Eating A Vegetarian Diet Supports A Healthier Planet
By: Jennifer Kaden, Mercy For Animals Cleveland Regional Coordinator
How green are the foods you’re eating? In a comprehensive 2006 report, the United Nations concluded that raising and slaughtering animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. According to a 2006 study completed by researchers at the University of Chicago, Americans can reduce more greenhouse gas emissions by adopting a vegan diet than they can by switching to a hybrid
electric car.
Animal agriculture uses 70 percent of all agricultural land, and 30 percent of the total land surface on the planet. As a result, animal agriculture has become the biggest cause of slashing and burning throughout the world’s forests. The meat industry is also a major cause of fresh water depletion. According to Ed Ayres of the World Watch Institute, “Around the world, as more water is diverted to raising pigs and chickens instead of producing crops for direct consumption, millions of wells are going dry. India, China, North Africa and the U.S. are all running freshwater deficits, pumping more from their aquifers than rain can replenish.”
Consider This:
- More than half of the fresh water supply in the U.S. is used to grow crops to feed livestock for meat and dairy consumption.
- 90 percent of deforestation in the Amazon is a result of beef production.
- A typical animal-based U.S. diet consumes the equivalent of 1,100 gallons of water per day, compared to vegetarian diets which only use 220-440 gallons.
- Animals raised for food in the U.S. consume 90 percent of the soy crop, 80 percent of the corn crop and 70 percent of the grain crop.
- In the U.S., farmed animals now produce 130 times as much waste as people do.
Not only is a plant-based diet the most environmentally sustainable option, it’s also the single most significant action all of us can take to reduce animal suffering in this world —given that 99 percent of animal cruelty occurs in the production of meat, dairy and eggs. Nearly all farmed animals suffer greatly in stressful, overcrowded, disease-inducing conditions. Recycling plant food through animals to feed humans is inherently wasteful. And in a world where every year six million children under the age of five die as a result of starvation and malnutrition, the meat-intensive diets of the western world represent a tragic misuse of limited resources.
A vegan diet is a powerful way to reduce your risk of strokes, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancers of the breast, prostate and colon, in part because only animal foods contain cholesterol. Cleveland’s own Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. documented in his 20-year nutritional study at the Cleveland Clinic, how a plant-based, oil-free diet will arrest and reverse even advanced stages of heart disease, the number one killer of men and women in the U.S.
What can you do? Make your diet greener by eating more greens (and other satisfying vegan foods). Visit www.ChooseVeg.com for tips on incorporating more vegan meals into your diet, obtain hundreds of delicious vegan recipes and order a free Vegetarian Starter Kit.
Local Vegetarian Groups
- Mercy For Animals (MFA) is a leading vegetarian and animal advocacy group with an active Cleveland chapter. MFA created the www.ChooseVeg.com website as well as the excellent resource www.VegOhio.com which lists vegetarian-friendly restaurants and grocers in Ohio. For more information visit www.MercyForAnimals.org or call 866-MFA-OHIO.
- Vegetarian Advocates in Northeast Ohio promotes a plant-based diet through educational, social and cultural events. For more information, visit www.vegsource.com/vegadvocates or email vegetarianadvocates@yahoo.com.
- The Northern Ohio Wellness Connection (NOWC) advocates vegetarianism for its environmental, health and spiritual benefits. For more information, visit www.nowc.homestead.com.
- Cleveland Vegetarian MeetUp is an on-line social networking group. For more information, visit www.vegetarian.meetup.com/367.
Upcoming Mercy For Animals events:
- Free Screening of Award-Winning Documentary The Witness - Wed., Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Beachwood Library, 25501 Shaker Blvd, Beachwood OH 44122.
- Free Screening of Award-Winning Documentary Peaceable Kingdom on Tues., Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. at Maple Heights Library, 5225 Library Lane, Maple Hts OH 44137.
- Free Vegan Dinner & Lecture by Annette Fisher, Executive Director of Happy Trails Farm Sanctuary on Thurs., Feb. 28 from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Cleveland Heights Library, 2345 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts OH 44118
- Free Screening of Documentary Mad Cowboy featuring Howard Lyman on Sat., March 22 at 6 p.m. at Talkies Film & Coffee Bar, 2521 Market Ave, Cleveland OH 44113.
- Free Vegan Dinner & Lecture by Paul Shapiro, senior director of HSUS Factory Farming Campaign on Thurs., March 27 from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Cleveland Heights Library, 2345 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts OH 44118.