Become Vegetarian and
Save the Planet

For instance, Al Gore is to be respected for his efforts to bring these important environmental issues to the public’s attention. In The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills to Stop Climate Change Or Live Through It, the companion book to the Live Earth Concerts that he helped to organize, it states that “refusing meat… is the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.” And yet, Gore continues to eat meat.

Did you know...

• It takes 11 times the amount of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of animal protein as it does to produce 1 calorie of plant protein. This should be extra important to anyone with a brain during these days of gas shortages and rising prices.
• If every person in the US replaced just one chicken-based meal per week with a vegetarian meal, it would be the equivalent of taking more than 5 million cars off the road.
• If, for just one day a week, everyone ate only vegetarian foods, it would be like taking 8,000,000 cars off the road.
• It takes 4,200 gallons of water to supply food for a meat eater for one day. It takes 300 gallons for a vegan.
• To produce food for a meat eater takes 3-1/4 acres of land, whereas for someone following a vegan diet it takes 1/6 acre.
• If you switch to a hybrid car you can save slightly more than 1 ton of carbon dioxide per year. If you switch from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet, you’ll save nearly 1.5 tons. Think how much it would be if you did both!
• The same amount of greenhouse gases is emitted driving an SUV 40 miles as eating 1 pound of meat.

Become Vegetarian and Save the Chickens and the Rainforest

I’ve noticed that many thoughtful, health-conscious people believe that chicken is better to eat than beef, for some reason. I wonder if they know that eating chicken is destroying the rainforest. The nonprofit organization Greenpeace reports that more than 2.9 million acres of rainforest were destroyed in Brazil during 2004-2005 to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in factory farms.

Soy is one of the main crops grown in the rainforest, and it’s used to feed farmed animals. (The organic soy products consumed in the US, such as soymilk, veggie burgers, etc., are produced from soybeans grown domestically, however.)

It’s very inefficient to feed food crops to animals, since it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of animal flesh. If people ate the plant foods directly instead of feeding them to farmed animals, we would not need to destroy so much land to raise so many crops. Plus, it’s simply healthier--and kinder--to avoid eating animal flesh.

Become Vegetarian for 30 Days

If you’re an environmentalist and still eating meat, consider taking a 30-day pledge to practice vegetarianism... just for 30 days. Then, you can start all over, one day at a time, if necessary. Encourage your friends to do the same. Thank you. I thank you, your human Earth neighbors thank you, and your beautiful animal neighbors thank you.