I’m reprinting this from Healthy Bitch Daily – today’s email. I hope they don’t mind but I thought it was well worth sharing.
I became a vegetarian because I loved animals too much to eat them – at age 11! Now I’m vegan because I love animals to much to see them suffer for me, but there are so many other reasons why eating a plant based diet is better for you and the rest of the world.
Carnivores are really starting to piss us off.It’s not exactly news that meat consumption is creating a tragic kingdom for humans and animals alike, but that doesn’t mean we’re not still mad as hell about it. We destroy land to create cattle ranches. We raise cows to feed people. Then, people end up sick and disease-ridden from eating cows. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s not about to end any time soon.
Staying on the Wagon
Clearly, the choice to become and remain vegan is easy when you consider the facts.
But admit it. There are days you forget why you’re noshing on carrot sticks in your cube when everyone in the office bought greasy burgers for lunch. You feel guilt pangs over wanting pizza. You wish you didn’t have a moral issue with leather boots.
This shit can be hard.
Pep Talk
We get it – which is why we wanted to remind you of the awful, disgusting and horrible reasons to keep your wits about you and stay committed to a cruelty-free lifestyle. We rounded up some mind-boggling reasons to stay meat-free and motivated to kick some carnivore ass.
How do we loathe meat? Let us count the ways…
Hunger Pangs
Reason to Rage: At any given time, there are about 20 billion farmed animals on the planet, which is more than three times the total human population. Cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, yet they can’t produce nearly enough meat, milk and eggs to feed everyone.
What’s worse? If people ate the plants we feed to factory-farmed animals, there would be more than enough food to eliminate world hunger. Yet, we’d rather slaughter animals cause burgers taste good?
Who Broke Wind?
Reason to Rage: Many people blame automotive and industrial emissions for pollution, climate change and global warming, but livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources combined. It’s time to get real about the impact this is having on our environment.
Waste Not, Want Not
Reason to Rage: Animal waste and feed dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined. We may have easy enough access to animal-free food choices, but now we have to worry that our water isn’t vegan? Holy shit.
Land’s End
Reasons to Rage: Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets. Nearly half of the world’s grains and soybeans are fed to animals. Fifty-five square feet of rainforest are destroyed for every quarter-pound hamburger that comes from a cleared rain forest cattle farm. In the past 20 years, Costa Rica (as well as most of Brazil) has lost the majority of its forests to beef cattle ranching. This slash and burn farming is believed to account for 50% of all rain forest destruction. Bring that one up the next time your hubby wants his Big Mac.
Water, Water, Everywhere
Reason to Rage: Over half of the water used in the United States goes to beef production. In fact, it takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of red meat. With the amount of water it takes to produce one pound of edible animal flesh, farmers can grow up to one hundred pounds of grain. Are you throwing up yet?
Animal Torture
Reason to Rage: Factory farms often use methods such as genetic manipulation to force modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day – ten times more than they would produce naturally. Male baby cows used for veal are chained by the neck inside crates measuring just two feet wide. They never get to stand up, so their muscles won’t develop and their flesh will remain tender.
As we all know, animals are kept alive under the filthy conditions at factory farms by feeding them massive amounts of antibiotics. They are also given hormones and are genetically bred for rapid growth. Hurl.
Sea Sick
Reason to Rage: Industrial fishing is also environmentally devastating. Commercial fisheries locate schools of fish using satellite-tracking equipment and cover miles of ocean with gigantic nets that trap everything in their paths. This practice kills millions of animals that simply aren’t valued by the industry, such as sea turtles, dolphins and sea lions. Awesome.
Due to over-fishing in the wild, most fish now come from fish farms. Raised in overcrowded caged enclosures, farmed fish live in water that’s infested with bacteria from a surplus of excrement (i.e., poop). When the fish are ready for market, they are dumped into large mesh cages where they suffocate to death.
Sufficiently pissed? Good. Print this shit out. Leave it on your fridge. Hang it in your office. Also, shove a copy in the faces of those people who make fun of you for eating tofu.
