May all that have life be delivered from suffering...Reasons To NOT eat meat.

Why should you go meatless?

Hunger

20 MILLION People will die from malnutrition this year alone. The number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their meat intake by 10%: 100 MILLION. 10 percent that’s equivalent to eating 2 meals a week without meat…… Solution to World hunger? You be the judge.

*80 percent of corn and 95 percent of the oats grown in the U.S. are eaten by livestock while a child dies every 2.3 seconds form malnutrition.

Need more facts?

-40, 000 pounds of potatoes can be grown on a single acre. 250 pounds of beef can be grown on a single acre.

-56% of U.S. Farmland is devoted to beef production

-It takes 7 pounds of grain to grow 1 pound of meat. If everyone gave up eating meat, we could feed 7 times the population that we currently do without needing any additional farm land.

Do the math raising animals for meat is an inefficient use of the earth. Even reducing your intake of meat can have rippling effects and could have helped save that child that just died while you read this sentence.

The Environment

A 2006 United Nations report found that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Animal farming creates massive amounts of manure and urine run-off which pollutes water supplies and local land. *Think about your glass of water while you read this. In the United States, grazing has contributed to the demise of 26% of the federal threatened and endangered species list. It’s also estimated that for each hamburger made from rain forest beef, approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals, and reptile species are destroyed. Don’t forget about the oceans, fish are being over-harvested and according to the Food & Agriculture Organization, 11 of the 15 world’s major fishing grounds are almost depleted.

Need more facts?

- 85% of U.S. topsoil diminished due to the raising of livestock

- It takes 2640 gallons of water to produce one pound of edible beef. The water used to raise animals for food is more than half the water used in the United States.

- Calories of fossil fuel needed to produce 1 calorie of protein in beef: 28.
   Calories of fossil fuel needed to produce 1 calorie of protein in soybeans: 2

- Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered    

  diet: 260 million.

-Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef:  

  55 sq. feet.

-Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for

  meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year.

Health

Ingesting meat causes a number of health related problems.

1.      Cancer.  According to the Physicians committee for Responsible Medicine vegetarians are less likely to get cancer by 25 to 50 percent. Additionally a British study tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years and found that meat eaters were 40% more likely to die from cancer and 20% more likely to die from other diseases.

2.      Heart Disease. . A vegetarian diet reduces cholesterol and has been proven to be the only diet that can reverse heart disease.

3.      Osteoporosis.  Too much protein in our diet causes loss of bone calcium. Meat eaters generally get far more protein than they need or can use.

4.      Kidney and Gallstones.  Animal protein has a high acidity content that causes the body to draw calcium from the bones to neutralize it; this calcium can end up forming painful kidney and gallstones.

5.      Factory Farmed Animals Carry Disease.  According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 25 percent of all chicken sold in the United States carries salmonella bacteria and the CDC estimates that 70 to 90 percent of chickens contain the bacteria campy-lobacter (some strains of which are antibiotic-resistant). Approximately 5 %of cows carry the lethal strain of E. coli O157:H7 (which causes virulent diseases and death), and 30 %of pigs slaughtered each year for food are infected with toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites).

6.      Factory-farmed animals contain toxic chemicals. Meat contains accumulations of pesticides and other chemicals up to 14 times more concentrated than those in plant foods. Half of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are used in farm animals and 90% of those are not used to treat infections but are instead used as growth promoters.

7.      Pathogenic Microorganisms. There are a host of bacteria and viruses, some quite dangerous, that are common to animals. When you eat meat, You eat the organisms in the meat. The number of Micro-organisms present in plant foods are by no means comparable to that of those in meat.

8.      Meat Eating Women Have More Menopause Problems – Plant food sources contain a compound called phytoestrogens that helps to balance your hormones. Thanks to a meat-free diet, vegetarian women have much fewer problems related to menopause. They sleep better, have less hot flashes, have more energy, less weight gain, fewer mood swings, and maintain a higher sex drive.

9.      Meat Eaters Risk More Back Problems – Meat eaters tend to consume more bad fats that often leads to arterial blockages which, according to Neil Barnard, M.D, can cause back problems.

10.  Shortened Life Span –Vegetarians tend to live about 7 years longer than meat eaters and vegans tend to live about 15 years longer than meat eaters.

11.  Higher Body Weight – Meat eaters tend to consume more fat which often results in increased body fat levels.

12.  Higher Blood Pressure – The fats in meat clogs up your arteries which causes higher blood pressure.

Ethics & Animal Rights

660,000 animals are killed an hour in the U.S. for meat. Slaughter houses have the highest rate of injury and the highest turnover rates in the U.S..  Factory farmed meat and animal products are extremely cruel to animals .The majority of these animals never see daylight, they’re confined to tiny pens that do not allow them to move or turn around. They live in their own waste, forced to constantly breathe in ammonia and other waste products.  Many of these animals get infections or kill each other in order to not get beat or zapped by the farmers. They are pumped full of antibiotics because of their polluted living conditions. They are fed foods that they are not designed to digest because “it’s cheaper and more efficient”. They’re pumped full of chemicals to make them grow bigger and produce more. These growth hormones and chemicals cause numerous health problems for the animals including broken legs. Those chemicals and antibiotics are then passed to you as you eat their flesh. They are often mutilated without the use of painkillers. The slaughter house isn’t the only place where these animals feel pain. They suffer their whole existence in fear, pain, and confusion just so you can have a Friday night steak. Meat animals often live their lives with severe injuries that often get infected. And finally many times they are slaughtered while fully conscious, they scream and cry and try to escape. In short, they live a life of living hell.

 Meet your Meat Part 1

Meet your Meat Part 2

How is it decent to consume an animal that screams out for its life before it dies? If they are “just animals” then how do they know they are dying? Why do they cry?

Animals feel pain and sadness just like humans, if they could speak what would they say to us?

I can’t live with that on my conscious.

Spiritual Consciousness

Food is the source of the body's chemistry, and what we ingest affects our consciousness, emotions and experiential pattern. You are what you eat. If we want to live in higher consciousness, in peace and happiness and love for all creatures, then we should consider not eating meat, fish, shellfish, or fowel. Major religions around the world such as Buddhism or Hinduism teach that all of our actions including our choice of food have karmic consequences. By involving oneself in the cycle of inflicting injury, pain and death, even indirectly by eating other creatures, one must in the future experience in equal measure the suffering caused. You can not be a meat eater and believe in Non-Violence....slaughter is violence.

"Protecting the Temple". "Whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and soul" (E.G. White)

Eating meat isn’t a necessity of survival. Not eating meat is healthier for your mind, body and soul. Going meatless will fight against global warming, heart disease, world hunger, animal cruelty and can change the world….change is a good thing.

May all that have life be delivered from suffering. -- Buddha.

Thou shall not kill. ? First of Ten Commandments (Christian) and First of Five Precepts (Buddhist).

Compassion is the foundation of everything positive, everything good. If you carry the power of compassion to the marketplace and the dinner table, you can make your life really count. -- Rue McClanahan.

Whenever we cause suffering or death to any other being, we cause suffering to the Great Life Force. -- Shik Po Chih.