maybe this can help:
ONE HUNDRED & ONE
REASONS TO GO VEGETARIANhttp://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/101.html
extract some para:
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
....
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
sulphur 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 Alzheimers disease as Vegans
& Vegetarians - some people also think that Parkinsons 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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