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Vegetarianism. Is described in the dictionary
as a “diet excluding all meat and fish,”
But to the vegetarian, it is so much more.
Some progress towards vegetarianism because of concern for their
health or perhaps to regain their health lost.
Some go towards the diet out of conscience.
Perhaps the karma given off by a diet which lessens suffering is
one to be admonished as self-serving, but to follow ones heart is
the ultimate of divine choices.
Thomas A. Edison once said; “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics,
which is the goal of all evolution.
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
Health Reason
Money Reason
Ethics Reason
Environment Reason
Health Reason back
Most people look at Vegetarianism and Veganism with scorn.
They have been led to believe that eating meat and drinking milk
are both necessary for stronger bones and bigger muscles.
But this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Numerous studies done by several universities and organizations
have shown that reducing your animal protein intake will raise calcium
levels much more then simply consuming more calcium.
Thus, Vegans get plenty of calcium by simply not needing the calcium.
I think the dangers of eating meat are obvious and if not I would
gladly write about them.
Vegetarians are said to live longer by various studies including:
Adventist Mortality (California, 1959-60)
Health Food Shoppers (UK, 1973-79)
Adventist Health (California, 1976-80)
Heidelberg (Germany, 1978-81)
Oxford Vegetarian (UK, 1980-84)
EPIC-Oxford (UK, 1993-2001)
As Dr. Charles Attwood pointed out, this is insane: If people
were being run down by trucks at the same rate that they’re dying
from meat-and-dairy-induced heart attacks, something would be done.
According to Dr. William Castelli, chair of the Nutrition Department
at Harvard Medical School and the researcher who has directed the
longest-running clinical trial in history, “A low-fat, plant-based
diet would … lower the cancer rate 60 percent.”
Money Reasonback
The economical (ecological would fit into the environmental part
I believe) pieces to this puzzle are not so obvious.
I would say that most adults in the US have complained over taxes.
Some even have gotten to the point of voting NO on every tax increase.
You may ask where all that money could be going, right?
Well, what if I told you it was paying for your hamburgers?
Please, allow me to explain. Farms all across the U.S. use a great
deal of water to feed animals and grow crops.
And since livestock consumes 80% of the corn we grow and over 95%
of the oats.
Now, you may believe that you pay for this at the cash register
when you buy your ham.
But that is not true, you see, Farms could simply not afford to
stay in business if they had to pay full price for water.
Instead, the government subsidizes their water; this takes money
out of your wallet! -If the cost of water needed to produce a pound
of meat were not subsidized, the cheapest hamburger meat would cost
more than $35 a pound! - (1)
The thing to also to consider if you live in an area like the N.W.
United States is that many of us receive our power from a as= series
of dams in the Columbia River (hydropower).
What many people in the US and even in Oregon where I live do not
know is why we pay such high electricity bills even with such an
abundant resource.
The problem isn’t what you might think. You see, Farms get their
water from that very river, but they get it upstream from the dams.
Now, you may think this couldn’t be much water, -but meat production
amounts for over half of the water consumed in the entire region-
(2). Thus, the river is drained of water and they are left in their
current situation of high electricity prices and searching relying
on the use of Nuclear Power.
Ethics Reason back
While Morals are a human conception, this gives no man the right
to deny that animals are deserving of said rights.
The basis of all morals center around the Golden Rule.
This rule basically states that one should only treat another with
the same respect and care that they would hope to get in return.
Now the question is weather this should apply to animals since they
cannot follow this rule.
Every major religion on Earth teaches mercy and compassion, how
can one make the separation of these terms to animals?
Many religions even advocate vegetarianism.
"To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to
nirvana."
--Buddha
Environment back
Let me start with a story.
One day I was in the back seat of the car on a drive over the mountain,
from the way this story was told to me, I was three years old.
As we came over a ridge, all of the trees disappear.
All that is left is stumps as far as the eye could see. Clear cutting.
At this age my destiny was told, I went hysterical, screaming and
reaching for the door trying to get to the woods and fight (no one
was there, but I was 3).
In the car that day my sister and mother made a friendly wager over
at what age I would be arrested for protesting.
Mom said before 18 and my sister said 21. I turned 18 last month
so mom is losing.
-More than 60% of Americans describe themselves as active environmentalists
or sympathetic to the environment- (3) I would be willing to bet
that the numbers of people who care about the environment are much
higher.
While considering how grossly inefficient it is to cycle grains
and crops through animals you fail to see the next side to wasting
crops.
Land isn’t fertile forever; eventually erosion will destroy the
land.
75% of all U.S. topsoil has been lost to date.
Eighty-five percent of this loss is directly related to livestock
grazing.
In the U.S. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been
cleared to create cropland in order to produce our meat-centered
diet. -Fifty-five square feet of tropical rainforest is consumed
to produce every quarter-pound of rainforest beef. -(4)
If the forests don’t concern you, then maybe your water will.
In December 1997, the Senate Agricultural Committee released a report
that stated that animals raised for food produce 130 times as much
excrement as the entire human population, roughly 68,000 pounds
per second, all without the benefit of waste treatment systems.
Where do you think that waste goes?
It may not be as pleasant but believe that much of that makes it
to the ground water.
By David Aaron Usher
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