Go Vegan

[Guest guest]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Mickeyz0212.htm

 

Direct Action on February 15:

Go Vegan

by Mickey Z.

www.dissidentvoice.org

February 12, 2004

 

" While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can

we expect any ideal conditions on this earth? "

 

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

It was a billboard on a crosstown Manhattan bus that got me thinking.

The rolling PSA said something like this: " 1 in 500 Americans have AIDS.

Only 1 in 250 know. " Instantly, my mind responded: 1 in 2 Americans will die

of heart disease. And this: Every seven seconds, an American dies of cancer.

 

From there, the list grew to:

 

* Every 25 seconds an American has a heart attack

 

* Every 45 seconds, and American dies from a heart attack

 

* Risk of death by heart attack for average American male: 50%

 

* Risk of death by heart attack for average vegan: 4%

 

* Rise in blood cholesterol level from consuming one egg per day: 12%

 

* Associated rise in heart attack risk from consuming one egg per day:

24%

 

* $135 billion per year spent treating cardiovascular disease

 

* $70 billion per year spent treating cancer (hmm, imagine if health

insurance was experiential like car insurance)

 

* 40% of all cancers are diet related

 

* Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said in 1988, " Eight out of

the ten leading causes of death in America are what you are eating. "

 

Need I go on? There's a self-induced health holocaust/mass suicide

going on that dwarfs any other health crisis in America...and the fallout

isn't only affecting our bodies, it's destroying our planet, funneling

ever-more taxpayer dollars to multi-national corporations, and hijacking our

humanity.

 

In this election year...in the midst of yet another illegal war,

another tax giveaway to the rich, and various other bipartisan American

pastimes...there are still far more rifts than connections on the Left. Such

division leaves many asking what they can do-on a personal level-to make a

difference in the meantime. Yet, the concept of veganism as activism- as

direct action in its truest - is regularly ignored or mocked by

narrow-minded progressives. A major disability rights activist once

disparaged me via telephone as being naïve for suggesting that personal

dietary changes could have global impact and I've heard a popular radical

scholar publicly ridicule the same concept-with palpable delight.

 

As Dylan sang, " Don't criticize what you can't understand. "

 

In a society crushed under the onerous weight of corporate dominance,

eschewing the standard American meat- and dairy-based diet is indeed a

revolutionary act along the lines of Che Guevara's credo that " the true

revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. "

 

Which brings me to February 15 and March 20.

 

February 15, 2003 was an international day of peace...an unprecedented

worldwide event that cannot be forgotten. March 20, 2003 was the day the US

drastically escalated its 12-year assault on Iraq. Remarkably, International

ANSWER and others have organized a massive anti-war rally not for February

15, 2004...but March 20, 2004. In one fell swoop, dedicated-but

misguided-protestors have allowed the murderers to set the agenda and have

validated the claim that the war " began " on that day. (Why spot at March 20,

I wonder? Why not any number of days when any number of wars " started " ?)

 

March 20 also happens to be the 20th anniversary of the annual Great

American Meatout (http://www.meatout.org/) during which non-vegetarians are

encouraged to " kick the meat habit (at least for a day) and explore a

wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. "

 

Combining all of the above elements, I propose you don't wait until

March 20 to perform the symbolic gesture of giving up meat for 24 hours

and/or marching in a demonstration surrounded by " Bush-as-Hitler " posters. I

 

suggest, as a form of international direct action, you honor February

15 as a Day of Peace-a day of global solidarity-and go vegan on that

day...and every day thereafter.

 

Sure, I can already hear the derisive laughter, the condescending

monologues, and the typical excuses...that's why I've offered the info below

for your perusal. I hope you'll read it as diligently and as open-mindedly

as the latest Chomsky essay or Arundhati Roy interview or Anyone-but-Bush

screed because if you wanna start making a difference ASAP...if you wanna

start a personal revolution with the chance to spread...than this is giant

step in the right direction. This is a step you can take on your own...an

opportunity to lead by example.

 

There are three primary reasons why one might opt to abstain from the

standard American diet (SAD): ethical, health, and environmental. In the

name of provoking thought, here's a small taste of each. (There is so much

more to say and share, but I'm hoping you'll take that on for yourselves.)

 

I've begun with the environmental aspect due to its obvious activist

flavor.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL

 

Assessing the environmental cost of the meat- and dairy-based diet is

a monumental and depressing task. For starters, consider Earthsave's

(http://www.earthsave.org/) calculations on the " real " price of a hamburger.

 

* It takes 12 pounds of grain to produce one pound of hamburger. This

same 12 pounds of grain could make 8 loaves of bread or 24 plates of

spaghetti.

