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Practicing to Eat a Vegetarian Diet
As food is basic
to our survival, this is a complicated practice, touching so many elements of
our daily life... from our understanding of nutrition, to social norms and
economics. Mindfulness is key to be able to navigate through all of this; it
helps us to make whatever decision is appropriate at whatever time.
I would like to offer some information on a particular perspective of diet:
How our choice of diet is related to our impact on the environment and global
issues of hunger/starvation. Some facts to ponder:
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Factory farms produce massive amounts of dust and other contamination
that pollutes our air. A study in Texas found that animal feedlots in the
state produce more than 14 million pounds of particulate dust every year
and that the dust “contains biologically active organisms such as bacteria,
mold, and fungi from the feces and the feed.
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According to the
nonprofit group Greenpeace, all the wild animals and trees in more than 2.9
million acres of rainforest were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season in
order to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in
factory farms.
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According to a
2006 UN report
, the livestock sector causes more greenhouse gases
worldwide than the entire transportation sector.
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Nitrous oxide is
about 300 times more potent as a global warming gas than carbon dioxide.
According to the U.N., the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for a
staggering 65 percent of worldwide nitrous oxide emissions.
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According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, the run-off from factory farms pollutes our
waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. The EPA reports
that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers
in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.
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It takes 16
pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat. One
average meat eater could consume that pound of meat during a meal, while 16
people could have been fed on the grain it takes to produce that pound of
meat.
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The meat
industry causes more water pollution in the US than all other industries
combined because the animals raised for food produce 130 times more excrement
than the entire human population--86,000 lbs per second. A typical pig factory
farm generates a quantity of raw waste equal to that of a city of 12,000
people.
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Every 2 seconds,
a child starves to death somewhere in the world. Countries such as Ethiopia
and some Central American countries use their farmland to supply the United
States with cheap burgers instead of growing healthful grain foods for their
own starving people.
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The livestock
population of the US consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than 5
times its human population. 90% of all corn and 80% of all grains and beans
grown in the US are used to feed livestock animals.
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