If you are thinking about going vegan and need some motivation then the following information should help. Also I am currently working on Vegan Recipe E-book (to be released this Monday) that will have your taste buds in delight!
1. Every year in the UK we feed our livestock enough food to feed 250,000,000 people while in the world 30,000,000 people die of starvation
2. 20 vegans can live off the land required by one meat eater
3. Every three seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world
4. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10% it would free 12,000,000 tons of grain – enough to feed 60,000,000 people (the population of Great Britain)
5. If all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people (the population of India)
6. In third world countries one in ten babies die before their first birthday
7. The UK imports £46,000,000 worth of grain from third world countries to feed our livestock
8. Due to overgrazing 850,000,000 people live on land threatened by desertification & over 230,000,000 already live on land so severely desertified that they are unable to sustain their existence & face imminent starvation
9. 1,000,000,000 people in the west feast on meat & dairy leaving 1,000,000,000 to waste away & 3,500,000,000 teetering on the brink. An Indian proverb states better we feed our child and the neighbour’s hungry child rice, than feeding our child kheer (expensive rice pudding) and letting the other go hungry.
10. If they continue to clear American forests to raise cattle at the present rate, in 50 years there will be none left
11. One acre yields 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 lbs of potatoes
12. 8/10 of cultivated land in the UK is used to grow food for animals (14,732,000 hectares)
13. It takes 16lbs of high protein soya to produce 1 lb of beef
14. Since 1945 in the UK we have lost 95% of flower meadows, 50% of ancient woodlands, 40% of heathlands, 50% of wet lands & 224,000 km of hedgerows all due to animal farming
15. Pressure on land due to meat farming leads to soil erosion 6billion tons/year in the USA
16. If everyone went vegetarian up to 90% of land used for animal farming could be taken out of production & used to replant woodlands, leisure activities etc.
17. 25% of Central America’s forests have been destroyed for cattle grazing since 1960
18. Between 1966-1983 38% of the Amazon rain forest was destroyed for cattle grazing
19. 90% of cattle ranches established on cleared forest land go bankrupt in less than eight years as the land becomes barren due to nutrient loss & overgrazing
20. Overgrazing by cattle is destroying the land & increasing desertification, nearly 430 million acres in the USA alone has suffered a 25-50% reduction in yield since first grazed
21. Even cattle ranchers are promoting veganism
22. An inch of topsoil takes 200-1000 years to develop – yet in the USA they have lost around a third of their prime topsoil in 200 years (around 7 inches) due to animal farming. The health of our topsoil is very important – good topsoil creates more nutritious food.
23. Land will be lost as a result of rises in sea level due to global warming due to animal farming
24. The destruction of the rainforest by cattle farmers is destroying the lungs of the planet and reducing the worlds capacity to replenish our oxygen supply
25. The 1,300,000,000 cattle in the world emit 60,000,000 tons of methane per year (methane is a greenhouse gas & leads to global warming)
26. Burning of forests, grasslands and agricultural waste associated with animal farming releases 50-100,000,000 tons of methane per year
27. Combining these figures, 25% of methane emissions are due to animal farming (not including the billions of sheep, pigs & poultry so the real figure is much higher)
28. Fertiliser used to grow crops to feed to animals releases nitrous oxide – thought to account for 6% of the greenhouse effect
29. Fertiliser, weedkiller & pesticides sprayed on crops enter the atmosphere creating a noxious carcinogenic cocktail
30. CFCs are released into the air from refrigeration units used to store decomposing flesh (meat), milk & butter – CFCs are destroy the ozone layer
31. Ammonia from animal urine also pollutes the atmosphere
32. Faeces, urine, pus and blood are likely to be present in meat and dairy
33. CO2 is released by burning oil and petrol in lorries, ships, abattoirs, dairies, factories etc. associated with meat & dairy production
34. Emissions from large chemical plants which produce fertiliser, weedkiller & other agricultural chemicals are also poisoning our air
35. 25 gallons of water to produce 1lb of wheat & 2500 gallons to produce 1lb of meat
36. UK farm animals produce 200,000,000 tonnes of slurry (liquid excrement) every year, the majority of which ends up in our rivers
