seen on a shirt -- where's the data to back this up?

[bertha katzenengel]

If this is really true, it's awesome:

95: Average lives saved per year by a vegetarian.

True? Hyperbole? Exaggeration? False?

[RebelOne]

1. It means 95 animal lives saved.

[bertha katzenengel]

3. Yep.

But how do they get this number? How can my not eating meat save that many lives? I assume it's based on the number of chickens, etc., I won't eat anymore. But let's face it: those animals are slaughtered anyway. I am only one person.

[smbolisnch]

5. .

A traveller was walking along a beach when he saw a woman scooping up starfish off the sand and tossing them into the waves. Curious, he asked her what she was doing. The woman replied "When the tide goes out it leaves these starfish stranded on the beach. They will dry up and die before the tide comes back in, so I am throwing them back into the sea where they can live."

The traveller then asked her "But this beach is miles long and there are hundreds of stranded starfish, many will die before you reach them - do you really think throwing back a few starfish is really going to make a difference?"

The woman picked up a starfish and looked at it, then she threw it into the waves. "It makes a difference to this one" she said.

The traveller had learned an important lesson from starfish woman. When you face impossible odds you do the best you can and helping just one or two creatures. But he also had the wisdom to know that sometimes you can make a bigger difference. And this is the moral of the starfish woman story: sometimes you have to do whatever you can, however little it seems; but sometimes you have the chance to make a bigger difference. You just need a little wisdom to see when you have a chance to make that bigger difference.

And this is what rescuing animals is about. Sometimes you have to do the best you can and treasure every life saved. But sometimes you get a chance to make a bigger difference and instead of making a difference to just one, you can make a difference to many.

[flvegan]

8. Hey, bertha...you only get to vote once, too.

When enough folks vote (and Diebold doesn't f with it) change occurs. Each vote counts, right? Well, except here in Florida. With your diet, you're voting with your fork. You're saying "NO MORE!" to the ills that you're aware of in the animal industry. You're saying "NO MORE!" to the destruction of our environment, famine, and big beef/dairy.

Only one person...a force to be reckoned with.

The animal industry is also all supply and demand, too. You don't demand, they can't supply.

[smbolisnch]

2. Here is an interesting link for you.

http://www.sumeria.net/anim/reality.html

[bertha katzenengel]

4. thank you

fascinating

[Elad]

6. I very very highly recommend reading "Diet For a New America"

You'll never look at food the same way again.

[bertha katzenengel]

7. Thanks, Elad.

Will do.

[shockra]

10. Absolutely!

Robbins's website comes in handy too.

I've posted this on the Internet Movie Database board a couple of times when the "Hitler was a vegetarian" comment comes up in a PETA thread.

http://www.foodrevolution.org/askjohn/47.htm

The belief that Adolph Hitler was a vegetarian is widespread, and you are certainly not the only one who carries it. But that doesn’t make it true.

Robert Payne is widely considered to be Hitler’s definitive biographer. In his book, Hitler: The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, Payne says that Hitler’s “vegetarianism” was a “legend” and a “fiction” invented by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda. According to Payne:

“Hitler’s asceticism played an important part in the image he projected over Germany. According to the widely believed legend, he neither smoked nor drank, nor did he eat meat or have anything to do with women. Only the first was true. He drank beer and diluted wine frequently, had a special fondness for Bavarian sausages and kept a mistress, Eva Braun… His asceticism was fiction invented by Goebbels to emphasize his total dedication, his self-control, the distance that separated him from other men. By this outward show of asceticism, he could claim that he was dedicated to the service of his people. In fact he was remarkably self-indulgent and possessed none of the instincts of the ascetic.”

more...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. First off, I didn't say this before,

because I get lazy about posting sometimes but congratulations on your first goal, and soon to be second. It doesn't take long for the body to get used to living without nasty meat.

Secondly, yes, you are "only one person" but you are one person, I am one person, flvegan is one person, smbolich is one person, elad is one person...etc. But together we are strong and it does make a difference. Heck, you can say the same thing about those fighting the GOP!

Anyway, good luck and great job so far!

~Steph

[bertha katzenengel]

11. thanks, Steph

I really appreciate that. I'm not getting much support from anywhere else but here. Mrs. V. supports my decision but I think she's worried about how it will affect our mealtimes together.