"The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future - deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of disease." -- The World Watch Institute

"A landmark global study into the production of greenhouse gas emissions from over 38,000 farms has pointed to one simple way we can reduce our global warming woes — by avoiding meat and dairy products. The paper published in Science today shows that without these industries, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75 per cent. That’s an area the size of Australia, the US, China and the EU combined. And what’s more, the study shows we don’t even really need meat anyway.

 The researchers claim meat and dairy provide just 18 per cent of our required calories and 37 per cent of our protein. Despite the pitiful nutritional figures, the livestock industry accounts for a massive 83 per cent of farmland in the world and produces 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in farming. The study shows that getting our protein from plants such as peas is far better for the environment than farming livestock. Even the lowest impact beef-producing farm would be responsible for six times more greenhouse gases and 36 times more land than a pea farm producing the same amount of protein.

A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification (of ocean water), eutrophication (the build up of nutrients in water bodies which destroys wildlife), land use and water use,” Oxford University researcher Joseph Poore told The Guardian today.

Over all, the researchers estimated a vegan world would produce 49 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions from food, 50 per cent less acidification, 49 per cent less eutrophication, and reduce water use by 19 per cent. “It (going vegan) is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” Mr Poore added. “Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems. Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this."

"You know how much you love, respect and want to protect every dog and cat in the world? You know how much your heart breaks when you see a picture of a dog in a shelter who is going to be killed? You know how you feel when you see photos of piles of dead dogs and cats who are going to be used for fur? You know how enraged you get when you see a photo of a dog or cat who has been beaten to death? That’s how vegans feel about all animals. Every animal who is exploited and murdered for food, clothing, entertainment and “research.” We don’t distinguish between dogs and cats and other animals. If you allowed yourself to feel the deep suffering that billions of animals endure for your pleasure, you’d be vegan, too. And you might understand why vegans work so hard to end the animal holocaust." —Gary Smith

“So many people insist they are against animal abuse, cruelty, suffering and the inhumane treatment of animals, yet they don’t understand they are actively engaging in and supporting egregious suffering, abuse, cruelty and inhumane treatment when they eat animals and their ‘by-products.’ If you are against cruelty, suffering and inhumane treatment, then you go vegan. It’s just that simple.” - Sarah Kiser

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtWO83pf3Mc

"HCAs, a family of mutagenic compounds, are produced during the cooking process of many animal products, including chicken, beef, pork, and fish. Even meat that is cooked under normal grilling, frying, or oven-broiling may contain significant quantities of these mutagens. The longer and hotter the meat is cooked, the more these compounds form. In some studies, grilled chicken has formed higher concentrations of these cancer-causing substances than other types of cooked meat."

http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/meat-consumption-and-cancer-risk

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http://www.eatingyoualive.com/

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

"In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people." — Ruth Harrison

"Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals." -Theodor W. Adorno 

“The philosophy of nonviolence which I learned from Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr., during my involvement in the civil rights movement was first responsible for my change in diet…Under the leadership of Dr. King, I became totally committed to nonviolence, and I was convinced that nonviolence meant opposition to killing in any form. I felt the commandment ‘Thou Salt not kill’ applied to human beings not only in their dealings with each other – war, lynching, assassination, murder and the like – but in their practice of killing animals for food or sport. Animals suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain…the same arrogant, cruel and brutal taking of life.” – Dick Gregory

"Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide with an estimated 80 percent of cases attributable to diet. Previous research indicates that individuals who regularly eat processed or red meat are up to 50 percent more likely to develop colon cancer than individuals who avoid these foods altogether"

https://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/type/colon-cancer

"That's never gonna happen."

the same was once said about women voting, a black president and legalized gay marriage. hopefully one day soon the human race will wake up and stop exploiting all of the other species on this planet for our own selfish, trivial pleasure and profit.

i think it speaks volumes to realize that if the human race disappeared from the earth tomorrow, every other species would immediately greatly benefit from our absence, as this satirical but all too accurate short animated video shows: the same was said about women voting, a black president and legalized gay marriage. hopefully one day soon the human race will wake up and stop exploiting all of the other species on this planet for our own selfish, trivial pleasure and profit.

