The Many Reasons to be a Vegetarian

• The Ethics reason
• The Environmental reason
• The Economics reason
• The Karmic Consequences reason
• The Health reason
• The Spiritual consciousness reason

The Ethics reason

While modern factory farming is particularly appalling, there is a serious ethical issue involved simply in the killing of, and widely accepted practice of abuse towards other living beings. I believe that human ethical concern should encompass all beings who suffer and have interests, no matter what their species. The fact that no meat or other animal products are necessary in our diet or for our survival further strengthens this ethical claim.
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The Environmental reason

Water and Soil damage
260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to produce our meat centered diet. To produce a single hamburger patty, it takes enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 25 miles and enough water for 17 showers. The production of one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water. It takes less water to produce a year's worth of food for a pure vegetarian than to produce one month's food for a meat-eater.

Factory farms damage the environment as well as the animals they hold captive for profit. They use large quantities of fossil fuels and fresh water, and return pollutants to the earth in many forms.

In a part of Colorado, one factory farm alone which produces 350,000 pigs a year, uses almost two million gallons of water every day; most of it used to wash manure off the concrete floors. The waste is then dispersed over a limited area of land, but the soil cannot assimilate such large quantities. The result is contaminated surface and ground water from uncontrolled runoff. Livestock production is the largest polluter of water in the US, topping all other industries that produce toxic wastes.

85% (over 5 billion tons) of annual American topsoil loss is directly associated with raising livestock. One third of original U.S. cropland has been permanently removed from production due to excessive soil erosion. 26 billion tons of topsoil is lost annually on agricultural land worldwide. One acre of trees is spared each year by every individual who switches to a purely vegetarian diet.

Millions of acres of tropical and domestic forests and wetlands have been leveled and drained to create pastures and croplands to feed the animals butchered for fast food hamburgers. This denies habitats to wildlife and recreation to humans and leads to major droughts. Irrigation of these pastures and croplands depletes precious drinking water supplies. Water running off these lands robs irreplaceable topsoil, turning millions of acres of lush cropland into desert. This turnoff, along with waste products from factory farming and slaughterhouse operations, contribute more pollution than all other human activities combined.

Rainforests
Throughout the world, forests are being destroyed to support the meat-eating habits of the "developed" nations. Between 1960 and 1985, nearly 40 percent of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create pasture for beef cattle. These rain forests are the primary source of oxygen for the entire planet; the very survival of the Earth is linked to their survival.

The rain forests also provide ingredients for many medicines used to treat and cure human illnesses, and these resources have yet to be explored for their full potential. Approximately one thousand species go extinct every year due to destruction of tropical rainforests and related habitats.

Atmosphere
Two-thirds of global carbon dioxide emissions are created by the burning of fossil fuels. 200 gallons of fossil fuel are burned to produce the beef currently eaten by the average American family of four in one year. Burning 200 gallons of fossil fuel releases two tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Health
Inside the closed doors of farm factories resides a dangerous combination of noxious fumes including amonia, hydrogen sulfide, bacteria, feed dust and decomposing fecal matter.

The American Lung Association, in collaboration with the University of Iowa, provide these sobering facts:

"Nearly 70% of swine confinement workers experience one or more symptoms of respiratory illness or irritation... The turnover rate of swine confinement workers is very high, and some owners have had to sell their operations because they could not work in their own units..." Chronic bronchitis is "experienced by 58% of all swine confinement workers...and is suffered by three times as many swine confinement workers as by farmers who work in [non-confinement] swine housing units..."

"...The decomposing waste which is collected in pits underneath the pig pens pose extremely toxic hazards for the pigs and the workers. As noted by the American Lung Association, "Animals have died and workers have become seriously ill in confinement buildings when hydrogen sulfide rises from agitated pits underneath. Several workers have died when entering a pit during or soon after the emptying process to repair pumping equipment. Persons attempting to rescue these workers have also died...."

While the factory farm workers can at least wear protective masks, the animals must breathe the toxic fumes 24 hours a day for their entire lives. Agricultural research has documented that a large number of confined animals display symptoms of pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.

The Economics reason

It takes 8 kilograms of edible plant protein to produce 1 kilogram of edible pig protein. Protein from animals is an acutely wasteful way of feeding humans. 10 vegetarians can live on the same amount of land as one meat eater.

Raising animals for food is an extremely inefficient way to feed a growing human population. The U.S. livestock population consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than five times the entire U.S. population. One acre of pasture produces an average of 165 pounds of beef; the same acre can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes.

If Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent, it would free 12 million tons of grain annually for human consumption. That alone would be enough to adequately feed each of the 60 million people who starve to death each year.

The Karmic Consequences reason

All of our actions, including our thoughts and choice of food, have karmic consequences. By involving oneself in the cycle of inflicting injury, pain and death, even indirectly by eating other creatures, one must in the future experience in equal measure the suffering caused. What you give is what you get.

The Health reasons

The consumption of animal products has been conclusively linked with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Cholesterol (found only in animal products) and animal fat clog arteries, leading to heart attacks and strokes. A vegetarian diet can prevent 97 percent of coronary occlusions. The rate of colon cancer is highest in regions where meat consumption is high and lowest where meat-eating is uncommon. A similar pattern is evident for breast, cervical, uterine, ovarian, prostate, and lung cancers.

