The Vegan Mafia is really starting to bum me out. They are starting to get as bad as Creationists in their proseltizing ways and great disregard for any type of research that might conflict with their love for being able to call themselves “perfect”.
And the stupid! Gah!
I’ll put it this way. I should never be able to read your article and refute half of what you say off the top of my head just by using some common sense.
The 101 Reasons to Go Vegetarian or as I like to call it: A Couple Reasons to Go Veg With Other Things Pulled Out My Ass.
“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”
“Every 3 seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world”
“If all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people (the population of India)”
Well first thing first. Dude, how old is that textbook you are using? The population of India is well over 1 billion now.
These three “facts” (the real numbers are apparently optional) are based on the idea that if we didn’t feed food to cows, we would feed it to the poor people starving in the poorest regions of the world. Which is a lovely thought but shows a very poor understanding of capitalism. Both the United States and Canada create more food than both the people and livestock can eat. To the tune of billions of dollars. But see that’s the crux of it… money. People in poor countries are starving not because there is no food available but because they can’t afford the food that is. Or the technology the modern technology to grow food successfully themselves. Hell, the United States is so lousy with corn they have basically replaced sugar with scary creation of high-fructose corn syrup. Feeding the starving is more altruistic than using it to sweeten your (perfectly vegan) Coke or Pepsi but as long as there is no money in it corporations are not going to jump on the opportunity.
Quite honestly if the cows stop eating it, they’ll just stop growing it.
“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”
Really? Flower meadows? Is that not like say you’ve lost your open fields? Besides that this ‘all due to animal farming’ seems ridiculous considering the increase of population, and expanding urban and suburban centres since the 1940’s.
“If everyone went vegetarian upto 90% of land used for animal farming could be taken out of production & used to replant woodlands, leisure activities etc.”
The only leisure activity that would be there would be a 20 screen theatre multiplex, attached to a big ass mall and a sprawling parking lot. Not exactly a convincing idea for the “environment”. Unless you specifically made a government mandate complete with funding for tree planting the chances of woodland are small and urban sprawl high.
“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”
“An inch of topsoil takes 200-1000 years to develop – yet in the USA they have lost around 1/3 of their prime topsoil in 200 years (around 7 inches) due to animal farming”
There are obviously a little lax on their American history. Most of the desertification is caused, and topsoil lost, due to plant farming. One of the worst agricultural disasters, the Great Dust Bowl of the 1930’s in the American Mid-West, was caused by drought, a lack of crop rotation and poor understanding of what causes soil erosion.
Grazing animals can definitely damage existing wildlife and grasses if they are overcrowded. This could eventually lead to soil erosion but I don’t see how it would be more damaging than using the same land for farming. Of course this overlooks the fact that many animals are grazed in areas that lack nutritive topsoil anyways.
“Fertilizer used to grow crops to feed to animals releases nitrous oxide – thought to account for 6% of the greenhouse effect”
“Fertilizer, weedkiller & pesticides sprayed on crops enter the atmosphere creating a noxious carcinogenic cocktail”
“Emissions from large chemical plants which produce fertilizer, weedkiller & other agricultural chemicals are also poisoning our air”
“Nitrates & pesticides used on crops grown to feed livestock end up in our river”
But the fertilizers and pesticides we put on human food are the pollution free kind? I don’t think so.
“CFCs are released into the air from refrigeration units used to store decomposing flesh (meat), milk & butter – CFCs are destroy the ozone layer”
Because no one ever stores veggies or fruits in the fridge?
“CO2 is released by burning oil & petrol in lorries, ships, abattoirs, dairies, factories etc. associated with meat & dairy production”
Meanwhile my oranges from Florida, my kiwi fruit from Australia and my coffee beans from Columbia sprout wings and migrate to the grocery store every week?
Of course, sadly I could go on and on (especially on the laughable health assertions) but I can only stand so much before my head starts hurting.
The sad thing is Vegetarianism and Veganism should be a personal choice and we should be able to share our opinions on how we choose to eat. Food is a big part of our culture of course, we socialize over food, use it to mark important occasions and share recipies. I am also a huge proponent of responsible animal husbandry and that people should include less meat in their diets (I adore my Moosewood Cookbook.) So when I come across people who choose to share their beliefs in such a hostile way that they are willing to distort the information, or cite very biased studies, or outright lie? It pisses me off. Responsible vegans should speak out more because the less responsible of you are turning you into the Jehovah Witnesses or dare I say it, the Scientologists of diets. Militant and a wee bit crazy.
*Photo Credit revjim5000.
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