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Tank beats everything! :D
Posted by: mahspoonis2big
Posted by: Gage_1337
As a Vegan, my Veganism isn't about trying to feel morally superior to people. It is about trying my best to abstain myself from cruelty and it's about trying to live as lightly on the Earth as possible. One of the reasons I am a vegan is because I abhor all forms of unecessary killing. Killing for mercy, killing in self-defence and killing for survival are acceptable in my opinion. I personally have no problem with a starving man eating meat because the man would likely die if he didn't and is only killing for survival which is a necessary form of killing. However, massively breeding billions of animals to slaughter in-order to feed people living in economically developed locations like Britain and the USA is absolutely not necessary because there is no nutrient in meat that is missing in a vegetarian diet. Necessary killing may be tragic, but I find killing simply for amusement, taste and small convenience vile and abhorrent. That is why I am a vegan.Not only is this post hypocritical in that you rave for a solid run-on paragraph on how you are morally superior despite claiming to not feel that way, you're also wrong.
If no one ate meat, the trophic levels on the planet would be utterly destroyed. Human meat-eating is necessary for environmental balance. Sure, humans eat more meat than they need or should currently, but a world without meat-eating is one that will see devastating crop infertilities and mass animal and human starvation.
Vegans are vegans for purely selfish reasons. There is no 'world-citizen' aspect to it at all; you're doing it for yourself and yourself alone.
I never once claimed moral superiority. I just posted one of my ethical stances.
About Meat eating being necessity for enviromental balance: Links for proof? Eating meat seems pretty dertrimental to enviroment in my opinion.
Beef cattle, weighing in at around 900 pounds as an adult, require around 80 pounds of food each day[1], 18 pounds of which is grain[2] (most beef cattle in the U.S. are grain-fed[3]). Beef cattle live for only three to six years before being slaughtered[4]. Calculating only a three-year lifespan, that means the cow would have consumed 18 pounds of grain per day x 365 days per year x 3 years = 19,710 pound of grain during its life. But, of course, the animal is not born full grown, so we will cut this number in half to 9,855 pounds of grain consumed in its lifetime. Typically 62% of the weight of the animal ends up as meat[5]. So for our 900 pound example, we would have around 558 pounds of meat. 9,855 pounds of grain divided by 558 pounds of meat is 17.6 pounds of grain for each pound of meat.
This is, obviously, far less efficient than supplying grains directly to people to eat.
The massive "Corn Belt" of the United States, stretching from North Dakota to Ohio, grows corn and soybeans, not for human consumption, but for animal feed.
The wastefulness of producing meat does not end just with feeding the animals. Massive amounts of fresh water, a precious and dwindling commodity, are required for meat production. Although 12 gallons of water are required for a 900 pound animal per day[6], this figure is paltry considering the amound of water required to irrigate the grains and silage used to feed the animals. The mighty Colorado River no longer reaches the ocean, because it is used for irrigation (much of it for alfalfa and grains)[7].
And then there is the matter of the fossil fuels required to support the production of the meat. Since it takes 17 times more grain to produce meat, it takes 17 times more fossil fuels to grow that grain. But it does not stop there: there is the transportation and storage of the grain, transportation of the animals, production, refridgeration and transportation of the meat, and so on. In the end, it takes 26 times the fossil fuels to support a meat-centered diet than a vegetarian diet. A United Nations report in 2007 states that 18% of global warming emissions come from raising animals for food[8]. Compare this to only 13% of emissions coming from all of the cars, trucks, trains, boats and airplanes in the world, combined.
Results of the Wastefulness
Less Resources for and Exploding Population
A vegetarian diet is the most efficient diet for feeding people in the least amount of space. That is why the Biosphere 2 experiments utilized a vegetarian diet exclusively.
Demand for Fossil Fuels
Demand for fossil fuels raises the prices at the gas pump as well as other commodities. Demand for fossil fuels results in wars to protect the precious supplies. Demand for fossil fuels results in increased drilling in parts of the world where an inevitable spill would be disasterous. Demand for fossil fuels increases greenhouse gasses and global warming.
Loss of Natural Habitat
Vast quantities of land are being used to supply food for the meat industry. Most of this land could be reverted back into natural habitat.
Pesticides, Herbicides and Chemical Fertilizer
Raising cattle and the food to feed the cattle is not a bucolic, pastoral scene, in harmony with nature. Agribusiness is the #1 pollutor, with chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers being used, with runoff into our aquifers and waterways. Believe it or not, it is usually healthier to live next to a factory than next to a farm that uses these methods.
Moar!
But if you really have some links to prove otherwise. Show me.
[Edited on 12.27.2010 9:49 AM PST]