 

* If the beef for your burger came from the rainforest, roughly 660

pounds of living matter is destroyed. This includes between 20 and 30

different plant species, over 100 insect species, and dozens of reptiles,

birds, and mammals.

 

* One pound of hamburger requires 2,500 gallons of water, which could

instead have been used to grow more than 50 pounds of fruits and vegetables.

Fifty percent of all water consumed in the U.S. is used to grow feed and

provide drinking water for cattle and other livestock.

 

* On a planet where a child starves to death every two seconds,

fourteen times as many people could be fed by using the same land currently

reserved for livestock grazing.

 

That Big Mac does more than just drain resources, it contributes to

global warming. Two hundred gallons of fossil fuels are burned to produce

the beef currently by the average U.S. family of four while 500 pounds of

carbon dioxide are released in the atmosphere for every quarter pound of

rainforest beef.

 

The SAD also pollutes the planet at an alarming rate. A 1997 Senate

report declared that every year, U.S. livestock produce 10,000 pounds of

solid manure for every U.S. citizen. " In central California, " activist

Pamela Rice (http://www.vivavegie.org) explains, " sixteen hundred dairies

produce the feces and urine of a city of 21 million people. " This is a

problem from coast to coast as " surplus cow sludge " is seriously polluting

waterways at the rate of 230,000 pounds per second. Thanks to run-off from

animal agriculture, the EPA has found 700 different pollutants in U.S.

drinking water. Since 1945, overall pesticide use has increased by 3,300

percent with 1.5 billion pounds of pesticides applied to American farmlands

annually.

 

Despite the drastic increase in pesticide use, the USDA has found that

prior to the 1950s, the overall annual crop loss due to " pest damage " was 7

percent. Today, it's 13 percent. The bug spray may not be killing bugs but

it certainly has an impact on the human population. Studies have shown that

99 percent of non-vegetarian mothers in the U.S. had significant levels of

DDT in their breast milk. (For vegetarian mothers, not incidentally, the

number was 8 percent.)

 

To the polluted air, water, land, and bodies, add in the devastation

of topsoil and ensuing desertification and species destruction:

 

* Pounds of topsoil lost in the production of one pound of feedlot

steak: 35

 

* Time required for nature to form one inch of topsoil: 200 to 1000

years

 

* 29% of Earth's landmass is suffering from desertification

 

* Each year, 125,000 square miles of rainforest is permanently

destroyed-that's a football field every second-often to make room for

grazing cattle. In Central America, cattle ranching is the top reason for

rainforest destruction and 90% of new cattle ranches last less than 8 year

because their soil base is depleted from grazing.

 

* Current rate of species extinction due to tropical rainforest

destruction: 1000 per year

 

Over-fishing is another diet-related environmental issue. A United

Nations report stated that seventeen of the world's major fishing areas have

reached or exceeded their natural limits. The World Conservation Union found

1,081 species of fish worldwide are threatened or endangered while 106

Pacific salmon stocks are already extinct. " Industrial innovations permit

fishers to scoop an astounding 80 to 90 percent of a given fish population

form the sea in any one year, " says Earthsave's Steve Lustgarden who also

reports of the " innocent bystanders " of the fishing industry. For example,

for every pound of shrimp sold, roughly 20 pounds of other sea creatures are

caught in the nets. " In just one generation, human demand for fish has

increased by 50 percent, " says Rice.

 

There's one more factor to consider when calculating the cost of a

hamburger and that's the impact of corporate welfare of the planet. U.S.

farmers receive $22 billion in direct federal payments and subsidy aid and

the total value of subsidized irrigation water used by animal feed growers

in the U.S. annually is $1 billion.

 

" In the U. S. we can buy a hamburger for 79 cents, " explains

cattle-rancher-turned-vegan, Howard Lyman (http://www.madcowboy.com). " If

the American taxpayer was not involved in subsidizing the beef industry, the

same hamburger meat would cost over $12. Meat in America today would cost

$48 a pound if it were not for the American taxpayers subsidizing the grain,

the irrigation water, the electricity, the grazing on public lands. How many

people-even in America-would go and spend that amount of money on meat if it

wasn't subsidized? We can't afford roads, or schools, or health care, and

yet we are paying $11.21 for every $12 of something that is helping kill one

out of every two Americans today. "

 

ETHICAL REASONS

 

The hidden ingredient in all animal-derived food, clothing, and

entertainment is cruelty. Whether it's chickens, horses, pigs, cattle,

insects, deer, or any other exploited creature, the brutality inflicted by

humans upon these creatures is seemingly without limit. Here's a very brief

sampling:

 

Chickens

 

Inside the hatchery, each chicken is confined to about 48 to 86 square

inches of space (smaller than the page you're reading right now) and these

cages are piled tier upon tier. Due to the severe crowding, layer hens are

kept in semi-darkness. The stressed birds are de-beaked using hot irons

(without anesthetics) to prevent them from pecking each other to death. The

wire cages rub off their feathers and the mesh floor cripples their feet.

