Top Ten Reasons to Go Vegetarian During World Vegetarian Week (May 19-25)

[marmar]

Published on Saturday, May 17, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Top Ten Reasons to Go Vegetarian During World Vegetarian Week (May 19-25)
by Bruce Friedrich


Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux meats like bacon and sausages — along with an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants — vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Week beginning on Monday, here without further ado are PETA’s picks for the top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try.

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor

While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it’s about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals

The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won’t even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment

A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is “one of the … most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry “should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.”

4. Avoid Bird Flu

The World Health Organization says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming — from foot-and-mouth to SARS — can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.

5. If You Wouldn’t Eat a Dog, You Shouldn’t Eat a Chicken

Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens and people think I’m talking about monkeys.” ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/17/9018 /

[gateley]

1. And also,

when I was vegan and eating organic foods, I felt better than I had in my entire LIFE -- both physically and my entire outlook on life. I felt HAPPY all the time.

I fell off the wagon and keep meaning to get it together again. This will be a good time to do it.

[qazplm]

2. I doubt chickens are smarter than dogs or cats

but they certainly are tasty as are cows.

I am sure there is some truth in each of those points, but I dont think not eating meat will lead to world peace, solve world hunger, or reverse global warming.

[bean fidhleir]

4. Too true. Whenever someone tries to push something so clearly incorrect as

chickens being smarter than cats and dogs, it raises the "fanatic" flag and completely undermines the rest of their thesis for me. And I'm a veg and advocate of rights for non-humans!

[qazplm]

11. not a veg but respect those who are

but while I do love animals and can respect and agree with ASPCA and other orgs, its people like PETA that turn me off because they take a good idea to its extreme.

[bean fidhleir]

18. I have sympathy for people who are so committed to non-human welfare

that they sometimes lose their grip on reality. For some it's a kind of religion, really, and people do and say strange things in the name of religion. I give them full marks for their hearts (usually) being in the right place even when their heads are on holiday.

I looked at the citations in the article to see what research they were basing their claim of chicken intelligence on. As I expected, they're handwaving.

[EFerrari]

14. How many chickens have you known intimately?

My Ella used to visit my office every morning, lay an egg on my bookshelf and hang out scat singing for a while. Sometimes I'm come into the room and find she'd opened files on my machine that I didn't know existed. Once, I found her bidding on EBay.

Ella was one of these (Plymouth Rock) and every bit as smart as any of my cats. People mistake intelligence, imho, with the willingness to coddle humans.

[uppityperson]

15. What did she bid on on ebay?

[EFerrari]

17. Maybe a greenhouse? I was sort of stunned at the time.

I took a snapshot and emailed it to my friend and he thought I had posed her.

The cats have shopped on line, too. They get all the way to the part where they have to enter my credit card number and they usually are shopping for make up. I put my wallet in a drawer these days. Shoot, it's like living with teenagers all over again.

lol

[cali]

63. I've kept chickens for years. Cochins. They're great birds

but no, they are not remarkably intelligent.

[otherlander]

52. What the hell does intelligence matter for?

Maybe if we were all complete idiots we wouldn't have any atom bombs.

[martymar64]

3. Hitler was a vegetarian

Sorry, I love a good ribeye once in awhile and I don't want to be like Hitler, even tangentially.

[bean fidhleir]

5. Well, when you use irrelevant statements to support what you want

you certainly are following in good ol' Adolph's (un)ethical footsteps!

[martymar64]

10. I guess your humor chip is broken

Your lack of protein is making you woozy.

[bean fidhleir]

13. Oh. Sorry, I guess it must be. I thought you were basically serious

My apologies.

[martymar64]

30. No problem

I respect my Vegetarian and Vegan friends very much. I couldn't do it myself (my aforementioned love of ribeyes) but it doesn't diminish my respect for those that can. Besides, that's the only veggie joke I know.

Please accept this yummy plate of falafel as a peace offering.

