Posted by meli on Thursday, March 19, 2009 in i like it raw | No comments
“There’s a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham.”The New York Times Magazine
“An Animal’s Place,” by Michael Pollan, 11/10/02
In celebration of the 25th Annual Great American Meatout, the worlds largest and oldest grassroots diet education campaign, taking place tomorrow (March 20th), I decided to blog about Veganism! Now before you high tail it up to that lovely red X at the top right corner of your computer screen, hear me out...
I'm not one of those radical vegetarians that think it's my job to "turn" the rest of the world by any means necessary. I'm not a crazy whack job that stands outside of burger joints throwing "blood" at everyone eating a Big Mac while screaming "MURDERERS". I wont shun you if, heaven forbid, you don't hold the same values that I hold. But, I do feel it's part of my responsibility to help raise awareness about Vegetarianism/Veganism as pertaining to animal welfare, our environment, and the health of humanity.
On the animal welfare/right front, here you go... PETA TV: Meet Your Meat I highly encourage everyone to take a look at this video. I don't care if you watch it thinking "Hmm, maybe this will change my mind about eating meat", or "Hell, this isn't going to change a damn thing about anything, F*** the Animals". Just watch it. Raise your awareness level. Without knowledge - what are we really?
On the environment front... some information I gathered from another site (html..)
Global Warming
According to Dr. James Hansen, 'Father of Global Warming', animal agriculture is the number one cause of global warming, it is the 'cow' in the middle of the room of the environmentalists
Also according to Dr. James Hansen, carbon dioxide accounts for 9% at the most. Methane (from animal agriculture) accounts for about 50% of global warming
Methane is 25x more potent a global warmer than CO2
Methane takes 9-15 years to disappear, CO2 takes about 110 years to disappear - what does this mean? Veganism could save us.
Nitrous Oxide, also a product of animal agriculture, is 300x more potent a global warmer than CO2
King Charles estimates we have about 100 months before the climate is unlivable, some experts believe we have as few as 2 years
Feeding the World
Animal agriculture takes up 70% of the Earth's areable land
30% of the total land mass of the Earth is being used for animal agriculture
The grain it takes to fee 100 cows is enough to feed 2,000 people
If every meat eater of the world cut their meat consumption by 10%, there would be grain enough to feed all the starving people in the world
About 2 million tons of grain are produced each year, and only about 10% - 20% of that total goes to human consumption.
Water
A year of the standard American diet uses about 11,000 gallons of oil every year. In comparison, driving a Prius for a year uses 5,000 gallons of oil.
Animal agriculture takes about 70% of the world's fresh water, and most of the rest is polluted.
The average meat eater accounts for about 400-500 gallons of water per day
Ecology and Energy
Each burger equates to the demolition of about 50 square feet of rain forest
There is 20 million acres of deforestation each year
1000 species go extinct each year
Organic farming requires 37% less energy
Weather and Other
Level 5 hurricanes have significantly increased
According to King Charles, the water level has gone up one meter. Some experts estimate water levels of the world could rise 70 meters, which is equivalent to a 10 story building
50% of antibiotics made go to animals, which in turn goes into what's left of the water
One pig farm produces as much extretement waste as New York City
Fasts of 7 days or longer cause one to lose their cellular memory for meat and dairy --> easier to go vegan
Bottom Line: What we eat literally affects who lives or dies on the planet, the health of the people, and the health of the planet.
On the health of humanity front, along with the above "feeding the world", it's really very simple. Meat causes disease in the body. Eliminate meat ... eliminate disease! Sound too easy? Well, some of the best things comes in small packages. Of course you need to make sure you're eating a well balanced diet... but it really is just that simple.
If you're not sold on jumping on the vegetarian/vegan wagon right now, that's ok. Life is a process. In order for that process to progress, we need knowledge. By reading this blog, I'm hoping your knowledge and awareness levels have increased, if even ever so slightly. If so... that's progress, and you can't ask for more then that!
Except for right now, because there is one more thing I will ask of you - haha. No matter where you are in your "meat beliefs" ... join the world tomorrow (March 20th) for one day of meat free existence. Just ONE day!
Change Your Diet - Change the World!
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