| Eating meat was a good source of nutrition, since | | | | your diet, and learn to live from the plant foods |
| the use of hormones, pesticides and mass | | | | the environment naturally provides. The animals |
| production methods was as yet unheard of. A | | | | and your conscience will be better for it. |
| family raised and processed their own livestock. | | | | If most of us thought about the conditions in |
| Every morning the large golden eggs were | | | | which chickens used for meat and eggs are raised |
| plucked from the chicken's nests, which were | | | | and slaughtered, we'd become vegetarian on the |
| lovingly cared for and fed healthy pesticide-free | | | | spot. Egg-laying chickens can be raised in cages |
| grains.. | | | | with 6 chickens to a cage, each chicken getting |
| Today's factory farms use everything, but in the | | | | only 67 square inches of space for its lifetime. |
| process they leave behind an environmental toll | | | | Unless they're certified and labeled as being |
| that generations to come will be forced to pay. | | | | free-range or organic or natural, they might have |
| Raising animals for food requires more that half | | | | been fed growth hormones to get them to |
| the water used in the United States each year | | | | slaughter faster, and antibiotics to combat the |
| and one-third of all raw materials, including fossil | | | | diseases which come from being raised in |
| fuels. This industry is the greatest polluter of our | | | | cramped and less-than-clean conditions. |
| waters and is directly responsible for 85 percent | | | | And consider what the recommendations are for |
| of soil erosion. Our country's meat addiction is | | | | cleaning up after touching poultry? It's |
| steadily poisoning and depleting our land, water | | | | recommended to clean surfaces with bleach to |
| and air. | | | | remove bacteria, and to wash your hands |
| Of all agricultural land in the United States, 87 | | | | thoroughly after touching a chicken. |
| percent is used to raise animals for food. That's | | | | Do you really want to put something into your |
| 45 percent of the total land mass of the United | | | | body that requires bleach to clean up after? |
| States. | | | | Something that needs to be cooked to specific |
| Methane is one of four greenhouse gases that | | | | temperatures to be sure you've destroyed any |
| contribute to global warming. The world's 1.3 billion | | | | bacteria that could make you sick? |
| cows produce one-fifth of all methane emitted | | | | Chickens and turkeys have become so |
| into the atmosphere. | | | | mass-produced and injected with antibiotics and |
| Raising animals for food causes more water | | | | hormones that there's no taste to it anymore, so |
| pollution in the United States than any other | | | | why bother? Even the most humanely treated |
| industry because animals raised for food produce | | | | chicken has either been stunned in a salt-water |
| 20 times the excrement of the entire human | | | | brine before being beheaded. In John Robbins |
| population-230,000 pounds every second. Of all | | | | excellent book and video, Diet for a Small Planet, |
| raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United | | | | he shows us pictures of chickens being grabbed in |
| States, more than one-third is used to raise | | | | groups by the neck and thrown into cages. Can |
| animals for food. | | | | you really consider eating a chicken with that |
| Rain forests are being destroyed at a rate of | | | | vision in your head? |
| 125,000 square miles per year. The primary cause | | | | Any means of mass-producing animals for human |
| of deforestation is raising animals for food. | | | | consumption is by its very nature unhealthy and |
| Coupled with the inhumane treatments of animals | | | | cruel for the animals, and unhealthy for humans |
| that are raised for human consumption, the costs | | | | as well. Even if you're of the opinion that man is a |
| of raising and processing these animals for human | | | | natural hunter, how natural is it to eat an animal |
| consumption is becoming too high. Make a | | | | that's been raised in captivity and fed a diet of |
| commitment to reduce or eliminate meats from | | | | hormones and antibiotics? |