[bean fidhleir]

32. Thank you.

I'm used to buying it from a stand that uses a yoghurt topping on it, which according to them is the Standard Lebanese Style and is certainly delicious whatever the provenance. I'm starting to drool just thinking about it. July sunshine, cold beer, a plate heaped with falafel, babaganuzh, and pita bread, and a Quebecois/e fiddler to listen to. Bliss!

[LeftyMom]

37. Yes, his chef got his wurste (sausages- his favorite) off of one of Germany's famous sausage trees

or wurstebäume.

[jakem]

6. Meat is Murder...

[lame54]

7. The top one reason not to...

[deadmessengers]

8. Plus the fact that it drives smug vegetarians positvely BATTY! n/t

[BlooInBloo]

16. Nope. #1 reason: bacon is GOOD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0zJSgHDnpw

Yours might be #2 though.

[lame54]

21. I think we can work something out...

[BlooInBloo]

23. GENIUS!

If I could have bacon-wrapped-bacon, I would.

[lame54]

27. Happy Thanksgiving...

[BlooInBloo]

29. meatgasm.

[jakem]

65. check this out. burger MADE OF bacon...

the heart clogs just thinking of it

http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/06/burg...

[BlooInBloo]

67. OMG - that's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. (cries tears of joy)

[Fox Mulder]

36. ...

[flvegan]

9. I love these threads.

It's still early, and I've got a good seat.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. Popcorn is veggie, right??? May I have some???? lol!!! PS...

They should have a smiley of a bag of pork rinds for carnivores....

[flvegan]

34. Yep, enjoy.

:porkrinds:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

48. Thank you! Yummmmm. ;)

[yewberry]

44. Really? I hate them.

It's probably only because I'm a smug, humorless fundie hypocrite who's not living life as 'the Creator' meant me to, though.

[flvegan]

46. I kept

the irony intact by leaving the off.

AND YOU HAVE CANINE TEETH FOR A REASON!!1! SERIES!!11!

[uppityperson]

12. Fundies of all sorts irritate me. Avoiding factory farms, not focusing diet on meant is ok,but phsaw

Seems most of those are about factory farms. I don't like factory farms so am raising my own chickens to kill and eat, and buy local cow also. Yes, I get chicks, raise them, kill them, eat them.

Raising and eating meat gives me not only meat but the manure for my garden also, which is good for my environment, and the chickens eat lots of end bits of veggies that don't make it into the compost. If I am to be haunted by the ghosts of chickens past, oh well.

"if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease." If if if if if if if if if

Regarding chickens being smarter than dogs or cats? OMG. They are good at what they do, eating, scratching, saying "look look look look look", but smarter than a dog or cat? Um, no. Putting this factoid in makes me question any of this.

Regarding health claims of preventing/curing cancer, heart disease, obesity, there are a huge number of factors influencing those.

So all I have to do to Save the Planet is not eat meat? No. We all have to consume less resources, treat each other humanely, recognize that humanity can, is, does, cause huge amounts of environmental issues, and work together to try to stop those who don't care. Simply not eating meat won't do it.

While I agree many people do focus their diet too much on meat, proselytizing is not the way to go about changing things.

[TZ]

22. That thing about bird flu from chicken meat

is bunk unless you are a habit of eating raw chicken or not cleaning up after processing raw meat.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr66/...
This makes me doubt the credibility of the whole article. Smacks of pro vegan scare tactics. This is why a lot of people dislike vegans/vegetarians..This holier than thou attitude. If you want to be a vegan/vegatarian fine. But don't go and lecture ME on my diet usually flawed scare tactics!

[niyad]

19. "vegetarian--ancient word for "lousy hunter"

not a vegetarian, but don't eat red meat (don't like the taste, and allergic to antibiotics)

some vegetarians do not fare well at high altitudes, problems with hemoglobin production

[EFerrari]

20. My personal reason for not eating meat is feeling good.

I've gone veggie for long stretches of time and my whole system seems to tune up. Excess weight drops away, I feel sharper mentally and have more energy. Not a very righteous reason but a good enough one.