37. Bloody waste water from abattoirs ends up in our rivers
38. In the USA every second humans produce 12,000 lbs of effluent while farmed animals produce 250,000 lbs
39. Nitrates & pesticides used on crops grown to feed livestock end up in our rivers
40. Meat & dairy farming uses 70 litres of water per day per animal in the UK or 159,250,000,000 litres per year in total
41. The water used to produce 10 lbs of steak is equivalent to the average consumption of water for an entire household for an entire year
42. Depletion of groundwater reserves to grow crops for animals & to supply abattoirs will lead to greater water shortages
43. Aquafers (stores of underground water) in the San Joaquin valley in the USA are being drained at the rate of 500,000,000,000 gallons/year to produce meat
44. 18% of all agricultural land in the world is irrigated & as global warming increases (partly due to animal farming) it will cost $200,000,000 to keep these systems going
45. The water used to produce a 1000 lb beef steer is enough to float a Destroyer battleship
46. The liquid waste from the various parts of the meat & dairy industry flow into the rivers & from there into the seas polluting them & encouraging huge algal blooms to grow
47. To produce 1 calorie of energy from meat takes 60 calories of petrol, whereas growing grains & legumes to directly feed people produces 20 calories for each calorie of fuel used (that’s 1200 times more efficient)
48. Meat & dairy farming uses billions of gallons of oil to run tractors, fuel ships & lorries (to move animal feed & animals), pump billions of gallons of water to irrigate fields & run slaughterhouses, power refrigeration units to prevent the corpses from decomposing & to power sewage plants to clean up some of the pollution produced
49. Cattle convert only 6% of their energy intake (mainly grains & soya) into flesh, the remaining 94% is wasted as heat, movement (which is why they keep many animals in very close confinement), hair, bones, faeces etc
50. 1lb of beef takes one gallon of petrol to produce
51. A family of four eating beef for a year uses enough petrol to run a car for 6 months (obviously depending on how far you drive!)
52. If the full ecological cost of meat was passed onto the consumer – the price would be quadrupled (at least)
53. The EC spends millions to subsidise animal production resulting in lakes of unwanted milk & mountains of unwanted meat & butter. This money could be better spent encouraging organic fruit, vegetable & grain production
54. In the USA in 1979 145,000,000 tons of crops were fed to cattle resulting in only 21million tons of animal bodies – the cost of the wasted crops was $20,000,000,000
55. Between 1950 & 1985 grain production in Europe & the USA increased massively but 2/3 was fed to animals
56. 70% of all grain is fed to animals
57. Eating vast quantities of animal flesh, eggs, milk & butter is a luxury that most of the planet can not afford
58. Fishing with drift (and other modern) nets weakens & destroys ecosystems by indiscriminately killing billions of sea creatures & disrupting the sea bed
59. Fishermen’s nets kill 10 times as many other animals as the fish they are hoping to catch
60. Fish caught in nets die an agonising slow death of suffocation
61. Each year 15,000,000,000 land animals are slaughtered for food & an unknown but much larger number of sea creatures (including 1000′s of dolphins caught accidentally)
62. Chickens are crammed into battery cages with up to three other birds, they are unable to even spread their wings & many can not even stand up
63. Unwanted male chicks are gassed or pulped while their females go to the battery sheds
64. Chicks are debeaked without anaesthetic to prevent them injuring each other in the unnaturally confined conditions they are kept in – this is equivalent to having your fingernails pulled out without anaesthetic
65. Modern farming methods using growth hormones & artificial lighting mean that many chickens out grow their bones, resulting in fractured & broken legs
66. Sows are kept tethered in stalls 1.3 x 1 metre on concrete or slatted floors – they can not even turn around
67. Poultry raised for meat are kept in windowless broiler sheds, with around 20-30,000 in each shed, they live in an area of 10-20 cm square
68. Spiritual progression is impossible while eating a diet that promotes violence to animals
69. Animals transported from farms to slaughter are sent in overcrowded conditions with no food or water – resulting in stress, injuries and many deaths on route
70. 95% of poultry suffer injuries before being killed & 30% suffer broken bones
71. Stunning sometimes doesn’t work meaning that many animals have their throats slit while still conscious and are then dipped in tanks of scalding water while fully conscious
