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Vegetarian Links
Vegetarian Videos
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"The Meatrix"
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"Many things made me become vegetarian, among them the higher food yield as a solution to world hunger." -John Denver |
| "Cows with Guns" |
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." -Paul McCartney |
| "Meet Your Meat" |
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -Gandhi |
Vegetarian Associations, Groups, Societies, & Federations
Vegetarian Food Pyramid
Here are a number of different versions of the vegetarian food pyramid from around the web--including a vegan food pyramid.
Important Statistics
- "Over 1.3 billion human beings could be fed each year from the grain and soybeans that go to livestock in the United States." Source
- "Livestock in the US produces roughly 30 times more excrement than human beings." Source
- "It takes 7.5 pounds of protein feed to create 1 pound of consumable hog protein; and it takes 5 pounds of protein feed to create 1 pound of consumable chicken protein. Close to 90% of protein from wheat and beans is lost to feed cycling." Source
- "Percentage of corn grown in United States eaten by livestock: 80." Source
- "Percentage of oats grown in United States eaten by livestock: 95." Source
- "Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed 1 person consuming a meat-based diet: 20. Number of people who will starve to death this year: 60,000,000. Number of people who could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 60,000,000." Source
- "Amount of trees spared per year by each individual who switches to a pure vegetarian diet: 1 acre." Source
MEAT STATISTICS
- "User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the United States: Livestock production." Source
- "Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons. Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500 gallons." Source
- " Cost of common hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. taxpayers: $35/pound. Current cost for pound of protein from wheat: $1.50." Source
- "Length of time world's petroleum reserves would last if all human beings ate meat-centered diet: 13 years. Length of time world's petroleum reserves would last if all human beings ate a vegetarian diet: 260 years." Source
- "Production of excrement by total U.S. human population: 12,000 lbs/sec. Production of excrement by U.S. Livestock: 250,000 pounds/second. Sewage systems in U.S. cities: Common. Sewage systems in U.S. feedlots: Nil." Source
- "Risk of death from heart attack by average American man: 50%. Risk of death from heart attack by average American vegetarian man: 15%. Risk of death from heart attack by average American purely vegetarian man: 4%." Source
- "World populations with high meat intakes who do not have correspondingly high rates of colon cancer: None. World populations with low meat intakes who do not have correspondingly low rates of colon cancer: None." Source
- "Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99%. Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8%." Source
- "Wingspan of average Leghorn chicken: 26 inches . Space average leghorn chicken given in egg factories: 6 inches." Source
- "Occupation with highest turnover rate in U.S.: Slaughterhouse worker . Occupation with highest employee rate of injury in U.S.: Slaughter-house worker." Source
- "Approximately 2.5% of adults in the United States and 4% of adults in Canada follow vegetarian diets." Source
- "The average vegetarian consumes between 300 and 400 pounds of grain per year, the average meat-eater consumes over 2000. Of course, eighty percent of the meat eater's total is first digested by cows, pigs, and chickens." Source
- "The annual beef consumption of an average American family of four requires more than 260 gallons of fuel. The result is 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, or about as much as the average car over a six month period." Source
- "From 1995 to 1997, more than forty animal waste spills killed some 10.6 million fish." Source
- "According to some estimates, supplying the entire world with a western, meat-centered diet would deplete the planet's oil reserves within ten years." Source
- "The annual beef consumption of an average American family of four requires more than 260 gallons of fuel. The result is 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, or about as much as the average car over a six month period." Source
- "Cattle produce nearly 1 billion tons of organic waste each year. The average beef cow produces more than 47 pounds of manure every 24 hours." Source
- "85% of topsoil loss in the US is the result of livestock production, with each pound of steak resulting in 35 pounds of eroded US topsoil." Source
- "260 million acres of US forests have been cleared for cropland to produce grain for livestock. From 1960-1985, 40% of the Central American rainforests were destroyed to create gazing land for cattle." Source
- "According to the US General Accounting Office, more plant species in the United States have been eliminated or threatened by livestock grazing than by any other cause." Source
- "Cattle ranching is a primary cause of deforestation in Latin America. Since 1960, more than one quarter of all Central. American forests have been razed to make pasture for cattle. Nearly 70 percent of deforested land in Panama and Costa Pica is now pasture." Source
- "Just one quarter-pound hamburger imported from Latin America requires the clearing of 6 square yards of rain forest and the destruction of 165 pounds of living matter including 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 insect species, and dozens of bird, mammal, and reptile species." Source
- "Brazil estimates that 38 percent of its rain forest was destroyed for cattle pasture." Source
- "The United States has lost one third of its topsoil. An estimated six of the seven billion tons of eroded soil is directly attributable to grazing and unsustainable methods of producing feed crops for cattle and other livestock." Source
- "The great Ogallala aquifer, one of the world's largest fresh water reserves, is already half depleted in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico. In California. where 42 percent of irrigation water is used for feed or livestock production, water tables have dropped so low that in some areas the earth is sinking under the vacuum. Some U.S. reservoirs and aquifers are now at their lowest levels since the end of the last Ice Age." Source
- "Organic waste from cattle and other livestock, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and agricultural salts and sediments are the primary non-point source of water pollution in the U.S." Source
- "It now takes the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of grainfed beef in the United States. The annual beef consumption of an average American family of four requires more than 260 gallons of fuel and releases 2.5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, as much as the average car over a six month period." Source
- "Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is directly attributable to beef production: burning forests to make way for cattle pasture and burning massive tracts of agricultural waste from cattle feed crops. When the fifty-five square feet of rain forest needed to produce one quarter-pound hamburger is burned for pasture, 500 pounds of CO2 is released into the atmosphere." Source
- "Cattle emit methane, another greenhouse gas, through belching and flatulation. Scientists estimate that more than 500 million tons of methane are released each year and that the world's 1.3 billion cattle and other ruminant livestock emit approximately 60 million tons or 12 percent of the total from all sources. Methane is a serious problem because one methane molecule traps 25 times as much solar heat as a molecule of CO2." Source
- "Under pressure from ranchers, the U.S. government exterminates tens of thousands of predator and 'nuisance' animals each year. In 1989, a partial list of animals killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Damage Control Program included 86,502 coyotes, 7,158 foxes, 236 black bears, 1,220 bobcats, and 80 wolves. In 1988, 4.6 million birds, 9,000 beavers, 76,000 coyotes, 5,000 raccoons, 300 black bears, and 200 mountain lions, among others, were killed. Some 400 pet dogs and 100 cats were also inadvertently killed. Extermination methods used include poisoning, shooting, gassing, and burning animals in their dens. The predator 'control' program cost American taxpayers $29.4 million in 1990 -- more than the amount of losses caused by wild animals." Source
- "For several years, cattle ranchers have blocked efforts to re-introduce the wolf, an endangered species, into the wild, as required by the U.S. Endangered Species Act." Source
