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 their families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural to them. They won't feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.
The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably. They are deprived of exercise so that all their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by cramming animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some die.
They are fed drugs to fatten them faster and to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, and they are genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally. Many animals become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of water and food.
Speaking Out
For Animals, Inc
While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types of cruelty. Calves raised for veal are confined to dark, tiny crates in which they are chained by the neck to keep them almost completely immobilized so that their flesh stays tender. The calves are fed a liquid diet that is low in iron and has little nutritive value in order to make their flesh white. This heinous treatment makes the calves ill, and they frequently suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Frightened, sick, and alone, they are killed after only a few months of life
In factory farms, mother pigs are intensively confined and forcibly impregnated. A mother pig spends her entire adult life confined toa metal crate so small that she can't even turn around or lie down comfortably. Forced to live lying in her own feces and urine, she and millions of other pigs like her will not be allowed to step outdoors until they are forced onto trucks headed for slaughter.
Information from: Goveg.com
Health experts agree that going vegetarian is the single best that thing we can do for ourselves. A meat-free diet rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals provides optimal nutrition for both children and adults, forming the foundation for dietary habits that support a lifetime of good health. Leading medical organizations agree that balanced plant-based diets are healthy and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer and strokes. The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; … lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer”Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a key researcher involved with The China Study, says "In the next 10 to 15 years, one of the things you're bound to hear is that animal protein ... is one of the most toxic nutrients of all that can be considered." Risk for disease increases dramatically when even a little animal protein is added to the diet. Vegetarian foods provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in meat and dairy products. A plant-based diet has long-term benefits, too. It protects us against some of the leading killers in America today. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are.
The consumption of meat and dairy products has been conclusively linked with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, asthma, and impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune systems than their meat-eating friends; this means that they are less susceptible to everyday illnesses like the flu.7 Vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters.
Animals are routinely laced with hormones and antibiotics to allow agribusiness the efficiency of massive flocks under intensive confinement. Only with massive drugs, a practice begun in the fifties, can such cruel and brutal conditions be maintained. These hormones and antibiotics make their way into those who eat their flesh causing hormonal imbalances and antibiotic resistance.Antibiotics for medical use are becoming ineffective because excessive use of antibiotics creates super bugs that are resistant to all known antibiotics. It is predicted that we are about to embark upon an era in which antibiotics are useless.
Would you ever open your refrigerator, pull out 16 plates of pasta and toss them in the trash, and then eat just one plate of food?1 How about leveling 55 square feet of rain forest for a single meal or dumping 2,500 gallons of water down the drain? Of course you wouldn't. But if you're eating chicken, fish, turkey, pork, or beef, that's what you're doing—wasting resources and destroying our environment.
Animals raised for food expend the vast majority of the calories that they are fed simply existing, just as we do. We feed more than 70 percent of the grains and cereals we grow to farmed animals, and almost all of those calories go into simply keeping the animals alive, not making them grow.4 Only a small fraction of the calories consumed by farmed animals are actually converted into the meat that people eat.
Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals for food. Our taste for meat is also taking a toll on our supply of fuel and other nonrenewable resources—about one-third of the raw materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal industry.
Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second!
The billions of chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows who are crammed into factory farms each year in the U.S. produce enormous amounts of methane, both in their digestive processes and from the feces that they excrete. Scientists report that every molecule of methane is more than 20 times as effective as carbon dioxide is at trapping heat in our atmosphere. Statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency show that animal agriculture is the single largest cause of methane emissions in the U.S.
A recent report by EarthSave International, based on the work of leading climate scientists, shows that adopting a vegetarian diet is far more effective at reducing global warming than is reducing emissions from cars or power plants.
Although methane makes a larger impact on global warming than carbon dioxide does, curbing carbon dioxide is also important, and animal agriculture is a major source of this gas as well. A calorie of animal protein requires more than 10 times as much fossil fuel input—releasing more than 10 times as much carbon dioxide—than does a calorie of plant protein. Feeding massive amounts of grain and water to farmed animals and then killing them and processing, transporting, and storing their flesh is extremely energy-intensive. In addition, carbon dioxide is released from animal manure. While driving a hybrid Toyota Prius instead of a “regular” car saves the equivalent of just more than 1 ton of carbon dioxide a year, a vegan diet generates at least 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide than does the average American diet.
