Eating
with a conscience
by Sage Lorene Sheldon
There are many reasons to become a vegetarian or vegan. They include personal heath, animal cruelty, environmental devastation, waste of precious resources, pollution and global warming.
Forty percent of America's beef is imported from land that once was home to vital rainforest life. Rainforests continue to be slashed and burned to clear land for cattle grazing. Thirty-eight percent of the world's grain is used to feed livestock, enough to feed 400 million people on a vegetarian diet. The world's oil reserves would last 260 years if humans ceased to eat meat. Livestock production uses over 50% of US water, creates 158 million tons of waste per year, and is the number one cause of water pollution. This industry pollutes more than all cities and industries combined. Grazing on American soil leads to more and more land degradation and erosion. Ranchers hunt and destroy any possible predators that have been pushed off ranching land rather than risk the loss of one steer. Precious aquifers are being depleted at incredibly fast rates to raise high water crops to feed cattle. Once these aquifers are gone, the land above them will basically become American desert.
The ancient druids believed humans were meant to eat only things that reached for the sun; hence they ate only plant life. Leo Tolstoy said the first step to a righteous life was to cease injury to animals. Gandhi looked upon animal life as just as precious as human life and was unwilling to take the life of an animal. A Hindu poem claims that for one to have health, a long life, physical strength and moral strength, one should refrain from eating animal. Leonardo da Vinci believed that a day would come when humans would see no difference between the murder of animals and the murder of a human. Albert Einstein felt that nothing would help mankind more in health and survival than living on a vegetarian diet.
It seems there is an innate reluctance in humans to deprive themselves of anything. Those who eat meat believe that they like it or perhaps even that they need it. Hence, to cease eating animals would be a deprivation in their eyes. I once thought so too, until I realized just how much of a difference I could make in this world by ceasing to eat animal products. Soon after becoming a vegan, a new world opened to me. Instead of feeling deprived I had more food choices than ever before. For any animal dish one likes there is a healthier and often better tasting vegan dish to replace it. In a very short period of time I no longer had any desire to eat animal products. My suggestion to those with an overwhelming reluctance to switch to a vegetarian diet is to try it for a couple of weeks and then reevaluate yourself and your views. Perhaps another thing that adds to an aversion to going vegetarian is the fear that it will be difficult and time consuming. In truth I did not find it difficult amidst a busy life. Any questions or fears one has can be answered with a small bit of research. Millions of people are vegetarian and there is plenty of easy access information. You learn easily as you go what works for you and how simple it is to get all of your body's needed nutrients.
I don't think we fully realize how much power we have as consumers, nor how much impact we have on our future and the world. I cannot understand how we can continue to engage in a diet we don't need that results in suffering and painful deaths to animals, destroys the land that supports our lives, pollutes the air we breathe and pollutes the water we drink. Switching to a vegetarian diet is not difficult, and I have never felt better in my whole life. I have more energy, more clarity of mind; I'm doing better in college, and severe stomach problems I had since a child completely vanished. I have done it not only for myself, but more importantly, for my greater self which includes you and all life on Earth. Switching to a vegetarian diet or at least largely cutting back on meat eating is one of the easiest ways to take a stand for your future and for future generations of humans, animals, trees, and the Earth. I beg only that we think deeply about our choices and make an effort to act wisely.
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This article is distributed courtesy the National Environmental Wire for
Students (NEWS). For more information about NEWS, click on www.envirocitizen.org/news/index.asp
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