Love for Life

"How to win an argument with a meat eater"

The Hunger Argument

Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million
Percentage of corn grown in the US eaten by people: 20
Percentage of corn grown in the US eaten by livestock: 80
Percentage of oats grown in the US eaten by livestock: 95
Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2 point 3 seconds
Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000
Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250
Percentage of US farmland devoted to beef production: 56
Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of edible flesh from feedlot beef: 16

The Environmental Argument

Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs a meat-free diet: 3 times more
Percentage of US topsoil lost to date: 75
Percentage of US topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
Number of acres of US forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
Amount of meat imported to US annually from Central and South America: 300,000,000 pounds
Percentage of Central American children under the age of five who are undernourished: 75
Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef: 55 square feet
Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year

The Cancer Argument

Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3 For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2: 8 times
For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week: 3: 25 times
Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs less than once a week: 3 times
Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs sparingly or not at all: 3 point 6 times

The Cholesterol Argument

Number of US medical schools: 125
Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
Nutrition training received by average US physician during four years in medical school: 2 point 5 hours
Most common cause of death in the US : heart attack
How frequently a heart attack kills in the US: every 45 seconds
Average US man's risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
Risk of average US man who eats no meat: 15 percent
Risk of average US man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
Chance of dying from heart disease if you are male and your blood cholesterol level is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent

The Natural Resources Argument

User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the US: livestock production
Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
Years the world's known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by US that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the US needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2

The Antibiotic Argument

Percentage of US antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
Response of US meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support

The Pesticide Argument

Common belief: US Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
Percentage of US mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99
Percentage of US vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8
Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products, found in meat-eating mothers vs non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
Amount of Dieldrin ingested by the average breast-fed American infant: 9 times the permissible level

The Ethical Argument

Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the US: 660,000
Occupation with highest turnover rate in US: slaughterhouse worker
Occupation with highest rate of on-the-job-injury in US: slaughterhouse worker

The Survival Argument

Athlete to win Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)
Food choice of Dave Scott: Vegetarian
Largest meat eater that ever lived: Tyrannosaurus Rex (Where is he today?)

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The fork: A weapon of non-violence

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Why be Vegetarian?

There are so many good reasons for being veg{etari}an (health, animals, the environment) that a better question might be, "Why NOT be vegetarian?"

When you can easily...

significantly improve your health,

dramatically reduce your environmental footprint,

and greatly lessen the suffering of animals

...lets ask instead, "What's stopping you?" :)

Of course, the decision about whether to become a “veg” is a matter of personal choice..
But; if more people really knew how bad meat is (for them, the planet, and the animals), more people would make the choice to go meatless

Improve your health

The medical evidence is clear, consistent and overwhelming..
Vegetarians and vegans:

...are far less likely to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or osteoporosis

...are far less likely to be overweight

...have lots more stamina

...consume far less pesticides in their food

...have superior immune function

The largest epidemiological study ever conducted (the China-Oxford-Cornell study) found that those eating the amount of animal foods typical for Americans have seventeen times the death rate from heart disease, and, for women, five times the rate of breast cancer, than those who get 5% or less of their protein from animal foods

Meat contains 14 times the amount of pesticides as plant foods, since pesticides get concentrated as they move up through the food chain, and since they're more easily stored in fatty tissues.. In 1980, six years after the pesticide dieldrin was banned, the USDA destroyed two million packages of frozen turkey products contaminated with dieldrin.. (And such contamination can routinely occur without detection.) In 1974, the FDA found dieldrin in 85% of all dairy products and 99.5% of the American people.. The EPA discovered that the breast milk of vegetarian women contained far lower levels of pesticides than that of average Americans.. A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that "The highest levels of contamination in the breast milk of the vegetarians was lower than the lowest level of contamination…(in) non-vegetarian women… The mean vegetarian levels were only 1-2% as high as the average levels in the U.S.."

Prevent cruelty to animals

Nobody wants animals to suffer, but it's easy to forget that when we eat them, that's what we're supporting.. The easiest action a person can take to reduce animal suffering is to simply stop eating them..