[uppityperson]

24. I wonder if people trade factory meat for organic veggies?

When I went vegetarian I have done my best to eat organic veg food. I wonder if part of the trade off is trading hormoned/antibioticed/factory meat, giving up all the crap that goes with the non-organic meat, in trade for organic veggies? I wonder how much is the organic/additive part?

I've been eating meat from only known sources the last yr and feel much better, having given up artificial crap and additives. Seems like when people go veggie they often go organic also.

Does that make sense?

[EFerrari]

25. It makes total sense to me. I can't always afford organic

but I bet you are 100% right.

[uppityperson]

28. I just posted a poll. My monkey mind is wondering now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Off to play in garden.

[leftchick]

31. right on!

thanks!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[johnaries]

35. No, thanks. The Creator made me an omnivore,

and I intend to remain one.

[otherlander]

53. You eat animals because of a being that you can't prove exists?

[bean fidhleir]

55. Hey, when you want to do something, any excuse will suffice

Like the old story about the man who wouldn't lend his rope because he needed it to tie up his milk.

[johnaries]

61. No, I eat animals because my body was designed to.

I use the term "Creator" loosely - whether Man was created by a mystical being or by natural forces or both ( I like to believe both, but it is a matter of personal Faith).

Regardless, I have both cuspids & bicuspids for chewing vegatables and incisors & canines for tearing meat. My body requires complete chains of proteins which can only be found in meat (vegetables contain incomplete proteins and are missing some essential amino acids, except for a very few).

A strictly vegetarian diet is unnatural for humans.

However, if you insist on a vegetarian diet I urge you to make sure you get all of the essential amino acids. Here is a site that can help:
http://www.fitsugar.com/165298

I'm sure many of you will be happy to see hemp seed on the list.

[Lorien]

64. Sorry, but this argument always seems totally idiotic to me

Here's the skull of an omnivore (a raccoon):

The skull of a herbivore:

The skull of a carnivore (tiger) :


For the record: deer will sometimes eat the young of ground nesting birds just because they want to, not because they are "designed" to. My teeth most closely resemble those of the herbivore.I am healthiest when I eat mostly plants. When I eat mostly meat I can end up with obesity, kidney stones, and gall bladder attacks. I also increase my risk of cancer by eating meat: http://www.cancerproject.org/survival/cancer_facts/meat... . If the health risks of meat consumption and the shape of my teeth were very different then I might agree with your argument, but the facts suggest the opposite conclusion.

[johnaries]

70. That's fine if it sounds riddiculous to you. Your arguments sound

equally ridiculous to me. However, I am not trying to convince you to eat meat. I do suggest that you be sure and get some complete proteins in your diet, but I am not trying to change you from a vegetarian to a meat eater.

So, I would appreciate it if you would stop proselytizing to me. You won't convince me, and I don't want to hear it. You should respect that.

[Bjorn Against]

68. If those canines are for tearing meat then go catch an animal with them

If your teeth are really designed for eating meat then I would assume you would be perfectly capable of eating meat the way all other animals eat meat. Go out and chase it down yourself, jump on top of it and rip it apart with your teeth. If your teeth were really designed for meat then I am sure you should be able to use them just like other omnivores do.

[johnaries]

71. I do!

Why are vegetarians always trying to get everyone else to switch to vegetarian? I respect that you are a vegetarian and I don't try to change you. Why do you feel so much "holier-than-thou" that you feel you have to convert everyone else?

Go eat your veggies while I eat my ribeye and just STFU unless you want to talk politics.

[Bjorn Against]

72. I don't spend my time trying to convert people, but I will not shut up...

If you really do chase animals down and kill them with your teeth like you say you do, well I find that a bit odd.

When someone makes a statement which is not based on fact I am going to correct it, our teeth were not designed for taking down animals. If you are taking down animals with your teeth that is your thing, but most people don't do that.

And why are you so insecure that when a person corrects a false statement that you have to tell them to STFU?

[johnaries]

75. I made a flippant response

to a flippant post.
Sorry, but that was a pretty stupid post that was full of vitriol and no substance.

