ONE HUNDRED & ONE REASONS TO GO VEGETARIAN
PEOPLE
- Every year in the UK we feed our livestock enough food to feed 250,000,000
people while in the world 30,000,000 people die of starvation
- 20 vegetarians can live off the land required by one meat eater
- Every 3 seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world
- If Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10% it would free
12,000,000 tons of grain - enough to feed 60,000,000 people (the population of
Great Britain)
- If all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed
600,000,000 people (the population of India)
- Intensification in animal farming has displaced 1,000,000's of people from
their traditional lands - eg. indigenous people in south & central
america, native americans in north america & crofters in Great Britain -
this is continuing today
- People displaced from their lands into cities succumb to dietary
deficiency, diseases, parasites & opportunistic diseases
- In third world countries 1 in 10 babies die before their first birthday
- The UK imports ?46,000,000 worth of grain from third world countries to
feed our livestock
- Due to overgrazing 850,000,000 people live on land threatened by
desertification & over 230,000,000 already live on land so severely
desertified that they are unable to sustain their existence & face
imminent starvation
- 1,000,000,000 people in the west gorging on meat & dairy leave
1,000,000,000 to waste away & 3,500,000,000 teeter on the brink
LAND
- If they continue to clear American forests to raise cattle at the present
rate, in 50 years there will be none left
- 1 acre yields 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 lbs of potatoes
- 8/10 of cultivated land in the UK is used to grow food for animals
(14,732,000 hectares)
- It takes 16lbs of high protein soya to produce 1 lb of beef
- Since 1945 in the UK we have lost 95% of flower meadows, 50% of ancient
woodlands, 40% of heathlands, 50% of wet lands & 224,000 km of hedgerows
all due to animal farming
- Pressure on land due to meat farming leads to soil erosion 6billion
tons/year in the USA
- If everyone went vegetarian upto 90% of land used for animal farming could
be taken out of production & used to replant woodlands, leisure activities
etc.
- 25% of Central america's forests have been destroyed for cattle grazing
since 1960
- Between 1966-1983 38% of the Amazon rain forest was destroyed for cattle
grazing
- 90% of cattle ranches established on cleared forest land go bankrupt in
less than 8 years as the land becomes barren due to nutrient loss &
overgrazing
- Overgrazing by cattle is destroying the land & increasing
desertification, nearly 430 million acres in the USA alone has suffered a
25-50% reduction in yield since first grazed
- An inch of topsoil takes 200-1000 years to develop - yet in the USA they
have lost around 1/3 of their prime topsoil in 200 years (around 7 inches) due
to animal farming
- Land will be lost due to rises in sea level due to global warming due to
animal farming
AIR
- The destruction of the rainforest by cattle farmers is destroying the
lungs of the planet & reducing the worlds capacity to replenish our oxygen
supply
- The 1,300,000,000 cattle in the world emit 60,000,000 tons of methane per
year (methane is a greenhouse gas & leads to global warming)
- Burning of forests, grasslands & agricultural waste associated with
animal farming releases 50-100,000,000 tons of methane per year
- Combining these figures, 25% of methane emissions are due to animal
farming (not including the billions of sheep, pigs & poultry so the real
figure is much higher)
- Fertilizer used to grow crops to feed to animals releases nitrous oxide -
thought to account for 6% of the greenhouse effect
- Fertilizer, weedkiller & pesticides sprayed on crops enter the
atmosphere creating a noxious carcinogenic cocktail
- CFCs are released into the air from refrigeration units used to store
decomposing flesh (meat), milk & butter - CFCs are destroy the ozone layer
- Ammonia from animal urine also pollutes the atmosphere
- CO2 is released by burning oil & petrol in lorries, ships, abattoirs,
dairies, factories etc. associated with meat & dairy production
- Emissions from large chemical plants which produce fertilizer, weedkiller
& other agricultural chemicals are also poisoning our air
WATER
- 25 gallons of water to produce 1lb of wheat & 2500 gallons to produce
1lb of meat
- UK farm animals produce 200,000,000 tonnes of slurry (liquid excrement)
every year, the majority of which ends up in our rivers
- Bloody waste water from abattoirs ends up in our rivers
- In the USA every second humans produce 12,000 lbs of effluent while farmed
animals produce 250,000 lbs
