Animal Aid : Vegetarianism : Eight Good Reasons To Go Veggie

Home > Campaigns > Vegetarianism > March 2003

GO VEGGIE
8 good reasons

From saving the world to improving your health - as part of our Veggie Month Campaign Animal Aid gives you eight good reasons to go veggie.

	'Farmed animals consume vast quantities of water, beans and grains, whilst people starve. Much as we have awakened to the full economic and social costs of cigarettes, we will find we can no longer subsidise or ignore the costs of mass-producing cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and fish to feed our growing population. These costs include largely inefficient use of freshwater land, heavy pollution from livestock faeces, rising rates of heart disease and other degenerative illnesses, and spreading destruction of the forests on which much of our planet's life depends.' Ed Ayres, editorial director of the Worldwatch Institute, Time Magazine, 9.11.99. Read Eat less meat, feed the world.
	One quarter of the earth's surface is wasted as pasture for livestock, while wildlife habitats dwindle. Read Wrecking the planet.
	Animals farmed for their meat, eggs, milk and skins are effectively slaves, with no rights as sensitive individuals. Animals naturally form close bonds with each other and experience a range of emotions, but on modern farms they are treated as meat products and slaughtered at a very young age. See Animal welfare.
	The slaughter of farmed animals causes horrific cruelty - regardless of how they are reared. They are surrounded by the stench of death and many will bellow and thrash around in terror. See Animal welfare.
	95% of food poisoning cases are caused by eating animal products. 'The current state of food safety in the UK is such that all raw meat should be assumed to be contaminated with pathogenic organisms. These range from campylobacter to salmonella to E.Coli 0157.' British Medical Association, 1998 Read Animal diseases and modern farming practices.
	Many debilitating diseases such as heart disease, arthritis and certain types of cancer are caused or aggravated by a meat-based diet. According to a detailed report by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, vegetarians have been shown to have lower overall mortality, lower risk of heart disease, lower obesity, and longer average life expectancy than the general population. The same report notes that a well-balanced vegetarian diet can decrease the risk of mouth, stomach, pancreatic, colon, breast, ovarian and bladder cancers. It also states that 'policy-makers in all parts of the world should be informed that increasing consumption of meat and fatty foods will lead to a massive increase in incidence of a large number of diseases that are expensive to treat.' Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective, World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research, 1997 Read Look after your health.
	Eating meat exposes you to all the nasty substances in the bloodstream of intensively farmed animals, such as antibiotics, hormones and possibly even BSE. Meat eaters also consume greater quantities of genetically modified foods, because more than 50% of genetically modified crop material grown around the world goes into animal feed. It is no accident that the GM crops that have gone into commercial production first - soya, maize and oilseed rape - are all key ingredients in animal feed. As consumers around the world mobilise against GM products in food, few realise that by eating meat and dairy products they are throwing a lifeline to the biotechnology industry. Read Animal diseases and modern farming practices.
	You'll feel better and more lively if you take corpses out of your diet. It is one of the positive things you can do for yourself, animals and the environment. See Recipes. Go veggie - it's easier than you think.