First and Foremost, I must point out: the animal slaughter industry is inately linked to the dairy and egg industry. One does not have one without the other, and they are run in the same inhumane way. People often live under the illusion that animals raised for food (dairy cattle, egg-chickens) are somehow treated more humanely than meat animals, and therefore it is enough to be vegetarian, and consequently it is radical to be vegan. This could not be farther from the truth. Although it is better to be a non-vegan vegetarian than a meat eater, that amounts to only fighting half the battle: only boycotting half the corrupt factory farms. Below I hope to elaborate on that point.


Vegan for Animal Rights:

So much evidence here of abusive farming practices, it is hard to know where to begin without writing a book. Don't just take my word for it. Do a little research yourself and you will be appalled. Watch any documentary video of slaughterhouses or factory farming systems in America, and you will be incensed. Take even a peek into the living conditions of dairy cows and battery chickens, and you'll see that factory farming is factory farming...

The long and the short of it is, because it is more costly to raise animals under humane, natural conditions (such as organically fed, free-range ranched cattle), American corporate "factory farms" have figured out ways of maximizing profits and lowering costs by cramming high numbers of animals into close quarters.

Just think: animals in factory farms live under insufferable conditions--worse than prison camps--every day of their lives, so that we can enjoy how they taste for a fleeting moment at the dinner table. Can we really live with that idea?

If you could see the hours of documentary footage that I have encountered in my research, you would not need to be reading this page. You would most likely be vegan already! It is heartbreaking, infuriating, and even tear-jerking to see how these animals are treated every day, just so that we humans can have a relatively inexpensive snack or meal, which tastes good for a couple of minutes, then leaves our digestive systems a few hours later...

We need, as a society, to consider the implications of our actions, and attempt to lead a life that does as little harm and as much good as possible.



Vegan for Human Rights:

When it comes down to it, some people just don't care about the living conditions of other species. They assert that they are more concerned with human rights. But did you know, people working in the animal agriculture and slaughter industries have some of the highest incidence of on-the-job accidents and injuries (even deaths), exploitation and abuse by management/bosses, poor and insanitary working conditions, unfair employment practices, and the list goes on and on. The reasons are simple. An industry which puts cost cutting and profit expansion as priority above anything else (whether the welfare of the animals, or the workers), automatically sets itself up for exploitation and abuse of its staff, which are seen (just like the "livestock") as replaceable, unimportant cogs in the larger machine.



Vegan for the Environment:

Again, don't just take my word for it. There are volumes of text dedicated to this subject. Any google search will prove it. But to give you the facts in a nutshell, here's a list: waste and contamination of water resources, diversion of world grain stores, vast amounts more energy put into meat production than needed for vegetarian food production (thus contributing to world hunger), pollution of land and ground water by animal excrement, chemicals involved in processing animal products, antibiotic seepage into our water systems, regular violations of environmental laws and health standards, carried out by U.S. farms (that are never or rarely pursued by the USDA).



Vegan for Health:


According to many natural health experts, humans were not designed to eat meat or animal products. The book Vegan Nutrition: Pure & Simple (by Michael Klaper) shows a simple, enlightening comparison/contrast table on physical characteristics of carnivores, herbivores and humans. On each of several points (intestinal length, nail and tooth characteristics, stomach acids, etc.), he shows that humans have the digestive system and physical features much closer to natural herbivores than carnivores.

Because the meat/dairy industries are so powerful and carry such lobbying power over our government, it is very hard to get good information to the people. Journalists who have written and recorded stories exposing health hazards in the meat and dairy industries (such as investigative reports on the human-health dangers of Bovine Growth Hormone) have been fired or paid to keep quiet, by major news corporations such as Fox. The USDA and FDA, whose supposed job is to protect the health of the American public, are often mere mouth-pieces for the U.S. meat and dairy industries. Check it out on the news--they are the ones pressuring European countries like France (fearful of the e-coli and mad cow outbreaks of American factory-farmed beef)to lift their trade ban on American meat. They are the ones swearing our meat is safe, although they are also the ones in charge of recalling millions of pounds of beef every time it is revealed that some of it has been contaminated again by deadly bacteria.

As far as contemporary medical studies, Neal Barnard, MD is a great proponent of the vegan diet. His medical studies have covered a great range of disorders and diseases, showing links in each to improvement of health (great relief if not total elimination of symptoms). He is one of the authorities interviewed in the movie "Supersize Me." He has written several books that are intelligent and informative, and can be found easily at any major book store.

Within the long list of violations and outright abuse, we see the feeding of growth hormones and steroids, antibiotics fed to the animals all their lives in the hopes of "preventing" sickness--not just treating the occasional infection, and even feeding ground up parts of other dead animals (usually the practice to blame when we see an outbreak of mad cow disease). Imagine what effect these standard practices have, not only upon the quality of life for the animals, but also your health.

Check it out! The vegan diet can greatly improve your quality of life if you suffer from: heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol (the vegan diet is 100% cholesterol-free), diabetes, PMS and dysmenorrhea, obesity, cancer, chronic sinus problems, asthma, and a host of other typical ailments that affect millions of Americans every year. Do your own research, both by reading and by trying it on for size.