- Nitrates & pesticides used on crops grown to feed livestock end up in
our rivers
- Meat & dairy farming uses 70 litres of water per day per animal in the
UK or 159,250,000,000 litres per year in total
- The water used to produce 10 lbs of steak is equivalent to the average
consumption of water for an entire household for an entire year
- Depletion of groundwater reserves to grow crops for animals & to
supply abattoirs will lead to greater water shortages
- Aquafers (stores of underground water) in the San Joaquin valley in the
USA are being drained at the rate of 500,000,000,000 gallons/year to produce
meat
- 18% of all agricultural land in the world is irrigated & as global
warming increases (partly due to animal farming) it will cost $200,000,000 to
keep these systems going
- The water used to produce a 1000 lb beef steer is enough to float a
Destroyer battleship
- The liquid waste from the various parts of the meat & dairy industry
flow into the rivers & from there into the seas polluting them &
encouraging huge algal blooms to grow
EFFICIENCY
- To produce 1calorie of energy from meat takes 60 calories of petrol,
whereas growing grains & legumes to directly feed people produces 20
calories for each calorie of fuel used ( thats 1200 times more efficient)
- Meat & dairy farming uses billions of gallons of oil to run tractors,
fuel ships & lorries (to move animal feed & animals), pump billions of
gallons of water to irrigate fields & run slaughterhouses, power
refrigeration units to prevent the corpses from decomposing & to power
sewage plants to clean up some of the pollution produced
- Cattle convert only 6% of their energy intake (mainly grains & soya)
into flesh, the remaining 94% is wasted as heat, movement (which is why they
keep many animals in very close confinement), hair, bones, faeces etc
- 1lb of beef takes 1 gallon of petrol to produce
- A family of four eating beef for a year uses enough petrol to run a car
for 6 months (obviously depending on how far you drive!)
- If the full ecological cost of meat was passed onto the consumer - the
price would be quadrupled (at least)
- The EC spends ?100,000,000's to subsidise animal production resulting in
lakes of unwanted milk & mountains of unwanted meat & butter. This
money could be better spent encouraging organic fruit, vegetable & grain
production
- In the USA in 1979 145,000,000 tons of crops were fed to cattle resulting
in only 21million tons of animal bodies - the cost of the wasted crops was
$20,000,000,000
- Between 1950 & 1985 grain production in Europe & the USA increased
massively but 2/3 was fed to animals
- 70% of all grain is fed to animals
- Eating vast quantities of animal flesh, eggs, milk & butter is a
luxury that most of the planet can not afford
ANIMALS
- Fishing with drift (and other modern) nets weakens & destroys
ecosystems by indiscriminately killing billions of sea creatures &
disrupting the sea bed
- Fishermen's nets kill 10 times as many other animals as the fish they are
hoping to catch
- Fish caught in nets die an agonising slow death of suffocation
- Each year 15,000,000,000 land animals are slaughtered for food & an
unknown but much larger number of sea creatures (including 1000's of dolphins
caught accidentally)
- Chickens are crammed into battery cages with upto 3 other birds, they are
unable to even spread their wings & many can not even stand up
- Unwanted male chicks (because they can't lay eggs) are gassed or pulped
while their sisters go to the battery sheds
- Chicks are debeaked without anaesthetic to prevent them injuring each
other in the unnaturally confined conditions they are kept in - this is
equivalent to having your fingernails pulled out without anaesthetic
- Modern farming methods using growth hormones & artificial lighting
mean that many chickens out grow their bones, resulting in fractured &
broken legs
- Sows are kept tethered in stalls 1.3 x 1 metre on concrete or slatted
floors - they can not even turn around
- Poultry raised for meat are kept in windowless broiler sheds, with around
20-30,000 in each shed, they live in an area of 10-20 cm square - fighting due
to overcrowding is common & like battery hens they commonly suffer from
supperating bed sores
- Broilersheds are artificially lit 23 hours a day to produce rapid growth
- Animals travel between farms & to slaughter in overcrowded
transporters with no food or water - resulting in stress, injuries &
deaths - legal requirements are widely ignored
- 95% of poultry suffer injuries before being killed & 30% suffer broken
bones
- Problems with stunning practices mean that many animals have their throats
slit while still conscious (around 6% of cattle or 200,000 per year) & are
then dipped in tanks of scalding water (to loosen feathers, bristles etc.)
