Go Vegetarian to Save the Environment

Go vegetarian to save the environment

Meat-eating has been proven to have a far-reaching negative impact on the environment. Since 1967, the rate of deforestation in the U.S. has been one acre every five seconds — the equivalent of one football field per second. Economists estimate that for every person who switches to a vegan diet, an acre of trees is spared each year.

Most people know that the rainforests are being depleted for the production of food, however what is not generally known is that the food being produced is not directly for people.

The rain forests are actually being destroyed to create grazing land for beef cattle so a continuous supply of inexpensive meat will flow into the country for our fast-food restaurants. It is estimated that at the present rate, many of the rainforests will be gone in 30 years — a natural resource on which we rely for everything from life-saving medicines to the very air we breathe.

This harsh reality has been obscured for years in a confusing smokescreen of environmental debate and industry interests.In addition to the loss of the rain forests, however, farming for meat production creates a huge amount of pollution and waste, while inefficiently consuming an inordinate amount of energy and resources for only a small return (See Diet for a New America by John Robbins and Your Heart, Your Planet by Harvey Diamond.) Here are some sobering facts:

Livestock produces 7 trillion tons of manure every year, and it all finds its way into our water systems.
60% of all water used in America is used for meat production.
60 million pounds of antibiotics per year are fed to livestock; the feed given to livestock is sprayed with extra pesticides.
Of toxic chemical residues found in food consumed by Americans, less than 10% comes from fruit, vegetables, and grain. Over 90% comes from animal products.
When you eat meat, you take in the livestock antibiotics, which diminishes the effectiveness of the antibiotics used to treat human illness.
When you eat meat, you take in growth hormones. Statistics show that prior to the turn of the century, American girls reached puberty on the average of age 17; today, menarche is appearing in girls as young as 8.

For how vocal the meat industry has become as consumption falls, they are mute about how much beef is imported by American fast-food companies from certain developing countries. Countries such as Ethiopia and certain Central American nations use their precious farmland to supply America with cheap burgers, instead of growing healthful grains for their own starving people.

It takes 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat
Yet, 16 people could be fed on the grain it takes to feed one person that pound of meat.
The livestock population of the U.S. consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed over five times its human population.
Producing that amount of grain only requires 250 gallons of water.
Every two seconds a human child starves to death
90% of all corn grown in the U.S. goes to livestock; 80% of all grains and beans go to feed these animals.
Food grown directly for human consumption utilizes 60 million acres;1.2 billion acres are used to grow what is fed to livestock

A healthier diet is inevitable in developed, post-consumerism countries in the new millennium. As people everywhere wake up to the realities of our unwise dietary habits of the past.

Click here for Robin's vegetarian links page

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