For your health, For the environment, For the animals.
I have been a vegetarian for many years and I have learned a lot along the way. Whether you are a long-time vegetarian, a veggie "newbie" or just interested in exploring a healthier, more humane way of eating ... you will find information here of interest.
* Heart disease and cancer are the leading killers in the United States. Recent studies consistently indicate that adopting a low-fat vegetarian diet can significantly reduce your risk for these and other catastrophic illnesses.
* More than half the water used in the U.S. goes to livestock production. It can take up to 2,500 gallons to produce a pound of meat! For each pound of red meat, poultry, eggs and milk, farm fields lose about 5 pounds of topsoil ... and in some areas, the loss is much greater.
* Every 2.3 seconds a child on Earth dies of malnutrition, while 20,000,000 people will die this year from malnutrition alone. And yet there is plenty of food. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10 percent, 100,000,000 could be fed adequately as a result. Sixty-four percent of American agricultural land is used for livestock feed, while livestock eat 80 percent of the corn grown in the United States and 95 percent of the oats. An acre of land can yield 250 pound of beef as compared to 40,000 pounds of potatoes. Fifteen total vegetarians can be fed on the same amount of land needed to feed one person on a meat-based diet.
* Some six billion farm animals are slaughtered each year for consumption by Americans. The average American non-vegetarian family of four each year eats half a steer, a whole pig, 100 chickens, 556 eggs, 280 gallons of milk products and over 50 pounds of fish. Many animals suffer inhumane conditions during their lives and then face violent deaths at the slaughterhouse.
* Demand for cheap beef is a major reason for the destruction of Central American rainforests. It takes 55 square feet of rainforest to produce a quarter-pound hamburger made from imported cattle! Skipping a fast-food burger today is like putting 55 square feet of land in the bank for your children's future.
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