again while fully conscious
- 4000 animals die spurting their blood out every minute in a British
slaughterhouse
- Calf leather comes from animals killed at just 2 weeks old
- Cows were fed on the ground up remains of other cows & sheep - the
result is thought to be BSE (mad cow disease) in the USA cattle are fed partly
on recycled plastic pellets
- Cows only give milk for 10 months after they have a calf - so they are
routinely artificially inseminated (ie. mechanically raped) to keep them
pregnant & milking - their calves are taken away (usually at 12 hours old)
for meat or export to veal crates
- Cows would naturally live upto 20 years but are slaughtered after 5-7
years when their milk production begins to fall
- In the UK animals are killed by first being stunned with electricity or a
captive bolt gun (ie. a bolt is fired into their heads) before having their
throats slit & being plunged into boiling water - all this happens on a
production line with the animals being hung upside down from a moving conveyor
belt - this is factory farming
- "Animals are those unfortunate slaves & victims of the most brutal
part of mankind" - John Stewart Mill (philosopher)
- Veal calves are confined in stalls in the dark, unable to move & are
fed on pigs blood , chocolate & dried milk (we are drinking the rich fresh
milk of their mothers)
- Cows naturally produce 5 litres of milk per day for their calves - under
the intensified systems of modern farming they produce 25-40 litres per day -
resulting in swollen & inflamed udders - at this rate they are soon worn
out
- Large areas of land are under monoculture to grow crops to feed to animals
- these areas are wildlife deserts supporting fewer & fewer species.
HEALTH
- Vegetarians have a 20% lower rate of mortality from all causes (ie. they
live longer & don't get sick as often)
- Meat is full of traces of antibiotics, hormones, toxins produced by stress
& pesticide residues that become concentrated from all the crops they have
eaten
- Fish contain heavy metals & other pollutants -many of which originated
on farms
- The world health organisation recommends a diet low in saturated fat,
sugar, salt & with plenty of fibre - exactly what you get on a
vegan/vegetarian diet
- Farmed animals contain upto 50% saturated fat in their bodies
- Vegetarians have 24% reduced risk of getting heart disease & Vegans a
57% reduction (heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK accounting for
50% of deaths)
- Obesity is rare in vegetarians, obesity is related to many diseases
- Vegans & vegetarians have lower blood pressure & cholesterol
levels - high levels are associated with heart disease, strokes & kidney
failure
- Vegetarians have a 50% reduced risk of dying of diabetes
- Vegetarians have a 40% reduced level of cancer than the general population
thought to be because they have a higher intake of vitamins A, C & E
- Vegetarians have a reduced risk of developing gall & kidney stones
- 80% of food poisoning is due to infected meat (faeces, bacteria etc.)
after all meat is decomposing flesh - most of the rest is due to salmonella in
eggs
- Osteoporosis due to calcium loss from bones is mainly due to the sulfur
content in meat & casein protein in milk that cause calcium to be lost in
the urine - the countries with the highest meat & dairy consumption are
those with the highest levels of brittle bones
- 50% of people do not have the enzyme to digest milk properly & milk
allergy is related to asthma & eczema
- Meat eaters have double the rate of Alzheimer's disease as Vegans &
Vegetarians - some people also think that Parkinson's disease is also linked to
meat eating
- Egg yolk is a dense concentration of saturated fat & the white is high
in albumin protein associated with leaching calcium into your urine. Butter is
80% saturated fat, cream is 40% saturated fat & cheese is 25-40% saturated
fat
- Meat eaters are two and a half times more likely to get bowel cancer than
Vegetarians
- The cling film used to wrap meat in supermarkets & butchers contains
chemicals linked to falling sperm counts in men
- Chinese people (living mainly on a vegetarian diet) consume 20% more
calories than Americans but Americans are 20% fatter
- Of 2,100,000 deaths in the USA in 1987, 1,500,000 were related to diet
(ie. meat & dairy)
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