How to Win an Argument

With a Meat-Eater

Facts and Figures You Need to Change Opinion

I n the preceding pages we have discussed

the benefits and practical considerations

of a vegetarian diet. Here

we approach the issue from another perspective,

examining the devastating harm

caused by a meat-laden diet–not only to

the animal which is killed and eaten, but

also to the meat-eater himself, to humanity

as a whole and to our very planet. The

following presentation is based on the poster,

“How to win an argument with a meateater,”

published by Earthsave, of Felton,

California, giving facts from Pulitzer Prize

nominee John Robbins’ book, Diet for a

New America. Our version details ten arguments

against meat-eating.

1. The Hunger Argument

The world’s massive hunger problems

could be greatly alleviated by reducing or

elimination meat-eating. Vast quantities

of food suitable for humans are fed to livestock

for meat production–wasting most of

its protein in the process; in addition, the

huge acreages now used as pasture for meat

animals would produce much more human

food if converted to grains and vegetables.

This year alone, twenty million people

worldwide will die of malnutrition. One

child dies of malnutrition every 2.3 seconds.

One hundred million people

could

be adequately fed using the land freed if

Americans reduced their intake of meat

by a mere 10%. Eighty percent of the corn

and 95% of the oats grown in the US is

eaten by livestock. The percentage of protein

wasted by cycling grain through livestock

is calculated by experts as 90%. One

acre of good farmland can produce 40,000

pounds of potatoes, or 250 pounds of beef.

Fifty-six percent of all US farmland is devoted

to beef production, and to produce

each pound of beef requires 16 pounds of

edible grain and soybeans, which could be

used to feed the hungry.

2. The Environmental Argument

Many of the world’s massive environmental

problems—including global warming,

loss of topsoil, loss of rain forests and

species extinction—could be solved by

the reduction or elimination of meat-eating.

The meat industry’s voracious need

for pasturelands is the primary force

driving the destruction of old-growth forests–

which are essential to the survival

of the planet. Their destruction is a major

cause of global warming and of the rapidly

escalating losses of topsoil and

endangered-species habitat. Two

hundred sixty million acres of US

forestland have been cleared for

meat production. An alarming 75%

of all US topsoil has been lost to date,

and fullly 85% of this loss is directly

related to livestock raising. Another

devastating result of meat-eating

is the loss of plant and animal species.

Each year 1,000 species disappear

due to destruction of tropical

rain forests

for cattle grazing and

other uses—driven by US demand

for meat. The rate is growing yearly.

3. The Cancer Argument

Those who eat flesh are far more

likely to contract cancer than those

following a vegetarian diet. The risk

of contracting breast cancer is 3.8

times greater for women who eat

meat daily compared to less than

once a week; 2.8 times greater for

women who eat eggs daily compared

to once a week; and 3.25

greater for women who eat processed

butter and cheese two to

four times a week as compared to

once a week. The risk of fatal ovarian

cancer is three times greater for

women who eat eggs three or more

times a week as compared with less

than once a week. The risk of fatal

prostate cancer is 3.6 times greater

for men who consume meat, eggs,

processed cheese and milk daily as

compared with sparingly or not at all.

4. The Cholesterol Argument

The average cholesterol consumption

of a meat-centered diet is 210

milligrams per day. The chance of dying

from heart disease if you are male and your

blood cholesterol intake is 210 milligrams a

day is greater than 50%.

It is strange but true that US physicians

are as a rule poorly educated in the single

most important factor of health, namely

diet and nutrition. As of 1987, of the 125

medical schools in the US, only 30 required

their students to take a course in nutrition.

The average nutrition training received by

the average US physician during four years

in school is only 2.5 hours. Thus doctors

in the US are ill equipped to advise their

patients in minimizing foods, such as meat,

that contain excessive amounts of cholesterol

and are known causes of heart attack.

Heart attack is the most common cause of

death in the US, killing one person every

45 seconds. The male meat-eater’s risk of

death from heart attack is 50%. The risk to

men who eat no meat is only 15%. Reducing

one’s consumption of meat, processed

dairy products and eggs by 10% reduces

the risk of heart attack by 10%. Eliminating

all of these products from one’s diet reduces

the risk of heart attack by 90%.

5. The Natural Resources Argument

The world’s natural resources are being

rapidly depleted as a result of meat-eating.

Raising livestock for their meat is a very

inefficient way of generating food. Pound

for pound, far more resources must be expended

to produce meat than to produce

more than half of all water used for all purposes

in the US is consumed in livestock

production. The amount of water used in

production of the average cow is sufficient

to float a destroyer (a large naval ship).

While 25 gallons of water are needed to

produce a pound of wheat, 5,000 gallons

are needed to produce a pound of California

beef. That same 5,000 gallons of water

can produce 200 pounds of wheat.

Thirty-three percent of all raw materials

(base products of farming, forestry and

mining, including fossil fuels) consumed

by the US are devoted to the production

of livestock, as compared with two percent

to produce a complete vegetarian diet.

