This might hurt a little, but it's for your own good. Put something between your teeth, bite hard, and watch (please, not for children - parental discretion advised):
What the Meat Industry Doesn't Want you to See
Okay, still with me? Sorry to do that to you - but, hey, you'd rather know wouldn't you?
Why am I sharing this? Aside from the horrific acts of cruelty, we need to realise the environment just can't take this abuse any more (either). If you didn't catch the recent release of the United Nation's 'Livestock's Long Shadow' report on the effect of our diet on the environment, please take a look. This information is, as mentioned, coming from the United Nations - not an animal rights lobby, or a sandal-wearing band of hippies.
A few concise facts from GoVeg.com:
Would you ever open your refrigerator, pull out 16 plates of pasta and toss them in the trash, and then eat just one plate of food? How about leveling 55 square feet of rain forest for a single meal or dumping 2,500 gallons of water down the drain? Of course you wouldn't. But if you're eating chicken, fish, turkey, pork, or beef, that's what you're doing—wasting resources and destroying our environment.Going vegetarian will significantly reduce your carbon footprint! If you want to give it a shot, consider signing up for a vegan or vegetarian cooking class in your area. There are also many websites that can help with the information you need. GoVeg.com even offer to send you, free(!), a Vegetarian Starter Kit to help you on your way - no matter where in the world you live.Animals raised for food expend the vast majority of the calories that they are fed simply existing, just as we do. We feed more than 70 percent of the grains and cereals we grow to farmed animals, and almost all of those calories go into simply keeping the animals alive, not making them grow. Only a small fraction of the calories consumed by farmed animals are actually converted into the meat that people eat.
Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals for food. Our taste for meat is also taking a toll on our supply of fuel and other nonrenewable resources—about one-third of the raw materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal industry.
Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second! Give up animal products, and you'll be responsible for none of it.
Many leading environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth. The most important step you can take to save the planet is to go vegetarian. - GoVeg.com
Your health will improve, the environmentally damaging livestock market will shrink, and the creatures we share the earth with will sigh a collective sigh of relief.
Every year in the U.S., more than 27 billion animals are slaughtered for food. Raising animals on factory farms is cruel and ecologically devastating. Eating animals is bad for our health, leading directly to many diseases and illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. In response to animal welfare, health, and ecological concerns, compassionate people everywhere are adopting a vegetarian diet. - GoVeg.comGiven the overwhelming scale of this 'business', and it's effect on the environment, our health, and on the creatures themselves, our forks and knives could truly be described as 'weapons of mass destruction'.
Should you decide to hop on the healthy bus - you'll be joining an impressive group of people who've done the same.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Mahatma Ghandhi 1869 -1948
Further Reading:
