Animal Rights, Your Health, and the Environment

by Daniel Curtis Byrd
IDS 3920

There are many factors in the issue of world hunger and food security. One, although radical idea, would help the world food crisis dramatically; stop consuming animals. The significance of a world wide vegetarian conversion would resolve many of our food problems.

Eating animal products depletes and destroys our land, water and air. The intensive method of raising animals for food today is both destroying and depleting our arable land, potable water and clean air. One must grow vast quantities of crops to feed the animals whom we then consume. Raising animals for our consumption also takes away a considerable percentage of petrol. We obviously need to conserve our fossil fuels. It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans (Caton). By eating plant foods instead of animal foods, we can conserve our nonrenewable sources of energy.

We need to efficiently use our grains. It takes up to 16 pounds of soybeans and grains to produce 1 lb. of beef and 3 to 6 lbs. to produce 1 lb of turkey & egg (Caton). By eating grain foods directly, we can make the food supply more efficient. We could use the grain to feed each other instead of feeding animals to eat.

Water Conservation is another factor. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein (Caton). As vegetarians, we could contribute to water conservation.

Forrest regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. By not supporting the meat industry, we could directly reduce the demand to pillage these irreplaceable treasures of nature. Since the forest land filters our air supply and contains botanical sources for new medicines, this destruction is irreversible.

Not only do vegetarians use more energy to survive, they also have healthier bodies. The world as a whole would become healthier. That means we would be able to fight off more infectious diseases and be better prepared for life in our own individual changing environments.

We as Americans are unhealthy. The number one killer in America is heart disease caused by the cholesterol found in animal products. Not only can a vegetarian diet help protect all of gods creatures, but it can also help you protect yourself.

If appropriately planned, vegan diets, though restrictive, can provide adequate nutrition even for children, according to The Institute of Food Technologists.

Grain products, for instance, form the base of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Health and Human Services' Food Guide Pyramid.
The campaign is consistent with the USDA-DHHS Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which states: "Many American diets have too many calories and too much fat (especially saturated fat), cholesterol, and sodium. They also have too little complex carbohydrates and fiber. Such diets are one cause of America's high rate of obesity and of certain diseases--heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.etc". (Dixie).

Another reason to avoid animal products to maintain a healthy diet is that the number of pesticides found in meat and other animal products is much higher than that of plant food. Half the pesticides found in the human body from consumption is from animal products. (Fallon).

Vegans live longer lives. A fraction of the heart disease and cancer rates, far more energy, less obesity and so on are all reason to avoid animal products in your diets as well as in the rest of your life. Meat and dairy products contain high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol which slow you down make you fat and end up killing you in the long run. Our bodies need complex carbohydrates or fiber which are not found in animal products. The West’s biggest killer is heart disease caused by cholesterol and from a poor diet. Vegetarians who have cholesterol levels of 150 have never been documented as having died from a heart attack.

People who consume animal products are 40% more susceptible to cancer,stroke,obesity, appendicitis, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes,alcoholism, hypertension, coronary artery disease, gallstones,etc.etc (Fallon).

It's silly to argue that consuming cholesterol is necessary, since our bodies make plenty of it. And it's equally to praise B12, since no study anywhere indicates that vegans are more likely to suffer B12 deficiency than meat-eaters.

Also, natural meat-eaters are different from humans and other herbivores in that they: manufacture their own vitamin C; perspire through their tongue; have sharp, pointy front teeth, no molars and a tooth-bone density five times greater than humans; have acidic saliva and digestive acids 20 times more acidic than humans; have jaws that only move vertically; have claws; have an intestinal tract only three times their body length; and never experience atherosclerosis, no matter how much saturated fat and cholesterol they consume (Fallon).

Our hands, teeth, feet, intestinal tract...even our body chemistry is that of an herbivore.

Vegetarians who eat no animal products need to be more aware of nutrient sources however.

