Why go Vegan?

[Guest guest]

Why go Vegan?

 

All around us today, the natural world is under attack. Pollution,

deforestation, and systematic cruelty to animals. These forces are rapidly

destroying the planet upon which we live. But how can one person make any

difference?

The answer is as close as your dinner plate. Thousands of people across the

country are standing up for animals and the environment by adopting a vegan

lifestyle. Vegans take personal responsibility for making the world a better

place by giving up meat, dairy products, and other animal derived items.

 

That simple choice has powerful consequences. Veganism saves animals from

the horrors of the slaughterhouse, reduces pollution from factory farms, and

preserves soybeans and grain for the millions of malnourished people in our

hungry world.

 

Animals

 

Vegans are motivated by compassion for suffering and respect for life. Both

modern science and simple common sense tell us that other animals besides

humans feel pain and fear death. Vegans empathize with living creatures and

they also understand that humans don’t need to eat meat, wear leather, or

drink milk to survive.

 

Animals on a modern factory farm lead lives of unimaginable suffering and

die cruel deaths before ending up on the dinner table. Intense competition

drives farmers to value efficiency over natural desires. Animals are

squeezed into ever smaller living quarters, even as new biotechnology is

used to make animals grow bigger and produce more meat, milk or eggs.

Lowering the cost per unit is the overriding goal.

 

Pumped up with hormones and drugs, dairy cows spend a few years in a

concrete stall or filthy feed lot before they dry up and are sent to

slaughter. Most calves born to dairy cows are quickly separated from their

mothers, confined in tiny pens, and then killed for veal after only a few

months of life. Chickens are crammed together in tiny cages and have their

breaks clipped to prevent them from self-mutilating due to stress. Death is

merciless and inevitable: a bolt gun or a knife ends a life spent in hell.

 

Vegans do not wear products derived from animals. Fur and leather are the

result of suffering and exploitation. So is wool: lambs are castrated and

have their tails cut off without anesthetic, and many sheep die of exposure

due to premature shearing. Some cosmetics and personal care items contain

animal by-products such as honey, lanolin and lard. Vegans use the widely

available alternatives that are animal-free.

 

Experiments on animals are another source of suffering. Rabbits, dogs, rats

and many other beings die to test soap and make-up or in medical research

that many doctors have condemned as irrelevant to human health. The agony

suffered by animals in research facilities is all the more outrageous

because cruelty free alternatives exist.

 

People

 

Veganism also saves human lives. Diet is a major factor in three of the

leading causes of death in America today. The risk of heart disease, cancer,

and stroke can be dramatically reduced by a non-dairy vegetarian diet.

Vegans also virtually eliminate the possibility of contracting e. coli,

salmonella and spongiform encephalopathy (a fatal condition transmitted by

the flesh of animals suffering from " Mad Cow Disease " ).

 

But going vegan won't just save your life. A better diet is also an

important step towards solving the terrible problem of world hunger. Animal

agriculture is a grossly inefficient way of growing food: experts estimate

that at least seven pounds of grain or soybeans are needed to generate one

pound of meat. Food that could be going directly to hungry people is instead

being inefficiently funneled into producing steaks and hamburgers. Animal

agriculture also wastes staggering amounts of water and energy. One thing is

clear: if all the people of Earth are going to be fed, we must eat more

wisely.

 

The Environment

 

How we eat also affects the air, the water, the forests and the oceans. The

production of meat has a devastating impact on the subtle web of connections

that sustains life on our planet. Rainforests are leveled to raise cattle,

factory farms pollute rivers and lakes, over-grazing erodes fertile land

into arid desert, and vast quantities of energy and water are wasted to

raise animals for food. At sea, huge fishing drift nets turn acres of ocean

into graveyards. All this damage to the earth can be stopped. Taking meat

and dairy off your plate will make a difference.

 

 

 

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