[yewberry]

73. Oh, you "respect" that we're vegetarian and don't try to change us?

So, that's why your response to a post regarding the health, ecological, ethical, and world hunger challenges around meat-eating is "the Creator made me that way?" Maybe some of believe something different. Imagine that!

The unstated corollary to your statement that eating meat is natural is that not eating meat is unnatural. Very respectful. Your attempt at proving your point by posting dental differences (and thus scientific 'proof' of your position) is another attempt to be right and for us to be wrong. Sure, you respect us and don't try to change us...as long as you can claim to be right. And calling us holier-than-thou? Look in the mirror. You ae not being as respectful as you think you are.

For some of us, vegetarianism is political. Health. Animal welfare. Food safety. Global deforestation. World hunger. Any of this ringing a bell?

So you can take your 'STFU' and cram it.

[johnaries]

74. *sigh* Vegatarism should be a PERSONAL choice.

I agree that the majority of Americans should make better health choices, and I agree that most Americans eat more meat than they should and that the averaage American diet is basically "shit"

BUT, your alternative is not something that the average American can embrace.

Your viewpoint is no different than the RW view "black or white, one way or the other, there is no common ground"

You are James Dobson. Yes, you are. You are just as imbedded in your "absolute beliefs" as he is.

[yewberry]

77. Think what you want. You don't know thing one about me.

What an interesting post, given that I haven't offered any opinion of what people eat or what they should eat. Somehow, you've divined that my viewpoint is right-wing, black-and-white, and something that average Americans cannot embrace.

Gee, thanks. Could you maybe explain where you got all of that?


I posted because you were being incredibly disrespectful to and judgmental of people you don't know (and obviously don't understand). And this is the response from you.

Yeah, I'm James Dobson in this deranged little scenario.

Right.

[HuffleClaw]

38. "Chickens are smarter than cats" ???

you have got to be kidding.

[LeftyMom]

39. You have to realize

my cats are really bringing down the species average.

[Zhade]

40. See, here's my problem with vegetarianism: the inherent hypocrisy.

If it's about not hurting animals, you can kill them painlessly. If it's about not killing life to eat, stop eating vegetables. Otherwise, you're a hypocrite.

[BlooInBloo]

41. "I'm a 7th level vegan. I don't eat anything that casts a shadow."

Bourgeois vegetarians RULEZ!!!

[uppityperson]

42. Well, *I* am a Breatharian. AND I filter my air, releasing all those beings caught in the filter.

[ileus]

60. I've stopped drinking water because of the microbs hanging out in it.

[yewberry]

43. You've got a poor understanding of veg*nism.

As the OP you're ignoring points out, there are a variety of reasons people may be veg*n. We're not a homogenous group.

Health
Environmental
Ethical
Concerns over safety of food supply
World hunger
Animal welfare


>If it's about not hurting animals, you can kill them painlessly.

You seem to referring to decisions of ethical veg*ns, and you've mistaken the argument. It's about reducing suffering and exploitation. How 'painlessly' animals could be killed is beside the point. Factory farms create suffering on many levels. Veal is the direct product of suffering. The commodification and exploitation of animals' lives is what allows (and even fosters) suffering.

>If it's about not killing life to eat, stop eating vegetables.

Plants have no central nervous system and so cannot suffer in any way that we understand. There would be no evolutionary advantage for a sessile organism to have developed a pain response or any kind of flight response.


And please don't fucking call me a hypocrite simply because you don't understand or agree with my decisions.

[flvegan]

47. I think the poster was seeking a DUzy.

Surely, that was NOT a serious post.

[yewberry]

49. DUzys are for funny posts, aren't they?

So clearly, it's gotta be something else.

[Zhade]

66. Your second point refers to my first. You completely ignored my second point.

Rationalization, no doubt.

[yewberry]

69. No, you're simply misunderstanding.

As I said, there are many reasons for being veg*n. I assumed that you're accusing all of us of hypocrisy based on your reaction to ethical veg*ns only because that group is the one you're attacking, correct? Please clarify if that's not the case, as you've not addressed that issue.

