poultry, and fish consumption. These animal foods contain heme iron which is dangerous because the body cannot select how much to absorb - it absorbs the lot! The toxic heme iron levels in body cells cannot be detected by simple blood analysis. The heme iron accumulates in body cells leading to haemochromotosis which has symptoms very similar to those of iron deficiency -weakness, fatigue, loss of menstrual periods, and arthritis. Unfortunately, many people who present such symptoms due to too much heme iron in their system, are told to consume more meat products which can worsen their condition. A vegetarian diet diminishes this risk of iron overload. This is because the type of iron found in plants is only absorbed by the human digestive system in the quantities that the body needs.

Heart Disease.

Heart disease is the most common cause of death in those countries where people consume large amounts of animal products. Studies show that the risk of death from heart attack for the typical American male is 50%, whereas for the typical American male vegetarian this risk is only 15%. Studies also show that the immune strength of vegetarians, with regard to the ability to destroy cancer cells, is more than double that of people on a typical omnivorous diet.

Eating Meat Leads to Calcium Deficiency.

Animal products also deplete calcium from the body. The more animal protein in the diet, the more acidic the blood becomes. In order to neutralise this acidity, calcium is pulled from the bones into the blood and is eventually lost in the urine. This is why osteoporosis is much more common in populations with the typical meat-based Western diet.

Meat Contains A Higher Concentration of Bad Chemicals Than Plants.

Consider also, that eating animals and animal products (milk, cheese, and eggs) exposes you to the antibiotics, growth hormones and other drugs that are fed to livestock, as-well as to the pesticide residues which accumulate higher up-the food chain.

The Reality Of Meat Production.

In the production of animal products, humans cause cruelty, suffering and death. Animals are often raised in dark, crowded sheds, in stalls that are so small that they cannot move around. A recent article about an Australian piggery describes the stress and suffering of ill sows who have bleeding prolapses full of maggots. Yet they are kept in group pens where it is impossible to avoid the prolapses rubbing against the iron bars. Animals undergo the pain and fear of stock mutilations such as fire face-branding, debeaking, and teeth-clipping, as well as that involved in transportation. For the taste of their flesh, millions of animals are killed in slaughterhouses each year. This can hardly be ignored by people who want society to move in a more humane and just direction. In the words of Anna Kingsford: "The vegetarian movement is the bottom and basis of all other movements towards freedom, justice, and happiness."

As consumers, we are kept far removed from the factory farms, feedlots and slaughterhouses. We forget that the meat on the table comes from living creatures which had their own unique perceptions, needs, pleasures and pain. Instead, as a culture, we think of some animals as being mere machines which produce meat for us. Through this objectified and distorted view of animals, we are able to dismember and eat them with indifference.

Vegetarianism is a positive attitude which rebels against the dominant culture of oppression, exploitation and thoughtless consumerism. It honours human health, the environment, and the ethical consideration of all sentient creatures. The author(s) consider that vegetarianism should be an integral part of any progressive social movement.

As it is not possible to sufficiently cover such a broad topic in a short article, the following books are recommended:

- "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins;
- "Why You Don't Need Meat" by Peter Cox;
- "The Sexual Politics of Meat" by Carol J. Adams.

Contact a branch of your local vegetarian society for more detail. For a start, you can go to the web-site of the Australian Vegetarian Society:
http://www.moreinfo.com.au/avs/

The original version of the above article was co-authored by J. Citizen (BSc) and published in a well-known newspaper in 1997.

 

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