Around eight billion animals are killed for food every year in the U.S.. alone -- a number greater than the entire human population of the planet.. Each meat-eating American eats the equivalent of about 24 animals per year.. What's worse, modern agricultural methods mean that animals are raised in cramped confinement operations instead of the pastures from childhood picture books -- a practice known as factory farming...

Chickens killed for their flesh in the United States are bred and drugged to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs, and limbs often can't keep up.. Read more about chickens: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

Hens used for eggs live six or seven to a battery cage the size of a file drawer, thousands of which are stacked tier upon tier in huge, filthy warehouses.. Read more about laying hens: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

Cattle are castrated, their horns are ripped out of their heads, and third-degree burns (branding) are inflicted on them, all without any pain relief.. Read more about cows raised for their flesh: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

Cows used for their milk are drugged and bred to produce unnatural amounts of milk; they have their babies stolen from them shortly after birth and sent to notoriously cruel veal farms so that humans can drink the calves' milk.. Read more about dairy cows: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

Mother pigs on factory farms are confined to crates so small that they are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably.. Read more about pigs: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

Fish on aquafarms; spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy enclosures, and many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injuries.. Conditions on some farms are so horrendous that 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food.. Read more about fish: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmZpc2hpbmdodXJ0cy5jb20vRmlzaEZh...

Turkeys' beaks and toes are burned off with a hot blade. Many suffer heart failure or debilitating leg pain, often becoming crippled under the weight of their genetically manipulated and drugged bodies.. Read more about turkeys: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmdvdmVnLmNvbS9mYWN0b3J5RmFybWlu...

For some, vegetarianism and veganism are easy ways to refuse to participate in this cruelty!

Save the Earth

Eating vegetarian saves more land, energy, and water than any other choice you can make.. That's because livestock eat several times more grain than they produce as meat.. So raising livestock uses:

several times as much land to grow the grain to feed them

several times as much energy to harvest the grain and transport it

several times as much water to grow the grain and to water the animals

several times as much pesticides, etc..

Worldwide petroleum reserves would be exhausted in 11 years if the rest of the world ate like the U.S.. The least energy-efficient plant food is 10 times as efficient as the most efficient meat food.. A nationwide switch to a pure vegetarian diet would allow us to cut our oil imports by 60%

Over half of the water used in the U.S. is used to grow feed for livestock... It takes 100 times as much water to produce meat than to produce wheat.. The water required to produce a day's diet for a typical American is 4,000 gallons. (It's 1,200 for vegetarians and 300 for vegans..) Compared to a vegan diet, three days of a typical American diet requires as much water as you use for showering all year (assuming you shower every day)..

U.S.. Livestock produce 250,000 pounds of waste per second -- 20 times as much as humans.. A large feedlot produces as much waste as a large city, but without a sewage system.. Animal waste washed into rivers and lakes causes increased nitrates, phosphates, ammonia, and bacteria, and decreases the oxygen content.. This kills plant and animal life.. The meat industry account for three times as much harmful organic waste as the rest of the industries in the U.S.. combined..

It takes ten times as much land to produce food for an average American compared to a pure vegetarian... An acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes, but only 165 pounds of beef. In the U.S., 260 million acres of forest have been destroyed for use as agricultural land to support our meat diet (over 1 acre per person) Since 1967, the rate of deforestation has been one acre every five seconds.. For every acre cleared for urban development, seven acres are cleared to graze animals or grow feed for them..

Around 85% of topsoil loss is directly associated with raising livestock.. The USDA says crop productivity is down 70% as a result of topsoil loss.. It takes nature 500 years to build an inch of topsoil..Vegan diets make less than 5% of the demands on the soil as meat-based diets..

Make this a weapon (the fork) of non-violence
For the earth
For the animals
And your health
Go Vegetarian

For those who do not know i usually do environmental and nutritional education work through Kindness of Strangers ( http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmloY2VudGVyLm9yZy9ncm91cHMveW91... ) a project of the 501 (c) 3 non-profit International Humanities Center

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