Many environmental organizations have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth. Factory farms pollute the air and water for many miles in every direction, often spreading contamination and illness to the people who live and work nearby. Chronic sickness, brain damage, poisoned waterways, elevated cancer rates, and even death plague these communities, while the government does nothing to protect citizens or regulate the industry. Farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as our companions. They are inquisitive, interesting individuals who value their lives, solve problems, experience fear and pain. According to animal-behavior scientists, chickens begin learning from their mothers while they are still in their shells, pigs can play video games better than some primates can.
*Over 7 billion farm animals die or are slaughtered in the U.S. every year for the production of flesh, mostly in highly mechanized factory-like systems using unprecedented, largely unregulated methods of brutality, danger, and cruelty.
*The human digestive system is not designed for meat. A natural carnivore's bowel is relatively short (2-3 times the length of its torso) and smooth inside, a human's bowel is 12 times the length of the torso and deeply twisted and puckered. The carnivore has much stronger digestive acids. In the long convoluted human digestive tract, meat putrifies and becomes toxic to the body.
*Over a billion cattle populate the earth, with a combined weight greater than the entire human population. They are sustained unnaturally in these numbers to satisfy demand for their flesh. Beef cattle return only 1 pound of meat for every 16 pounds of grain and soybeans they are fed, causing huge inefficiencies in food utilization, while millions of people go hungry.
*Animal-based diets are high in saturated fat, excessive protein and cholesterol, leading to heart disease and stroke, nearly 50% of all deaths in the U.S.
*It takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of meat. In contrast, it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat.
*The world's cattle alone (not including other livestock) consume food enough for 8.7 billion people. Over a hundred million of tons of grain go to animals while only 5 million tons of grain could adequately feed the 15 million children throughout the world who starve to death every year. By feeding grain to livestock, we lose 90% of the protein, 96% of the calories, 99% of its carbohydrates, and 100% of the fiber.
*A meat-eating American needs 3-1/4 acres of cultivated farm land per year; vegetarians only require 1/6 acre per year.
*Livestock production accounts for twice the pollution of industrial sources in the U.S.
*Trees are being cut at an alarming rate to clear land for meat production. If tomorrow people in the U.S. switched to vegetarian,, 200 million acres could be returned to forest.
*On a calorie basis, spinach has 14 times the iron of sirloin steak. Animal products are deficient in vitamin C which is needed for iron absorption, .
*The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat daily are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who eat little or no meat
*Cattle are responsible for 12% of the methane emissions. Methane contributes to global warming by trapping 25 times more solar heat than carbon dioxide.
*Mother's milk from a nursing woman who eats a diet rich in animal sources is so toxic that if it were to be sold across state lines, it would be subject to confiscation and destruction by the FDA.
*Two hundred years ago, American topsoil averaged 21 inches. Today, it's only about 6 inches. Each year an area the size of Connecticut is lost to topsoil erosion. Livestock production is responsible for about 85% of this erosion.
*Fish concentrate toxic chemicals. Consumer Reports (Feb., '92) notes that the incidence of unacceptable levels of PCB's and mercury were found in certain species of fish. Ingesting PCB's is considered a primary cause for the sperm count in American men to be 70% of what it was 30 years ago. Half the world's fish catch is fed to cattle, which concentrates the poisons.
*The common cold, as well as allergies to dust, cats and pollen, are likely to go away when milk is removed from the diet. No other mammal in nature drinks milk after weaning, or drinks the milk of other species. Cows will not even drink cows milk after weaning.
*The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Food and Nutrition Board recommend eating only 2.5% to 6% of one's calories as protein to satisfy requirements. It's nearly impossible to get below 9% with a vegetarian diet. Typical Americans eat 28% of their calories as animal protein and an additional 12% as non-animal protein. High protein intake is the primary cause of osteoporosis.
*Factory-farmed animals have as much as 30 TIMES more saturated fat than yesterday's free-range, pasture-raised animals.
*More antibiotics are used in animal production than for humans. Animal drug sales are in the billions.
