For the longest time, I have been vegetarian. Well, technically "pescatarian" - a term our dietary world uses when describing the severity of a limit. For example, pescatarians eat fish coming from the root word "pesca" along with everything else "vegetarian" meaning they eat no other meat. This term was developed in 1993, along with definitions of specific dietary description such as terms known as: pollotarian (meaning someone eats chicken, fish, then anything vegetarian), flexitarian (describes someone who eats meat once or twice a week), along with specifications. These terms are descriptors for what kind of vegetarian you are. Are you strict and eat no dairy or eat no eggs? If a vegetarian isn't as strict like most, they will be fully addressed as "Ovo-lacto" vegetarian (politically correct, of course). This means that if a vegetarian, pescatarian, pollotarian, or flexetarian identifies as "ovo" or "lacto" before their main definition, it will allow us to know as a whole who eats what and why.
The reason I am branching off and discussing these "absurd" terms with you is to allow you to think for some time and digest this material. My goal is to make a series of articles/listicles that are awe-inspiring yet informative of the world of veganism and vegetarianism, how the movement leads to so much more than prosperous health but also a life free from ultimate unjust cruelty and abuse against a select few of victims who, quite honestly, don't deserve the shame and harsh calamities that is inhumane justice and disservice not just to the realm of humans but also to ecosystems around us, world wide. A global injustice which needs to be discussed further and hopefully evaded. Whether you have heard of the movement or not, whether you choose to eat a burger or two or never do, whether you know of movies such as Cowspiracy, and youtube sensation animal activist Gary Yourofsky and his "Best Speech Ever," I think you should be implored to ask for answers searching for a purpose, a real hidden truth, and a cause that could save billions, if not trillions. The hidden truth of the matter is: Veganism matters and Carnism (the study of meat [how it affects humans and animals culturally] and ideology of eating meat) needs to stop dead in its path.
Of course, eating meat is a culturally sought out proposition since the dawn of time; where once "hunter's and gatherer's" became mere "Settlers/Farmers." This means that, taught in the novel "Ishmael" by the ever astute author Daniel Quinn, we learn that we became "leavers," to "takers". Simply put, as described, we as a society used to hunt and gather and leave behind what we didn't need and didn't use. But later down the line of time, we became greedy and took more than we needed by becoming "settlers;" we foraged and sought from the earth and took from the animals who were dearest to us. This means we grew used to taking from the earth and the animals around us, without questioning what we were doing -- leading to today's most devastating earthly disasters. Now, let's think back to the past, shall we-- for history explains it all and it starts with how many confabulated ideologies lead to reckless mistakes in an uncivil, falsely seen world. What I want is for you to not be invisible to the truths like I was all this time, and feel sometimes even now.
Melanie Joy, Ph.D., Ed.M. is a Harvard-educated psychologist, professor of psychology and sociology who created the Ted Talk about Carnism leading to Veganism which was aired February 6th, 2015. She discusses global atrocities through the eyes of a compassionate human being that loves animals just as much as people - how social injustices are not only unjust towards animals and our earth but are also hurtful to the ones we love who are human, alike.
Veganism causes many positive changes not only for us but for the world around us and especially for the many, billions of animals who suffer endlessly each day. Let's take a look behind the scenes to see why veganism is soon becoming the next biggest movement worldwide - starting with 10 major facts:
1. Going Vegan Eliminates Waste and Pollution by reducing Methane Gas which causes more than half of the world's CO2 emissions, leading back to our rapid Climate Change dilemma, which thus is causing us Global Warming.
By going vegan, you no longer support a corrupt industry that causes most of the world's pollution, far more pollution than all gas ran vehicles combined, including the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, inhumane bio facilitated companies would be out of the market and shut down.