6. The Antibiotic Argument

Another danger of eating meat is the fact

that large amounts of antibiotics are fed

to livestock to control staphylococci (commonly

called staph infections). The animals

being raised for meat in the United

States are diseased. The livestock industry

attempts to control the various diseases by

feeding the animals huge quantities of antibiotics.

Of all antibiotics used in the US,

55% are fed to livestock. But the diseasecausing

bacteria are rapidly becoming immune

to the antibiotics, thus endangering

humans who depend on these antibiotics to

combat disease. The percentage of staphylococci

infections resistant to penicillin, for

example, has grown from 13% in 1960 to

91% in 1988. These antibiotics and/or the

super-resistant bacteria they were intended

to destroy remain in the meat that goes to

market. The European Economic Community

banned the importation of US meat because

of this routine feeding of antibiotics.

7. The Mad Cow Argument

In February, 2001, Cornell University

reported, “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

(BSE), also known as mad cow

disease, has now been officially identified

in a dozen European countries including

the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain,

Belgium, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Portugal,

Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

As a result, beef sales have fallen by

as much as 50% in parts of Europe.” This

epidemic is believed to have resulted from

the common practice of feeding cows the

ground-up brains and other parts of sheep,

some of which were infected with scrapie,

a related disease.

Only one-tenth of one percent of US

cattle slaughtered for meat are tested for

BSE by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture).

When a Kansas beef producer

decided to test all of their own cattle for

BSE, the USDA actually blocked companies

from selling them the testing kits. Despite

the rarity of the disease, its human

form (believed to be caused by eating infected

meat) killed over 150 people, mostly

in Britain, between 1986 and 2003.

8. The Pesticide Argument

US-produced meat contains dangerously

high quantities of deadly pesticides. Many

people believe that the USDA protects

consumers’ health through regular and

thorough meat inspection. In reality, fewer

than one out of every 250,000 slaughtered

animals is tested for toxic chemical

residues.

A study of mothers’ milk in the

US has clearly demonstrated that these

chemicals are ingested by the meat-eater:

a. Ninety-nine percent of the meat-eating

mothers in the study produced milk

with significant levels of DDT–compared

to only 8% of the vegetarian mothers’ milk.

This shows that the primary source of DDT

is the meat ingested by the mothers.

b. The breast milk of meat-eating mothers

has 35 times more chlorinated hydrocarbon

pesticides than the milk of nonmeateating

mothers.

c. The average breast-fed American infant

contains nine times the permissible level of

the pesticide dieldrin, which (though now

banned in the US) continues to accumulate

in the food chain and often exceeds safety

guidelines in fish and seafood.

9. The Ethical Argument

Many people have become vegetarians after

reading about or personally experiencing

what goes on daily at any one of the

thousands of slaughterhouses in the US and

other countries, where animals suffer the

cruel process

of forced confinement, manipulation

and violent death. Their pain

and terror is beyond calculation. Most

slaughterhouse workers are not on the job

for long and have the highest turnover rate

of all occupations. It also has the highest

rate of on-the-job injury.

In the US alone, 1.14 million animals are

killed for meat every hour. The average per

capita consumption of meat in the US, Canada

and Australia is 200 pounds per year! The

average American consumes in a 72-year

lifetime approximately eleven cattle, three

lambs and sheep, 23 pigs, 45 turkeys,

1,100

chickens and 862 pounds of fish!

10. The Physiological Argument

The final argument against meat-eating

is that humans are physiologically

not suited for a carnivorous diet. The

book Food for the Spirit, Vegetarianism

in the World Religions, summarizes this

point of view as follows. “Many nutritionists,

biologists and physiologists offer

convincing evidence that humans are in

fact not meant to eat flesh.…” The book

gives seven facts in support of this view:

1. Physiologically, people are more akin to

plant-eaters, foragers and grazers, such as

monkeys, elephants and cows, than to carnivora

such as dogs, tigers and leopards.

2. For example, carnivores do not sweat

through their skin; body heat is controlled

by rapid breathing and extrusion of the

tongue. Vegetarian animals, on the other

hand, have sweat pores for heat control

and the elimination of impurities.

3. Carnivora have long teeth and claws

for holding and killing prey; vegetarian

animals have short teeth and no claws.

4. The saliva of carnivora contains no ptyalin

and cannot predigest starches; that of

vegetarian animals contains ptyalin for the

predigestion of starches.

5. Flesh-eating animals secrete large

quantities of hydrochloric

acid to help dissolve

bones; vegetarian animals secrete

little hydrochloric acid.

6. The jaws of carnivora only open in an

up and down motion; those of vegetarian

animals also move sideways for additional

kinds of chewing.

7. Carnivores must lap liquids, as a cat

does; vegetarian animals take liquids in by

suction through the teeth.

Wisdom from Saints and Scriptures

Vedas, Shastras and Sutras Alike Decry

 the Killing and Eating of Animals

speak clearly and forcefully on nonkilling

and vegetarianism. The roots of noninjury,

nonkilling and nonconsumption of meat are

found in the Vedas, Dharma Shastras, Tirumurai,

Yoga Sutras, Tirukural and dozens

of other sacred texts of Hinduism. Perhaps

nowhere is the principle of nonmeat-eating

so fully and eloquently expressed as in the

Tirukural, written in the Tamil language by

a simple weaver saint over 2,000 years ago.

One who partakes of human flesh, the

flesh of a horse or of another animal, and

deprives others of milk by slaughtering

cows, O King, if such a fiend does not desist

by other means, then you should not

hesitate to cut off his head.

(Rig Veda Samhita 10.87.16)

Protect both our species, two-legged and

four-legged. Both food and water for their

needs supply. May they with us increase

in stature and strength. Save us from hurt

all our days, O Powers!

(Rig Veda Samhita 10.37.11)

O vegetable, be succulent, wholesome,

strengthening; and thus, body, be fully

grown.

(Rig Veda)

Those noble souls who practice meditation

and other yogic ways, who are ever careful

about all beings, who protect all animals,

are the ones who are actually serious

about spiritual practices.

(Atharva Veda Samhita 19.48.5)

You must not use your God-given body for

killing God’s creatures, whether they are

human, animal or whatever.

(Yajur Veda Samhita 12.32)

The ignoble ones who eat flesh, death’s

agents bind them fast and push them

quick into the fiery jaws of hell (Naraka,

lower consciousness).

(Tirumantiram)

When mindstuff is firmly based in waves of

ahimsa, all living beings cease their enmity

in the presence of such a person.

(Yoga Sutras 2.35)

Ahimsa is not causing pain to any living

being at any time through the actions of

one’s mind, speech or body.

(Sandilya Upanishad)

Having well considered the origin of flesh

and the cruelty of fettering and slaying of

corporeal beings, let one entirely abstain

from eating flesh.

(Manu Samhita)

The purchaser of flesh performs himsa

(violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh

does so by enjoying its taste; the killer

does himsa by actually tying and killing

the animal. Thus, there are three forms

of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for

it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal,

and he who purchases,

sells or cooks flesh

and eats it—all of these are to be considered

meat-eaters.

(Mahabharata, Anu. 115.40)

He who desires to augment his own flesh

by eating the flesh of other creatures lives

in misery in whatever species he may take

his birth.

(Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47)

Those high-souled persons who desire

beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life, understanding,

mental and physical strength

and memory should abstain from acts of

injury.

(Mahabharata 18.115.8)

How can he practice true compassion who

eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his

own flesh?

(Tirukural Verse 251)

Riches cannot be found in the hands of

the thriftless. Nor can compassion be

found in the hearts of those who eat meat.

(Tirukural Verse 252)

Goodness is never one with the minds of

these two: one who wields a weapon and

one who feasts on a creature’s flesh.

(Tirukural Verse 253)

If you ask, “What is kindness and what is

unkind?” it is not killing and killing. Thus,

eating flesh is never virtuous.

(Tirukural Verse 254)

Life is perpetuated by not eating meat. The

clenched jaws of hell hold those who do.

(Tirukural Verse 255)

If the world did not purchase and consume

meat, there would be none to slaughter

and offer meat for sale.

(Tirukural Verse 256)

When a man realizes that meat is the

butchered flesh of another creature, he

must abstain from eating it.

(Tirukural Verse 257)

Greater than a thousand ghee offerings

consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice

and consume any living creature.

(Tirukural Verse 259)

All that lives will press palms together in

prayerful adoration of those who refuse to

slaughter and savor meat.

(Tirukural Verse 260)

My opinion is well known. I do not regard

flesh food as necessary for us at any stage

and under any clime in which it is possible

for human beings ordinarily to live. I hold

flesh-food to be unsuited to our species.”

(Mahatma Gandhi)

From market to table: (l to r) North Indian tali plate; a family enjoys

a vegetarian meal; selling vegetables at a local market; a traditional

South Indian meal served on an eco-friendly banana leaf

Karma

By involving oneself in the cycle of

inflicting injury, pain and death, even

indirectly, by eating other creatures,

one must in the future experience in

equal measure the suffering caused.

Consciousness

By ingesting the grosser chemistries

of

animal foods, one introduces into the

body and mind anger, jealousy, fear,

anxiety, suspicion and a terrible fear

of death, all of which are locked into

the flesh of the butchered creatures

Health

Vegetarians are less susceptible to

all the major diseases that afflict

contemporary humanity. Thus

they live longer, healthier, more

productive lives. They have fewer

physical complaints, less frequent

visits to the doctor, fewer dental

problems and smaller medical bills.

Environment

In large measure, the escalating loss

of species, destruction of ancient rain

forests to create pasture lands for

livestock, loss of topsoil and the

consequent increase of water

impurities and air pollution have

all been traced to the single fact

of meat in the human diet.

 




(The Blog  is reverently for all the seekers of truth, lovers of wisdom and   to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the spiritual path and also this is purely  a non-commercial)