To answer the latter I have come across this list that highlights a lot of the important reasons I decided to make the switch:
REASONS TO GO VEGETARIAN
Health
- Meat/Dairy centered diets are linked to many types of cancer, as well as heart ailments, diabetes, obesity, gallbladder disease, hypertension, and more deadly diseases and disorders.
- The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat on a daily basis are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those women who eat little or no meat.
- Meat contains approximately 14 times more pesticides than plant foods; dairy products contain 5-1/2 times more pesticides than plant foods.
15 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year- These drugs end up in your milk and meat. - 95-99 percent of toxic chemical residues in the American diet come from animal sources.
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%. - Meat and dairy products raise the acid level in human blood, causing calcium to be excreted from the bones to restore the body's natural pH balance. This calcium depletion results in osteoporosis. Contrary to the common belief that dairy products are necessary to prevent osteoporosis, dairy consumption actually increases the likeliness of this crippling disease.
- About 30% of all pork products are contaminated with toxoplasmosis, a disease which is caused by parasites. It can be passed on to consumers.
The vegetarian diet is more likely to meet the government recommendations for fat, carbohydrate, and protein than a nonvegetarian diet. The government as well as many other organizations tell us to reduce our fat intake (especially saturated fat) and also to eat more grains, fruits, and vegetables. This is easy for a vegetarian! - On a meatless diet, you are less likely to get a bacterial infection such as E. coli, Camphylobacter, and Salmonella.
Animal Welfare
- Animals are able to feel pain just as we can!
- About 7 billion farm animals die or are slaughtered each year in the U.S. for the production of flesh food.
- There are virtually no laws against cruelty to animals raised for food in the U.S. The Animal Welfare Act, which governs the humane treatment of animals, excludes animals intended for food consumption.
- Up to five hens are crowded into a cage with floor space hardly larger than a record-cover, for their entire life-time.
- Many factory-farmed animals never see a blade of grass in their lifetime.
- In the egg industry, male chicks are considered useless so are often thrown into a grinding machine- ALIVE!
- Animals raised for food production are nearly always deprived of natural sexual, social, hygienic, and parental behaviors.
- Reason for veal's light color and tender texture: Veal calves are force-fed an iron-deficient, anemia-producing diet devoid of solid foods.
- Bulls raised for meat-production are routinely castrated without any type of anesthesia or pain-killers.
- Many animals are transported to slaughter without food and water for a long time! Millions die on the way to slaughter.
- The slaughtering process is inhumane. When the animals are stunned before they are slaughtered, it is not always reliable and the animals are in pain as they move towards their death.
Environmental Problems
- Livestock production is a major cause of desertification (where the land dries out and loses its precious topsoil so vegetation is unable to grow on it anymore) as well as deforestation (loss of trees).
- Two hundred years ago American cropland had topsoil that averaged 21 inches in depth.
- Today, only about 6 inches remain. Every year in the U.S. an area the size of Connecticut is lost to topsoil erosion- 85% of erosion is associated with livestock production.
- Spinach grown on an acre of land can yield 26 times more protein than beef produced on the same acre.
- Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed one person consuming a meat-based diet: 20
- Some beef comes from cattle raised on land that was formerly rainforest. This land is not good for grazing and it lasts only for a few years, after which more rainforest must be destroyed to raise the cattle on.
- For each quarter-pound fast food hamburger sold that came from cattle raised on former rainforest land, 55 square feet of rainforest was destroyed.
- A lot more water is required in animal agriculture than in plant agriculture. It takes only about 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat and around 390 gallons to produce just one pound of beef. In fact, It takes less water to produce the food that a pure vegetarian needs for one year than to produce the food that a meat eater needs for a month.
- Animal production requires a lot of fossil fuels. Fuels are needed to transport animal feed, to heat their housing, and to take the animals to slaughter, meat packing plants, and grocery stores. The burning of these fuels, as well as methane produced by the animals, is one cause of global warming.
- Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers used in the production of animals' feed pollute land and water.
- Many plants and animals become extinct due to the destruction of land.
World Problems
- 60 million people will starve to death this year - 60 million people could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10 percent.