Still, production proceeds apace. In 1888, the typical hen laid 100 eggs per

year. By 1998, that number was 256.

 

Ducks

 

To some, the sight of a duck invokes images of foie gras. To produce

this alleged delicacy, male ducks are force-fed 6 to 7 pounds of grain three

times a day with an air-driven feeder tube for 28 days. At that point, the

ducks' livers, from with the pate is made, will have bloated to 6 to 12

times their normal size. " About 10 percent of the ducks don't make it to

slaughter, " says vegetarian activist, Pamela Rice, " They die when their

stomachs burst. "

 

Cattle

 

The abhorrent treatment of cattle within the factory farm paradigm

involves more than can be covered in an article. The castrating of bulls

without anesthesia, the transporting of cattle in both extreme heat and

cold, the butchering of cows that are still alive and conscious, and the

rampant administration of antibiotics and hormones are just the beginning.

The viciousness of the slaughterhouse industry has reached staggering

proportions.

 

Sheep

 

While sheep are yet another animal doomed to the slaughterhouse, they

also face exploitation via the wool industry. The heavy, wool-bearing sheep

that we see today are products of selective breeding over many generations.

These " mutants " produce far more wool than they were designed to produce.

Then, when this unnatural coat is shorn, the denuded sheep suffer from the

cold. " Sometimes on the big runs of Australia, " says Freda Dinsha of the

American Vegan Society, " thousands of newly-shorn sheep die of cold in one

night when the weather turns unexpectedly cold. " The wool industry comes

full circle back to the slaughterhouse because the huge profit made from

wool encourages further domestic breeding, which ultimately results in the

butchery of animals for food. As a final component to this equation, the

sizeable herds of sheep bred by the wool industry eventually make the land

they graze on unfit for cultivation.

 

Fur

 

There are two methods of slaughtering fur-bearing creatures. Almost

three million of them (usually minks, foxes, chinchillas, and raccoons) are

raised on so-called fur farms where they are imprisoned in cages often as

small as 2.5 square feet for four animals. Since no federal law protects the

animals on these farms, the conditions are predictably horrifying. The

animals display the behavior of any creature under incredible duress:

pacing, climbing, self-mutilating, cannibalism. After a life of misery,

death does not come swiftly. The preferred method of execution is anal or

genital electrocution. Described as experiencing " the intense pain of a

heart attack while fully conscious, " the animals literally are burned from

the inside out...to prevent damage to the coat, of course. Alternate fur

farm approaches include suffocation or neck-breaking however, this often

results in the animals only being stunned and therefore skinned alive. It

gets worse (or at least just as despicable but in a different way). Not all

animals can be raised and confined in cages. Raccoons and foxes, for

example, are trapped in the wild. The People for Ethical Treatment of

Animals (PETA) website (http://www.peta.org) describes the practice of

trapping:

 

" Animals...caught in steel-jaw leghold trap- the most widely used

trap-endure excruciating pain from the steel bars clamped onto their legs,

paws, and bodies. Some animals, especially mothers desperate to return to

their young, will struggle to get loose, even chewing or twisting off their

own legs to escape. Animals suffer for hours or even days in traps before

trappers arrive to stomp on their chests or break their necks. The trapped

animal is left to suffer blood loss, infection, gangrene, exhaustion,

exposure, frostbite, shock, or attack by nonhuman predators. Other animals,

such as beavers and muskrats, caught in underwater traps can struggle for up

to 20 minutes before drowning. "

 

This is but a minute example of human behavior towards animals. I

didn't touch upon leather, silk, or down; so-called entertainment or sports

like circuses, rodeos, horse and dog racing, zoos, and hunting; the

scientifically fraudulent and morally bankrupt animal experimentation

industry; and the ever-expanding car culture (i.e. one million wild animals

per week killed on U.S. highways; anti-freeze, bio-diesel fuel, hydraulic

brake fluid, and asphalt binder are all made with ingredients culled from

the carcasses of departed animals).

 

HEALTH REASONS

 

There is no such thing as a vegetarian refrigerator. Try opening the

nearest fridge and you'll find an egg rack along with a clearly marked

butter tray and meat drawer. Eating animals and animal by-products is not

just accepted, it's expected. Yet, contrary to popular opinion (and

refrigerator manufacturers), human beings were not designed to consume

animals.

