Media Attention to Promote Vegetarianism

Every day Americans participate in an activity that is one of the most environmentally dangerous productions in the world. They consume food that is poisoned with drugs and chemicals without even knowing about its. They even steal food away from developing countries without even letting the thought cross their minds. These Americans are eating meat and other animal products. The dangers that meat-rich diets have on the world are so hazardous and should be presented to the public. A vegetarian diet should be promoted. A meat-free diet is the best choice for your health, the environment, and the world's peoples.

A major misconception about vegetarians is that they are weak and deprived of key nutrients such as proteins and iron; nutrients we as humans need to build muscle and stay healthy. This, however, is not the case. Many protein and iron rich foods occur naturally in nature such as broccoli, lentils, and almonds. Looking at the argument logically, we can see that cows, pigs, and other farm-raised animals are fed grains and cereals to build up their muscle until they are ready for human consumption. Therefore, a vegetarian diet simply skips the middle step in this process, and also prevents consumption of contaminants, cholesterol, chemicals, and saturated fat found in animal products. There are over 20,000 different drugs, including sterols, antibiotics, growth hormones and other veterinary drugs that are given to livestock animals. These drugs are secondarily consumed by humans, and the dangers in this consumption are well documented. Vegetarian diets protect followers against many deadly diseases. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50% less likely to develop heart disease and have 40% of the cancer rate of their meat-eating friends. Meat eaters are also nine times more likely to be obese than their vegetarian counterparts. The benefits to your health from a vegetarian lifestyle are undeniable.

The benefits to the environment are also apparent in when choosing a vegetarian lifestyle. When you are eating meat, you are wasting valuable resources. More than 70% of the grains and cereals grown in the US are fed to the animals we raise for food , and only a small fraction of these calories develop into edible meat. 80% of the agricultural farmland in the US is used for farming animals. Not only do these animals use most of our food and land, but they also expel this food onto our land is massive amounts. Farmed animals produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States each day. To make matters worse, these farms don't have sewage systems like the ones in our homes, resulting in the pollution of nearby topsoil, water, and air. About 86,000 pounds of waste a second enters into our earth and pollutes our atmosphere. The farming of animals is an enormous threat to our environment.

The health of the individual and the environment not only thrives off of vegetarianism, but the health of the world depends on it. The issue of world hunger is not an easily solved problem, but small steps towards feeding the human race should be taken. Land, water and other resources that could be used to grow food for less fortunate people are instead being utilized for animals to feed the most "hefty" of countries. Adding to the problem is the fact that industrial countries like Canada and the US are exporting grain to developing countries, and importing the meat produced from it. These resources are not being fed to the hungry, but instead fed to their animals. It takes up to 10 pounds of grain to produce just one pound of edible animal flesh. Farmers in these countries who follow the healthy, more efficient "agricultural model" are driven off their land to make room for farmed animals to feed developed countries. Because the mass production of animal flesh also pollutes the air, water and land around livestock farms, when these farms use up the resources around them, they leave and render the land they once farmed useless and barren. Reasons such as these are why more than 840 million