72. In the USA cattle are fed partly on recycled plastic pellets
73. Calf leather comes from animals killed at just two weeks old
74. Cows fed on the ground up remains of other cows and sheep are thought to be the cause of BSE (mad cow disease).
75. Cows often only give milk for around ten months after they have a calf – so they are routinely artificially inseminated (ie. mechanically raped) to keep them milking – then their calves are taken away (usually at 12 hours old) for meat or export to veal crates
76. Cows would naturally live up to 20 years but are slaughtered after five or six years when their milk production begins to drop
77. In the UK animals are killed by first being stunned with electricity or a captive bolt gun (ie. a bolt is fired into their heads) before having their throats slit & being plunged into boiling water. Someone I know swiftly turned vegetarian after seeing this happen on a production line
78. Cows often bellow out for their babies as they naturally form a close bond with them and there have been reports of cows escaping to search for their calves
79. Veal calves are confined in stalls in the dark, unable to move and are sometimes fed on pigs blood , chocolate and dried milk instead of their mothers milk
80. Cows naturally produce five litres of milk per day for their calves – under the intensified systems of modern farming they produce twenty-forty litres per day – resulting in swollen and inflamed udders and plenty of pus in the milk
81. Large areas of land are under monoculture to grow crops to feed to animals
82. Vegetarians have a 20% lower rate of mortality from all causes – they live longer and don’t get sick as often
83. Meat is full of traces of antibiotics, hormones, toxins produced by stress and pesticide residues that become concentrated from all the crops they have eaten
84. Fish contain heavy metals and other pollutants -many of which originated on farms
85. The world health organisation recommends a diet low in saturated fat, sugar, salt & with plenty of fibre – this is easily acquired on a vegan/vegetarian diet
86. Farmed animals contain up to 50% saturated fat in their bodies
87. Vegetarians have 24% reduced risk of getting heart disease and vegans a 57% reduction (heart disease is the biggest killer in the UK accounting for 50% of deaths)
88. Obesity is rare in vegetarians, obesity is related to many diseases
89. Vegans & vegetarians have lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels
90. Vegetarians have a 50% reduced risk of dying of diabetes
91. Vegetarians have a 40% reduced level of cancer than the general population thought to be because they have a higher intake of vitamins A,C & E
92. Vegetarians have a reduced risk of developing gall and kidney stones
93. 80% of food poisoning is due to infected meat (faeces, bacteria etc.) after all meat is decomposing flesh – most of the rest is due to salmonella in eggs
94. Osteoporosis due to calcium loss from bones is mainly due to the sulphur content in meat and casein protein in milk that cause calcium to be lost in the urine. The countries with the highest meat and dairy consumption are those with the highest levels of brittle bones
95. 50% of people do not have the enzyme to digest milk properly and milk allergy is related to conditions such as asthma and eczema
96. Meat eaters have double the rate of Alzheimers disease as vegans and vegetarians – some people also think that Parkinsons disease is linked to meat eating
97. Egg yolk is a dense concentration of saturated fat & the white is high in albumin protein associated with leaching calcium into your urine.
98. Meat eaters are two and a half times more likely to get bowel cancer than vegetarians
99. The cling film used to wrap meat in supermarkets & butchers contains chemicals linked to falling sperm counts in men
100. Chinese people (living mainly on a vegan diet) consume 20% more calories than Americans but Americans are 20% fatter
101. Of 2,100,000 deaths in the USA in 1987, 1,500,000 were related to diet (ie. meat & dairy)
Be the change you want to see – eat high quality fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains. Be confident in lobbying the government to put their resources into providing top quality organic produce, and most importantly show your support by not buying milk, meat or eggs
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