*Today's animals are packed indoors and kept alive with drugs and vitamin injections. The battle against infection and death in the factory farm shed is a constant concern. Misting animals with insecticides has become routine. In the chicken factories, birds are fed chemicals to control flies which are so potent, they stay active even in their droppings, still able to kill larvae.
*Meat contains about 14 times more pesticides than plant foods; dairy products more than 5-1/2 times.
*There are 20 - 30 thousand animal drugs currently in use. Roughly 90% have NOT been approved by the FDA.
*Animals at the top of the food chain absorb many of the toxic chemicals in their diet. Pesticides, insecticides, petrochemicals, hormone injections, antibiotics as well as toxic wastes such as PCB's and mercury in our oceans. Today, more than ever, it is wise to eat low on the food chain. Plant foods are the safest.
*Detection of salmonella is not required by the USDA. Not a single plant in the country inspects for it. CBS's "60 Minutes" found half of the chickens they randomly purchased to be contaminated.
*The high incidence of constipation hemorrhoids, hiatal hernias, diverticulosis, spastic colon and appendicitis parallels today's widespread high fat, low fiber, meat-centered diets.
ANIMALS...
*Chicken feathers, guts, and waste water, which normally would be discarded, are routinely "recycled"back to the hen houses as feed. Industry experts believe this unclean slaughtering, processing, and forced cannibalism, leads to the rampant salmonella epidemics in poultry plants. Ignoring true causes, the U.S. government recommends food irradiation to "sanitize" contaminated birds. Food irradiation causes potentially carcinigenic changes to proteins.
*An acre cultivated in spinach yields 26 times more protein than it does for beef.
The male calf born to a dairy cow is taken immediately after birth to a veal factory and locked up, immobile, for his entire life. He is fed a diet without iron or roughage to produce tender milky white meat. He is injected with growth hormones and antibiotics to keep him alive. He is kept in darkness except for feeding. Veal fetches a premium price.
*All natural instincts are restricted in today's pig factories. Driven insane, bored, and frustrated, these naturally intelligent, playful creatures are driven to gnawing and biting on other pig tails and hind ends. A mauled pig may die from an attack and then be eaten by his attackers. Mauled pigs cannot be sold, a definite problem to the producer. In answer? Pigtails are amputated and animals are kept in total darkness except for feeding.
*The typical egg factory may hold 80,000 hens per warehouse with 4 or 5 layer hens squeezed into a 12" x 18" cage. Poultry producers de-beak their chicks with hot-knife machines to prevent the crazed birds from killing each other in response to their intense confinement
*John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, says that a dairy
cow living in today's modern milk factory "is bred, fed, medicated,
inseminated and manipulated to a single purpose -- maximum milk
production at minimum cost. She lives with an unnaturally swelled up
and sensitive udder, is kept inside a stall her entire life, is milked up to *a dead factory farmed hen*
3 times a day, and is kept pregnant nearly all of the time with her young taken from her almost immediately after birth. "Contented" is the characteristic most often attributed to the cow. However, cows in factories are fed tranquilizers to calm their frazzled nerves."
* At most stockyards so called "downers" may lie suffering for days until they are dragged by chain to their slaughter. The tragedy is that an animal can legally be kept in agony, sick or with broken bones simply because alive it will fetch a higher price for a rancher.
*To crank up pork production, piglets may be taken away from their mother soon after birth. They are then provided with a mechanical teat, without which they would die from the emotional loss. The forced weaning allows the sow to end her lactating period, so she can become pregnant again.
*Egg factories all over the country weed out male chicks and dispose of them en masse in plastic bags and barrels where they are crushed and suffocated. A half a million chicks a day are disposed of. They may also be ground up WHILE STILL ALIVE for use as animal feed.
*Pigs in today's factory farms are often stacked two and three decks high in space just big enough to fit in. They stand on metal or concrete slats which painfully cripple the legs of half of them before slaughter. Their entire lives are lived this way.
*To produce foie gras, duck and geese are force-fed huge quantities of grain three times a day through a feeder tube. This painful process lasts 28 days before slaughter, often causing stomachs sometimes to burst. Diseased livers, which swell to several times normal size by this process, are considered a delicacy which sells for about $12 an ounce. About 8,000 tons are produced worldwide each year.
Information from: http://www.planetaryrenewal.org/ipr/vegetarian
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Albert Einstein
**Warning: Graphic Video.