Nutrients most likely to be lacking and some non-animal sources are:.
* vitamin B12--fortified soy beverages and cereals.
* vitamin D--fortified soy beverages and sunshine.
* calcium--tofu processed with calcium, broccoli, seeds, nuts, kale, bok choy, legumes (peas and beans), greens, lime-processed tortillas, and soy beverages, grain products, and orange juice enriched with calcium.
* iron--legumes, tofu, green leafy vegetables, dried fruit, whole grains, and iron-fortified cereals and breads, especially whole-wheat. (Absorption is improved by vitamin C, found in citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, strawberries, broccoli, peppers, dark-green leafy vegetables, and potatoes with skins.).
* zinc--whole grains (especially the germ and bran), whole-wheat bread, legumes, nuts, and tofu.
* protein--tofu and other soy-based products, legumes, seeds, nuts, grains, and vegetables (Dixie).

Plant foods last longer than animal foods and vegetarian foods tend to cost less than meat based items, and the flavor of a hamburger comes from the leftover adrenaline, uric and lactic acid, and the leftover blood and urine of the cow (Caton).

There is simply no reason to support the gratuitous cruelty involved in eating an unhealthy and resource-intensive diet of meat, dairy products and eggs. Every time we sit down to eat, we make a decision: Do we want to support animal cruelty,health hazards and environmental havoc, or do we reject them?

I’ve been struggling with this dilemma for the past six years and I can tell you it’s not an easy road, but the benefits by far out weigh the disadvantages.
It is however a great American tradition, but so is war and slavery.

There are still 10 Billion animals killed for human consumption annually, and millions more for scientific research and experiments (Smith).

Do it for the plight of the tortured animals, the environmental destruction, and your own health...it might help save your lives (not to mention the lives of all the animals you consume and exploit throughout you lives.

We want to be ethically minded for our natural world and the conservation of it but we need to remember ethics toward its creatures. All the animals sold in grocery stores and restaurants have been inhumanly tortured, exploited and murdered in slaughterhouses.The suffering of these animals would warrant criminal prosecution if done on companion animals.

We, at this point in life can avoid all animal products whatsoever. People make the argument of stating humans have been eating meat since we started walking upright and before, but if we use that logic on all the atrocities that have taken place in history there would be violations of human rights in many aspects.

Dairy cows and laying hens are even more grossly abused than their meat counterparts and are killed when their reproductive capacity, which is manipulated for maximum production of mother's milk and eggs, wanes. One simply can't claim with integrity to care about animals as one goes on supporting their abuse by consuming them, their milk or their eggs.

These animals are held and transported awaiting their deaths in inhumane conditions, and only 6% of animal testing is for medical purposes (Caton). The sacrifice you make is nothing compared to the animals sacrificing their lives.

There are many reason why one should give up the use of animal products in their daily lives; but whether you do it to reduce the suffrage of animals, or to keep yourself more healthy, or to keep our planets environment from depleting the benefits fare outweigh the disadvantages.

-60 million people will starve to death this year - 60 million people could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10 percent (Robbins).

Bibliography

Animal Liberation Front. Dale Smith. 2005. 1 Sept. 2005
<http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Legal/Animal%20Welfare--Animal%20Warfare.html>

Caton, G,J. The Lumen Book.
New York: Grand Union Publishing Trust, 1986.

Fallon, Sally; Friedrich, Bruce. “Is Veganism a Better Way of Life.” 2001. The Ecologist

31.8 (2001): 20. Academic Search Premier.


Farley, Dixie. “More People trying Vegetarian Diets.” FDA Consumer

29 (1995): 10-13. Wilson Select.

Fetto, John. “It Ain’t Easy Eating Green.” American Demographics

22.5 (2000): 13-14. Wilson Select.

Robbins, John. Diet for a New America.
Novato, California: New World Library, 1987

Vegetarian Resource Group. 1 Sept. 2005
<www.vrg.org>