 

" During 56 million years of primate evolution, the predecessors of man

became bigger, smarter, and increasingly vegetarian, exploiting the fruits

and leaves of their arboreal habitat, " explains William Harris, M.D., in

this book The Scientific Basis for Vegetarianism. Thus, Harris sees diet as

an issue of kinetic energy. (For example, a gorilla would expend far more

energy chasing, catching, and eating an insect that it would recover by

eating it.)

 

" Since no nutrients essential to man or any of his likely predecessors

are synthesized by animals, the use of animal foods [by predecessors] must

reflect other priorities, " Harris continues. Under conditions of scarcity,

omnivorism may become necessary despite the fact that, unlike a true

carnivore, Homo sapiens lack sharp teeth to tear through flesh, hide, and

bones, and the human digestive tract is quite long-22 feet-which means

animal protein can sit for as much as 14 days to putrefy and release

dangerous carcinogens.

 

I could go on for pages (and I have elsewhere) about the deleterious

health effects of eating meat and dairy, but instead will focus on one, very

recent meat-related concern: Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). BSE has

earned the caustic nickname " mad cow disease " thanks to the invidious

symptoms presented in affected cattle, i.e. staggering, tremors, involuntary

muscle spasms, bewilderment, hypersensitivity to auditory and tactile

stimuli, and other examples of seemingly " mad " behavior.

 

Cases of BSE have been reported across the globe in France,

Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal, Denmark, Canada, Italy, Oman, and the

Falkland Islands. In the U.S., other forms of transmissable spongiform

encephalopathy (TSE) have occurred in sheep (scrapie), mink (transmissible

mink encephalopathy), and deer and elk (chronic wasting disease).

 

Because they contain no genetic material of their own, TSEs are not

viruses, but are instead hypothesized to be infections proteins known as

prions. Perhaps what is most disquieting about this hypothesis is the fact

that, unlike viruses and bacteria, prions remain infectious even after

being:

 

* baked at 680° F for one hour (enough to melt lead)

 

* bombarded with radiation

 

* soaked in formaldehyde, bleach, and boiling water

 

" Cooking infected meat does not completely eliminate its infectivity, "

states environmentalist Peter Montague. Of course, this also means that

forks, spoons, knives, or any other eating or cooking utensil cannot be

sterilized. " BSE represents a big risk to the health of the [human]

population, " warns Stephen Dealler, a British microbiologist specializing in

mad cow disease. " It is no use pretending that the danger is not there. "

Edward L. Menning, DVM, editor of the Journal of Federal Veterinarians,

agrees: " Potentially, this is one of the most frightening diseases the world

has ever known. "

 

" The plethora of degenerative diseases in the high animal food

countries reflects the failure of humans to adapt their 57-million-year

vegetarian bodies to animal source food in the relatively short two to three

million years since the hominids began to eat it, " says Dr. Harris.

 

In light of this self-inflicted health holocaust of heart disease,

stroke, cancer, diabetes, and more, can we expect anything of value in terms

of help from the American medical community? There are125 medical schools in

the United States of which only 30 require a nutrition course. As a result,

the average physician receives 2.5 hours of nutrition training during their

four years in medical school. Perhaps the answer lies in the words of

vaccination activist, Sharon Kimmelman: " We are biologically accountable for

our behavior. "

 

FEAR OF A VEGAN PLANET

 

Like so many other aspects of American life, we've relinquished

control of our eating habits to the corporate pirates and their well-paid

indoctrination, eating animals is as " normal " as breathing while the

consequent animal cruelty required to sustain this lifestyle is, at worst,

considered a necessary evil on all sides of the political spectrum.

 

It's quite a psychological quantum leap to no longer perceive that cow

as a soulless source of protein, but this is precisely the type of emotional

and cultural advance that may spur further introspection into our other

illogical habits, i.e. operating health facilities on a for-profit basis,

renting oneself out as a wage slave eight hours a day, and believing there's

a difference between Republicans and Democrats. The choice is ours.

 

Veganism welcomes all and requires no political label or pedigree.

When you go vegan, we each make a difference (at least) three times a day.

 

As Dylan sang: " I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours. "

 

(Portions of this article were originally published in Everything You

Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies. © 2002 The

Disinformation Company. Reprinted with permission.)

 

Mickey Z. is the author of two upcoming books: A Gigantic Mistake:

Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense (Prime Books) and

Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda (Common Courage

Press). His most recent book is The Murdering of My Years: Artists and

Activists Making Ends Meet. He has been a vegan for nearly nine years and

can be reached at mzx2

 

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Mickeyz0212.htm