vegetarianism

You may or may not know, dear reader, that only five to ten percent of the world’s entire population are vegetarians. I am one of them. When people ask me why, I usually say that I don’t want to kill animals and stop at that. But there is much more that I could say, which is what I’m going to tell you right now. 

First of all, most meat eaters must be clueless about the whole operation of animal processing because, frankly, if people truly knew how terribly animals, worldwide meat consumption wouldn’t have increased 400 percent in the last 50 years. Let’s start with (almost) every child’s stereotypical favorite food: chicken nuggets. In the United States, 250 chickens are killed every second. That’s means that more than 3,000 chickens have been slaughtered during the duration of time it took you to read this short paragraph (www.clearbluerecords.com). Oh, and not just adult chickens, but chicks are killed as well. Chicken industries suffocate or grind up 250 million male chicks, alive, every year because they will never produce eggs (www.upc-online.org). 

Animal mistreatment doesn’t stop at chickens- no, not even close. A report surfaced showing cows in United States slaughter houses too weak to move, being prodded, beaten, and dragged (with the help of cables), to be slaughtered. This is all after being confined in a cage just big enough for them to stand- but not move- and, of course, isolated away from any traces of sunlight (www.fao.org). When the animals became restless from being in the confined space, they began to chew or peck on the bars, themselves, or fellow prisoners, which results in their beaks or teeth being burned or broken off. Morality aside, slaughtering the animals isn't as "clean and efficient" as some might tell you. The cows- and all the others- are, in theory, meant to be stunned before the killing to ensure unconsciousness during the process. This, however, is not always the case; about one-fifth of the animals that were stunned wake up before the killing.  Though the meat industry would like us to believe the contrary, this treatment is typical of all the animals in slaughterhouses. 

Next, I am not only a vegetarian because of how animals are getting killed, but how we are slowly killing ourselves. Dr. David Brubaker from Johns Hopkins University says that we are threatening our planet by the way we breed animals for food (www.jhsph.edu). When people eat animals they are not just killing them, they are killing the earth- and ultimately the human race. Animal agriculture has caused 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions- “that is more than all the planes, trains, ships, and cars in the world combined” (thinkglobalgreen.org). However, animal agriculture is responsible for 65 percent of nitrous oxide, a gas with a global warming potential 296 times that of carbon dioxide, emissions. (http://www.livevegan.org). It’s not just the air that animal industries are polluting, according to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency); factory farming pollutes waterways more than all industrial sources combined (http://www.thinkglobalgreen.org). What are we doing to our planet?

Next, the impact of meat production on the world, created hunger. Quick question: if there is enough food produced for every single person in the world, why do we have world hunger? We have world hunger because so much of the grain and soy that is produced is fed to the animals that people breed for meat. If everyone in North America stopped eating meat for one day – just one day – we would have enough food to feed 1.5 million starving people (www.doctorsolve.com). Furthermore, the argument that we can’t solve anything when the animal is already dead, in the store, you’re wrong. Buying and eating the meat is worse. It increases the demand for meat, which in turn increases the already preposterous level of animal slaughter.

Let me sum this up for you. The meat industry is adding to the earth’s pollution, animal abuse, and human starvation  (and the demand for meat is estimated to rise further in come. This problem- these problems- are only going to worsen unless people can just start to alter their eating habits, if ever so slightly. Next time you watch television and see all of the people dying of starvation, or go to the grocery store to buy dinner, remember that the answer to all these problems is on your plate.

_KW

Bibliography:

. "100 thoughts and facts: Vegetarianism." VEGETARIANISM. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar 2012.

http://www.clearbluerecords.com/clearbluerecordscom/vegetarian/

. "Chickens." United Poultry Concerns. www.upc-online.org, n.d. Web. 23 Mar 2012. <http://www.upc-online.org/chickens/chickensbro.html>.

. "Deforestation." Think Global Green. Global Green, November 2006. Web. 23 Mar 2012. <http://www.thinkglobalgreen.org/deforestation.html>.

Huffstutter, P.J.. "Insight: The Great Northern Migration -- of U.S. Cattle." Reuters. 

. "If everyone in the United States became Vegetarian for one day… ." DoctorSolve. DoctorSolve™ Healthcare Solutions, 30 Jun 2009. Web. 28 Mar 2012. <http://www.doctorsolve.com/blog/2009/06/if-everyone-in-the-united-states-became-vegetarian-for-one-day.html>.

Reuters, 2012. Web. 23 Mar 2012. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/30/us-cattle-migration-idUSTRE80T07920120130>.

. "Livestock impacts on the environment." Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, November 2006. Web. 23 Mar 2012. http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm

. "Public Health Project to Address Problems of Animal Production." John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. John Hopkins, 19/9/1999. Web. 23 Mar 2012. <http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/PR_1999/animal_prod.html>.

. "Why Live Vegan?." Live Vegan. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar 2012. <http://www.livevegan.org/whyvegan_climate.html>.