The idea that animal products are wholesome and necessary has been promoted by the meat and dairy industries, instigators of the Four Food Groups (Food Pyramid). Most of the nutritional information in schools comes from groups, like McDonald's and the USDA, who promote animal products. As a result, most people grow up believing it is healthier for humans to eat animal products.

Medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet is easier to digest, provides a wider range of nutrients and imposes fewer burdens and impurities on the body. Vegetarians are less susceptible to all the major diseases that afflict contemporary humanity, and thus live longer, healthier, more productive lives. They have fewer physical complaints, less frequent visits to the doctor, fewer dental problems and smaller medical bills. Their immune system is stronger, their bodies are purer, more refined and skin more beautiful. And don't forget, 15 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year- These drugs end up in your milk and meat.

Heart disease

The most common cause of death in the United States is by heart attack, killing one person every 45 seconds. By reducing your consumption of meat dairy products and eggs by 50%, you reduce your risk of a heart attack by 45%. By following a pure vegetarian diet (no animal products at all) you reduce your risk by 90%. Heart disease, the most common cause of death in the U.S., is strongly correlated with elevated levels of cholesterol, which is found only in animal products. There is a 12% rise in blood cholesterol from consuming one egg a day. There is a 24% rise in heart attack risk from 12% rise in blood cholesterol. The average egg contains 275mg of cholesterol. Red meat and chicken both contain the same amount of cholesterol--25mg per ounce.
No dietary cholesterol intake is needed to support human health because the body makes its own.

Cancer

Natural carnivores have short digestive tracts, conductive to expelling the toxins contained in animal flesh, while humans have long digestive tracts for absorbing the essential amino acids. Meat-eating and a lack of dietary fiber are linked to colon cancer. Only plant foods contain fiber. According to a recent report from the National Cancer Institute, cooked chicken contains significantly larger amounts of cancer causing-causing heterocyclic amines than does red meat. Women who eat eggs daily are 2.8 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who eat eggs once a week. Women who eat dairy products 2-4 times a week are 3.2 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who eat dairy products once a week. Women who eat meat daily are 3.8 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who eat meat less than once a week. Men who consume meats, dairy products and eggs daily are 3.6 times more likely to die from fatal prostate cancer than men who consume these products sparingly. Women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week are 3 times more likely to die of fatal ovarian cancer than women who eats eggs less than once a week.

Osteoporosis

Vegan Children

Consider this: Many children raised on the "traditional" American diet of cholesterol- and saturated fat-laden hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza are already showing symptoms of heart disease - the number one killer of adults - by the time they reach first grade. One epidemiological study found significant levels of cholesterol and fat in the arteries of most children under the age of five.

Children raised as vegans can be protected from this condition. They are less likely to suffer from childhood illnesses such as asthma, iron-deficiency anemia, and diabetes and will be less prone to ear infections and colic.

Protein

Contrary to popular opinion, the real concern about protein is that we will eat and feed our children too much, not too little protein. Nutritional biochemist Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of the ground-breaking China Study, has shown that excess animal protein actually promotes the growth of tumors - and most people on a meat-based diet consume three to 10 times more protein than their bodies need!

When people eat too much protein, they take in more nitrogen than they need. This places a strain on the kidneys which must expel the extra nitrogen through urine. People with kidney disease are encouraged to eat low-protein diets. Such a diet reduces the excess levels of nitrogen and thus can help prevent kidney disease too.

One can easily meet the body's protein requirements with plant foods. Children and adults can get all the protein their bodies need from whole grains in the form of oats, brown rice, and pasta; from nuts and seeds, including spreads such as tahini and peanut butter; and legumes, including tofu, lentils, and beans.

To consume a diet that contains enough, but not too much, protein, simply replace animal products with grains, vegetables, legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), and fruits. As long as one is eating a variety of plant foods in sufficient quantity to maintain one's weight, the body gets plenty of protein.

For a long time it was thought that athletes needed much more protein than other people. The truth is that athletes need only slightly more protein, which is easily obtained in the larger servings athletes require for their higher caloric intake. Vegetarian diets are great for athletes.

Iron

Calcium

Cornbread, broccoli, kale, tofu, dried figs, tahini, great northern beans, and fortified orange juice and soy milk are all excellent sources of calcium. As with iron, vitamin C will help your child's system absorb calcium efficiently.

Vitamin D

Vitamin B-12

The Spiritual Consciousness reason

The food you eat is the main source of the intricately balanced chemistry of your body, and what you eat affects your conciousness, emotions and physical patterns. By eating the flesh of another living being, you are introducing to your body and mind the chemistries of the animal, which include anger, jealousy, fear, anxietry, suspicion, and a terrible fear of death, all of which are bound into the flesh of the butchered creature. For this reason, vegetarians live in a "higher conciousness" (being influenced only by their own thoughts, feelings, desires and fears, not those of a separate, lower being) and meat eaters live in a "lower conciousness" (being influenced by the thoughts, feelings, desires and fears of a separate, lower being). If one wants to live in higher consciousness, in peace and happiness and love for all creatures, then he cannot eat meat, fish, shellfish, fowl, eggs, or the flesh of any animal, or cause damage knowingly or unknowingly, to any other living creature, to advance or sustain his own being.
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