Meat and animal products

Literally millions of commercial animals suffer in thousands of ways each year, including crowded living conditions and inadequate food and exercise, leading to disease and premature, painful deaths; intensive farming practices such as feedlots; inhumane killing methods; and inhumane treatment. Cruelty is involved in the manufacture of flesh, eggs (even free-range companies kill male chicks), dairy products, skin and fur, bones (gelatine, blood-and-bone, some glues), fat (used in soaps and some cakes), rennet (used in some cheeses), various dyes and additives (often unlabelled), and pet food. Wild animals have their habitats altered or destroyed, are hunted deliberately or suffer as by-catch, with the looming threat of extinction. Marine degradation has occurred in all major fishing areas from over-fishing. While millions of people go hungry all around the world, we feed 12ó16 kilograms of grain to a cow to make one kilogram of grain-fed beef for developed countries.

Meat production is a major contributor to deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, salination, water scarcity, water pollution, fossil-fuel depletion, greenhouse-gas production, and loss of diversity. The severity of this issue can not be overstated, particularly when so many people think that this is perfectly normal behaviour and do not realise the political and financial motives behind it. Humans can live well on a diet of legumes; green, leafy vegetables; nuts; grains; and mushrooms, and thereby also avoid meat-caused health problems.

For more information, read Diet for a Small Planet, or vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, or contact one of the following organisations:

NSW Vegan Society, http://www.mpce.mq.edu.au/~davidh/vegan/index.html;

Fur Is Dead, http://www.furisdead.com.
 
 

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