Here's the less-nuanced version, just for you:
If it's about not hurting animals, you can kill them painlessly.
It's not.

If it's about not killing life to eat, stop eating vegetables.
It's not.


Your fundamental misunderstanding of the goals and meaning of veg*nism are the basis for your charges of hypocrisy, no doubt.

[otherlander]

54. It's about killing self-*aware* beings.

But here's a cookie for trying:

[bean fidhleir]

56. The only hypocrisy is in your dishonest framing

We veggies try to get our food at the least cost in the misery and death of high-order life. If we could eat rocks, we would, since rocks are completely insensate as far as we're aware. But plant life is the least-sensate form available to us, so we eat vegetables. There's nothing hypocritical about that.

Earth is telling us the party's over, and it's time to clean up our act if we want to stay on her guest list. Part of that act-cleaning is going to involve everyone eating much, much less mammalian life at least until we get our own population numbers reduced by a factor of 10 or more. What we're doing now is not something Earth can continue tolerating. We're choking her, and she's going to kill us if we don't stop.

[nichomachus]

45. If your cat were bigger

she would eat you.

[squawk7700]

51. That, then, would literally be an eating pussy.

[bean fidhleir]

57. Probably not. Cats don't kill those with whom they have relationships

There are plenty of documented cases of cats "adopting" and protecting individuals of other species that would normally be prey, including small rodents and birds, just as there are cases of cat-dog friendship. Not mere tolerance, but actual friendship--voluntarily spending time together.

[squawk7700]

50. Vegetarians eat vegetables. I am a humanitarian.

[pink-o]

58. This is a very old argument...

...but that's okay, because I'm a very old vegetarian! It's been 32 years since I've (intentionally) eaten an animal, and I'm doing just fine, thank you.

But people, c'mon! Unless you want to turn your back on proven science, humans are omnivores! How the hell do you think we got the big brains, by eating grass? No way could we bring down a wildebeast with teeth and nails alone, so I'm sure our hunter-gatherer ancestors were opportunistic meat-eaters, stealing where we could and supplimenting our diets with insects and rodents (hey--it got us here, didn't it?)

So just because I don't want to eat meat doesn't negate it for my entire species. And after all these years, being vegetarian isn't something I have to prostelytise or shout from the rooftops. I just believe that all nutrition is like negotiating a minefield--our sustenance is meted out (pun intended) by those in power who wanna keep us sick and dependent. Animals are treated like commodities by the factory farms, because all these people care about is $$$$. It's why we're ingesting steroids, growth hormone and antibiotics.

And all of us on DU have the same objective in that regard: speak truth to power. Because meat is mass-produced and inhumane doesn't mean humans should not eat meat. We need to bring the evil practices to light and change them, for the good of all.

In the meantime, for those of you who are carnivores, may I recommend you buy your meat at either a Halal or a Kosher butcher? Or else try this: raise a steer from a calf, nuture it, feed it organic grass, and then when it's prime, slaughter it.

Then let's see how fast you become a vegetarian!

[ileus]

59. I have 1k worth of dead cow in my freezer and they expect me to what?

I may celebrate by grilling every night this week.

[NobleCynic]

62. ...this is why PETA gets little respect.

Should be more like this:

Top 10 Reasons to minimize meat consumption but not quite eliminate it:

1. Global Warming

2. Land usage / Global Hunger

3. Non Global Warming Environmental Concerns (Eutrophication, etc.)

4. Cancer

5. Hormone laced factory farm meats

6. Heart Disease

7. Other Disease Control (Mad Cow and other disease vectors made worse by our food supply chain)

8. Cheaper to go vegetarian / minimalist

9. Natural fertilizer systems are difficult to manage without chickens / hogs.

10. True rangeland / pastureland is only productive for cattle / goat production. As long as productive farmland isn't being diverted, meat production should continue from an economic perspective.

[fed_up_mother]

76. With lies like "chickens are smarter than dogs"

the whole article gets tainted for me.