Meat Free Mondays!
photo / andrew.mathewson
There are a few reasons why I choose not to eat meat. I may be the worst “vegetarian” on the planet, but every now-and-then I remember my reasoning behind first becoming vegetarian.
Animals in today’s factory farms have no legal protection from animal cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions. Please take the time to read more about the cruelty to the animals in factory farms & how amazing, sensitive, and intelligent these animals are.
Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. The consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products has also been strongly linked to osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and male impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune systems than their meat-eating friends, and on average, vegetarians and vegans live 6 to 10 years longer than meat-eaters. A plant-based diet is the best diet for kids, too. Studies have shown that vegetarian kids grow taller and have higher IQs than their classmates. Read more about the life-changing perks that eating meat-free can give you, and about the natural human diet.
But now there’s new studies that brings up a whole new issue due to factory farming, a major issue that affects all of us. With all those personal emotional feelings & beliefs out of the way, let’s move onto to the physical impact that eating meat has on the world.
Now the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbondioxide. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century. Take these facts into consideration:
- Eating animals causes global warming. A major report by the University of Chicago in 2006 found that adopting a vegan diet has a greater impact in the fight against global warming than switching to a hybrid car does.
- It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh. It’s shockingly inefficient to feed plant foods to farmed animals and consume their flesh rather than eating the plant foods ourselves.
- In the U.S. every second, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows in factory farms produce nearly 89,000 pounds of excrement, which is contaminated with the antibiotics and hormones that are pumped into these animals. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the runoff from factory farms pollutes our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined.
- Industrial agriculture consumes and wastes a tremendous amount of resources: In the U.S., 70 percent of all grains, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.
- Eating animals destroys the rain forest. Most environmentalists are aware that the Amazon has been slashed and burned in order to create grazing space for cows. But perhaps an even greater threat is the destruction of rain forest in order to create land where feed is grown for factory-farmed animals in wealthy nations. A recent report by Greenpeace blamed the chicken-flesh industry, particularly KFC, for leading the way in destroying the Amazon.
In terms of immediacy of action, simply devote at least one day a week to eating meet-free, or more, if you like eating meat free. “Meat Free Mondays” is a new global movement, and you can find materials to promote MFM and run your own meat free Monday’s, along with other ideas and recipes, at the MFM website.
(Most of the above information was borrowed from the extreamly informative site, GoVeg.com, which has hundreds of articles & recipies to get you started on living a healthy vegitarian & more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.)
Check out these other websites about eating meat free & global warming:
