why vegan?
For your health
Cancer link
An international panel spent five years reviewing more than 7,000 large-scale studies to develop a report on diet and cancer. Among the study's findings: diets relatively high in red meat were probable causes of colorectal cancer, and a pattern was noted whereby red meat was a possible cause of cancers of the pancreas, breast, prostate, and kidney (World Cancer Research Fund International and American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007).
Listeria in hot dogs
The United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service posts consumer information on the Web. The Hot Dogs and Food Safety page states: "Studies have shown a high level of the harmful bacteria listeria in hot dogs."
Mad Cow Disease
The New York Times reported that according to Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco and winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on prions, the only reason mad cow disease had not been found in the United States is that the USDA's animal inspection agency was testing too few animals. Prusiner stated that once more cows are tested, "we'll be able to understand the magnitude of our problem" (Blakeslee 2003).
According to the Associated Press, "a new theory proposes that mad cow disease may have come from feeding U.K. cattle meal contaminated with human remains infected with a variation of the disease" (BSE: Origin of 2005).
In January 2006, CNNMoney reported that Japan halted the import of beef from the United States after spinal cords were discovered in a shipment. To decrease the risk of Mad Cow Disease, Japanese officials required new regulations requiring that all brain and spinal material be removed (Japan Stops 2006).
Toxins in fish
The Washington Post recently reported the results of an ongoing four-year Environmental Protection Agency study on fish in 260 lakes. Among the findings:
- More than half of all freshwater fish could be unsafe for women of childbearing
age to eat twice a week.
- More than three-quarters of the fish sampled contained mercury levels that may be unhealthy for children younger than 3 (Eilperin 2004).
In an article titled Toxins Cited in Farmed Salmon, The Washington Post also reported on a two-year, $2.4 million study funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and published in the journal Science. The study used Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health guidelines. The study findings detailed by the Post include the following:
- Farm-raised salmon contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin, and
other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild and should
be eaten infrequently.
- Consumption of more than one 8-ounce portion of farmed salmon a month in most cases
poses an "unacceptable cancer risk."
- According to EPA guidelines, if a person eats fish twice a week, it should contain
no more than 4 to 6 parts per billion of PCBs. The study found that PCB
levels in farmed salmon sold in the United States and Canada averaged
about five times that amount: 30 parts per billion.
In 2003, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported: Traces of Antidepressant Found in Bluegills in Texas Creek. Researchers at Baylor University found traces of fluoxetine, which is found in Prozac, in fish in Denton County. The researchers believe it came from a wastewater treatment plant, and the plants are not designed to filter out pharmaceuticals.
For the environment
Damaged ecosystems
According to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, industrial livestock production often results in severe environmental damage, especially around water sources. For example, the report states that pig and poultry production concentrated in coastal areas of China, Thailand, and Viet Nam are the major source of nutrient pollution of the South China Sea (Food and Agriculture Organization 2006).
Diminishing global water supply
BBC News Online environmental correspondent Alex Kirby reported that experts attending the World Water Week conference in Stockholm conclude that the world will have to change its consumption patterns if it has any realistic hope of feeding itself. Grazing animals and animals fed grain require more water than grain crops (Hungry world 2004).
Global warming
ABC News reports that your personal impact on global warming may be influenced as much by what you eat as by what you drive. Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, assistant professors of geophysics at the University of Chicago, have found that our consumption of red meat may be as bad for the planet as it is for our bodies (Meat eaters 2006).
Ravaged oceans
Biologists Ramsom Myers and Boris Worm (2003) reported in the international journal Nature that 90 percent of all large fish, including tuna, marlin, swordfish, sharks, cod, and halibut, are gone.
"The impact we have had on ocean ecosystems has been vastly underestimated," Worm said. "These are the megafauna, the big predators of the sea, and the species we most value. Their depletion not only threatens the future of these fish and the fishers that depend on them, it could also bring about a complete reorganization of ocean ecosystems, with unknown global consequences."
Water pollution
CNN reported that a 1997 U.S. Senate study found that "more than 40 animal waste spills killed 670,000 fish in Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri." The study also reported that a 50,000-acre hog farm could potentially "put out more waste than the city of Los Angeles" (Study shows 1997).
For the animals
The United States is home to 100 million cattle and kills 35 million a year (Blakeslee 2003).
References
Blakeslee, S. (2003, December 25.) Expert warned that mad cow was imminent. The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2005, from www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1225-01.htm
BSE: Origin of 'Mad Cow' Disease may have been human. (2005, September 1.) The Associated Press. Retrieved September 16, 2005, from www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=8702
Eilperin, Juliet. (2004, August 4.) Most fish from lakes is too high in mercury. The Washington Post. Retrieved August 30, 2004, from www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37702-2004Aug3.html.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Pollution from industrialized livestock production. (2006). Retrieved February 20, 2006, from www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/resources/documents/pol-briefs/02/EN/AGA02_EN_08.pdf
Focus on: Hot Dogs. (June 2002). Retrieved September 16, 2005, from www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Hot_Dogs/index.asp
Hungry world must 'eat less meat.' (2004, August 15). BBC News online. Retrieved September 16, 2005, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3559542.stm
Japan stops U.S. beef shipments again. (2006, January 20). CNNMoney.com. Retrieved January 24, 2006, from http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/20/news/international/japan_beef/index.htm
Meat eaters aiding global warming? (2006, April 19). ABC News. Retrieved April 28, 2006, from http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1856817&page=1
Myers, R.A., & Worm, B. (15 May 2003). Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities. Nature, 423, 280-283.
Pianin, Eric. (2004, January 9.) Toxins cited in farmed salmon: cancer risk is lower in wild fish, study reports. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 15, 2005, from www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A733-2004Jan8
Pollution from industrialized livestock production. (2006). Retrieved February 20, 2006, from www.fao.org/ag/AGAinfo/resources/documents/pol-briefs/02/EN/AGA02_EN_08.pdf
Streater, Scott. (2003, October 17.) Traces of antidepressant found in bluegills in Texas creek. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. retrieved October 14, 2007, from www.baylor.edu/pr/index.php?id=10747
Study shows environmental risks of animal waste. (1997, December 28). CNN. Retrieved September 16, 2005, from www.cnn.com/EARTH/9712/28/animal.manure.ap/
World Cancer Research Fund International and American Institute for Cancer Research. Food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: a global perspective. (2007). Retrieved November 18, 2007, from www.dietandcancerreport.org/?p=ER
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