2. Going Vegan Saves Billions From Starving and Allows for Plenty of Crop Growth.
Humans never seem to learn from our many mistakes until it is too late and this is one of many reasons as to why. Here, it's a no brainer. The raising and killing of farm animals, particularly cattle, wastes acres of land. For every acre of land that an animal is plotted on, there are far much more waste produced, which is actually flooding our rivers/streams/oceans, leading to over 500 nitrogen flooded dead zones in the ocean, which are nitrogen intoxicated/polluted areas with little to no aquatic life. This means these areas are also oxygen depleted. Also, "sustainable farming" is actually less sustainable than factory farming for one main reason: it's a huge waste of land. For every mother cow and her baby bred onto this planet equates to five acres of land wasted/used; this means that one acre of land that can produce 30,000-40,000 potential crops is inevitably wasted and destroyed by cattle who deserve a better life than being poached/killed, no matter how "humane". This equates to 5 acres wasted x 40,000 max crops potentially being wasted for EVERY cow and her baby born onto a 500 acre "organic" farm that actually only owns a total of 50 cattle in that absurd expansion of land. May I remind you, up to 91 percent of rainforest destruction is caused by killing and raising cattle. Not only is this disheartening for most, but billions of cattle are killed each day, senselessly for the high demand of meat and carnism. 15 to 18 billion cattle are living on planet earth at one time and to think billions are killed and born each day makes me sick to my stomach.
http://beef2live.com/story-world-cattle-inventory-...
A reliable source that only shows the half of the problem ^
3. Agriculture is responsible for 80-90% of US water consumption
Yes, we use plenty of water daily just for drinking. But did you know? 60 gallons of water or more are wasted on each cow a day in order for them to thrive, along with 660 gallons of water used in their water intensive feeding grains. This means when you go vegan, you save a total of 1100 gallons of water a day. Remarkable, right?
4. Going Vegan eliminates most waste and in fact allows you to live a life free of toxins such as cholesterol, saturated and trans fatty acids which can cause an excess of free radical build up along with heart disease which is actually the leading cause of death in America; along with heart failure caused by diet and inadequate exercise, 2/3's of our population has been deemed obese as of mid 2016, thanks to NBC News.
Yes, it's scary to think that America in particular has become used to high cholesterol diets usually from meat, dairy, eggs, and fats. This has been proven to be just as harmful as living a life as a serious cigarette smoker. Along with this, one in three Americans die each year from heart disease, something that could be eliminated drastically if we chose to live a life worth living with less animal by products and bodies wasted.
5. 2,500 gallons of water are needed to produce 1 pound of beef.
(NOTE. The amount of water used to produce 1lb. of beef vary greatly from 442 - 8000 gallons. We choose to use in the film the widely cited conservative number of 2500 gallons per pound of US beef from Dr. George Borgstrom, Chairman of Food Science and Human Nutrition Dept of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, "Impacts on Demand for and Quality of land and Water." )
6. 477 gallons of water are required to produce 1lb. of eggs; almost 900 gallons of water are needed for 1lb. of cheese.
Also, 1,000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk.
This means we need to eat less animal by products and meat if we wish to conserve the largest amount of clean water possible.
7. 5% of water consumed in the US is by private homes. 55% of water consumed in the US is for animal agriculture. Along with this, Animal Agriculture is responsible for 20%-33% of all fresh water consumption in the world today.
Scary, huh? Image a world of more vegans and vegetarians and how we as a society would thrive so much better.
8. Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land.
Animal agriculture is also the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction.
Imagine how many more mouths we could feed with all that land had it not been wasted by life forms that essentially live to be harmed by us, on repeat, and damage persists because we think "carnism" (eating meat) is the answer.
9. 1/3 of the planet is desertified, with livestock as the leading driver.
Hmm, I wonder what raising livestock does when all we do is beat them senseless and think it ends world hunger and devastation - well, think again.
10. Every minute, 7 million pounds of excrement are produced by animals raised for food in the US.
In the U.S. livestock produce 116,000 lbs of waste per second:
-Dairy Cows, 120lbs of waste per day x 9 million cows.
-Cattle, 63lbs of waste per day, x 90 million cattle.
-Pigs, 14lbs. of waste per day, x 67 million pigs.
-Sheep/Goats. 5lbs of waste per day, x 9 million sheep/goats.
-Poultry, .25-1lbs of waste per day, x 9 billion birds.
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/
^ These are but a trifling amount of facts that can be found on the cowspiracy website, which is very helpful if you're like me and cannot remember all of the fruits of their labor. Look out for my next big piece to publish as my vegan movement series begins to take place (Veganism Vs. Carnism 101). Thank you so much for reading. Stay tuned and again, namaste.
