|
|
1.
COMPASSIONATE
2. ENVIRONMENTAL
3. HEALTH
"The
average Australian meat-eater, in one lifetime, consumes
92 sheep,
17 beef cattle,
15 pigs,
1171 chickens and
innumerable fish and other animals.
Since
people can and do live without meat, the raising and killing
of animals for food is both unnecessary and cruel, especially
where the animals are raised intensively on 'factory' farms."
(3)
1.
COMPASSIONATE to both humans and other species:
-
Farming techniques: Our treatment of animals as possessions
has led to unconscionable treatment of them. Factory
farming reduces them to "units of production"
confined in pens, often for the term of their artificially
shortened lives or standing up to their bellies in excrement
slush as in some cattle feedlots.
-
Suppression
of animals' behavioural needs: The five freedoms are denied
animals kept in factory farms, one of which is their inability
to express natural behaviours. This suppression of natural
behaviour quite literally sends many animals insane. They
demonstrate stereotypical behaviours including biting themselves
and other animals, biting the bars of their pens, swaying
and pacing.
For more information on Pig farming click
here
for more information on Battery Hens click
here
-
Human starvation: One in five people will go to sleep hungry
tonight and every night. Two thirds of the world live on
grains, meat being a luxury only available to the rich.
While poverty remains the abiding cause of starvation, resources
are being squandered on meat production for the privileged,
exacerbating the problem. Grains are fed to cattle that
could be fed to human beings.(3)
4
HECTARES (10 Acres)
OF LAND WILL SUPPORT:
61 people on a diet of soya beans
24 people on a diet of wheat
10 people on a diet of maize
2 people on a diet of cattle meat
2.
ENVIRONMENTAL
The potential for the Earth to sustain its human population
in food and maintain wild species habitats is affected by
what we eat:
-
Soil Loss: 85% of US topsoil loss is caused by livestock
overgrazing.(3) In the US, nearly half of all available
cropland is used to grow animal feed. This land is eroding
at such a rate that for every 1kg of red meat, poultry,
eggs and milk produced, 5kg of prime topsoil is lost from
farms. The desertification process has already caused 10
% of the Western US to become desert and 70% is severely
degraded.(4)
-
Water
Use: Livestock raising uses 40% of water use in the US.
-
Pollution:
Considerable water pollution through runoff is caused by
industrial agriculture's high use of pesticides and inorganic
fertilizers, livestock wastes and food processing wastes.
Indeed, "the world's 30,000 known species of spiders
kill far more insects every year than insecticides do"(3)
-
Waste
disposal: Livestock in the US produce 21 times more excrement
than the country's human population. Only about half of
this livestock waste is recycled to the soil as fertilizer(3)
-
Deforestation:
Forests are being destroyed to provide pasture worldwide,
but especially in Africa and Asia who have the fastest rates
of deforestation in the world. It is expected that Africa
will have only 40% and Asia less than 22% of 1990 levels
of tree coverage by 2050.(5) Much of it is marginal land
that will not recover. ANFAS estimate that 44 Hectares (100
acres) of rain forest disappear every minute of every day.(4)
-
Loss
of Bio-diversity: Tree loss and the subsequent replacement
of native species with domestic and introduced animals and
pasture plants can only reduce bio-diversity The pollution
and profligate use of resources in meat production further
decreases habitats and may outright kill species, especially
aquatic species who are the most susceptible to chemicals.
Indeed the Bay of Mexico has been declared a 'dead-zone'
due to soil and chemical runoff clouding the waters and
making them unable to support life.
-
Energy
usage: Most crops grown in the US provide more energy than
that used to grow them - EXCEPT meat: including crops grown
to feed them, meat production uses three times the amount
of energy it returns in food - it's a gas guzzler!
"...if all the people in the US were vegetarians,
the country's oil imports would be cut by 60%"(Miller)
3.
HEALTH
-
Disease: Many diseases are attributable to meat consumption.
Lung and Colon cancer is almost nonexistent in the vegan
community. Incidence of coronary artery disease is lower
in vegetarians than in non-vegetarians. Vegetarians have
lower rates of hypertension and non-insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus than do non-vegetarians; Research suggests that
vegetarians are also at decreased risk for breast cancer.(4)
Non-meat eaters also considerably reduce their risk of contracting
food poisoning.
-
Pesticide
residues: in food cause a human health threat. 55% of such
residues in our diet comes from meat, 6% from vegetables,
4% from fruits, and 1% from grains.
"According to the FDA 1-3% of food purchased in the
US has levels of one or more pesticides that are over the
legal limit..(exposure is estimated to cause) 4,000 - 20,000
cases of cancer per year in the US"(2)
Pesticides in our diet have also been linked with genetic
damage, asthma, allergies, impaired immune system, potentially
even intellectual impairment and psychological effects.(8)
-
Weight:
Obesity, a major public health problem in the United States,
exacerbates or complicates many diseases. Vegetarians, especially
vegans, often have weights that are closer to desirable
weights than do non-vegetarians.(4)
| Compiled
by Kim Stewart
References:
1. Mason, J and Singer, P 1980 Animal Factories Crown
Publishers: New York
2. G.Tyler Miller Sustaining the Earth Wadsworth: 1998
3. ANZFAS Fact Sheet
4. The American Dietetic Association Position Paper
on Vegetarianism
5. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN
1991 in World Resources 1992-93
6. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 1997
at http://envirolink.org/arrs/peta/index.html
7. Irvine, S 1996 Real World Resources Guide published
by the Campaign for Political Ecology, http://www.gn.apc.org/eco/resguide/index.html
8.Rachel Environment and Health Weekly No.469 November
23, 1995 at http://host.enviroling.org//publications/rachel/contents.htm |
|
|