i think it speaks volumes to realize that if the human race disappeared from the earth tomorrow, every other species would immediately greatly benefit from our absence, as this satirical but all too accurate short animated video shows:
the same was said about women voting, a black president and legalized gay marriage. hopefully one day soon the human race will wake up and stop exploiting all of the other species on this planet for our own selfish, trivial pleasure and profit.

i think it speaks volumes to realize that if the human race disappeared from the earth tomorrow, every other species would immediately greatly benefit from our absence, as this satirical but all too accurate short animated video shows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGMYdalClU

sanctuaries exist for the non-human animals whom they have rescued while zoo's exist for human animals interested mostly in profit. most people are unaware at the tremendous suffering that confined animals are subjected to in zoo's where they are treated as exhibits as opposed to intelligent, sentient beings. for example, many zoo's sell their older "exhibits" to canned hunts or to be murdered so their flesh can be sold in order to make room for younger, more profitable ones.

here is a great article on this subject which summarizes the state of affairs:
"Zoos are captivity and entertainment centres where collections of wild animals are exhibited in solitary, often in solitary confinement, with the main aim of satisfying the curiosity of visitors. Animals exhibited in these facilities are subject to complete control and live in very different conditions from those in which they live in the wild.
Captivity suppresses the natural instincts of wild animals.
Animals suffer permanent frustration because they have no freedom of choice and cannot behave as they would do in their natural environment. This leads to a tendency toward genetic, physical and behavioural degeneration."

http://www.addaong.org/en/what-are-we-denouncing/zoos-are-like-prisons/

are not supposed to? the fact that a human can do something in no way addresses the question of if it should be done in the first place.

veganism is about MUCH more than a mere dietary choice-it is a moral imperative which rejects violence and exploitation.

you said it yourself, humans can live healthy, in most cases more healthy, without eating animal products of any kind. if one can live one's life without intentionally harming others, why would they choose not to do so?

"But there is no reason to blur the facts of one is totally socially acceptable (meat eater) and one is totally unacceptable socially, animal cruelty. Most meat eaters want humane slaughtering conditions.

There is nothing wrong imo being a vegan, to those congrats you are ahead of your time. But we are fighting 1000's of years of conditioning. Perhaps in another 100 it will be that way. But to think this compares to something that is still socially a-ok, uh no."

not too long ago human slavery also used to be socially acceptable-does that make it morally justifable also? there is no humane way to kill someone who wants to live. if you would not wish to experience something yourself, how is it ethical to force others to do so-especially in the name of a momentary taste sensation?

the lady in this story is using the exact same justifications for her actions that people who choose to consume flesh, dairy and eggs use to try and justify theirs. in both cases the interests of the helpless, innocent victims are deemed less important that those commiting the violence in the name of pleasure and profit.

btw, choosing to be vegan is no more ahead of time than choosing not to do what the lady in the story was convicted of. harming and killing non-human animals for one's own personal gratification is the very LEAST one can do.

This comment was edited on Sep 10, 2015, 19:42.

"What about the poor turnips? Won't anyone think of the poor tortured turnips? What about the carrots? Or the potato? How many potatoes get butchered into french fries day in day out...fucking genocide is what it is.... "

if you wish to experience the difference for yourself, go watch turnip harvest and then go visit a slaughterhouse. if you really believed this kind of nonsense you would no sooner mow your lawn than you would chop up your dog.

btw, the lady in the story could use the same reasoning to try and justify her atrocities.

This comment was edited on Sep 10, 2015, 19:32.

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“So many people insist they are against animal abuse, cruelty, suffering and the inhumane treatment of animals, yet they don’t understand they are actively engaging in and supporting egregious suffering, abuse, cruelty and inhumane treatment when they eat animals and their ‘by-products.’ If you are against cruelty, suffering and inhumane treatment, then you go vegan. It’s just that simple.” - Sarah Kiser
youtube.com/watch?v=AtWO83pf3Mc

as horrible as this is, in truth it is no different than any person who chooses to consume animal products. here is a short, concise article using logic and critical thinking to prove how this is the case-i would strongly urge anyone who is outraged by this story to read it: tinyurl.com/qdejmle

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5n1CN6y-k8