Make the Vegan “Moo”ve

By Michael Finn

With so many delicious meat and dairy alternatives being produced every day, the transition has AnimalLovenever been easier. Whether you want to improve your health, increase your energy, save animals, demonstrate kindness, or decrease your carbon footprint, a vegan lifestyle can help you attain your goals! click here and here for more info on vegan foods.


Consider vegan for your health

In 2015, the World Health Organization placed processed meats in the same carcinogenic category as tobacco, arsenic, and pesticides. Red meat has been shown to cause a whole slew of health problems, including atherosclerosis, colon cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis, impotence, asthma, and even Alzheimer’s disease. Although the meat & dairy industry doesn’t want you to know, they often force feed their animals a medley of antibiotics, growth hormones, pain relievers, anti-depressants, poisons (arsenic), and caffeine. These additives are used to manipulate the animals’ growth, behaviors, and output production. When you eat meat or dairy, you could very well be consuming these poisons, as they end up in the meat, milk, cheese, and eggs. for more info click here and here.

Consider vegan because meat and dairy are unappealing

Because meat literally is dead tissue it begins the decomposition process immediately after the animal it belonged to is killed. To combat this, agribusinesses inject meat with carbon monoxide, which helps the decaying flesh from losing its bloody appearance. Without this added chemical, some meat would have a putrid, brownish coloration to it. When beef is ground up, a substance known as pink slime, or “finely textured beef” is added to give it bulk. This additive consists of fatty bits of leftover tissue that’s treated with ammonia gas. If eating “fatty bits of tissue” isn’t nasty enough, the ammonia that’s intended to kill bacteria in the pink slime increases the chance that pathogens will enter the food supply. 70% of ground beef in the supermarket contains pink slime.

In the dairy industry, milking cows often develop mastitis from being milked continuously. When mastitis appears, small amounts of pus will be found in the milk produced. This is due to the natural immune response to inflammation. In cheese production, a curdling agent called “rennet” is often utilized. Although there are synthetic and plant based alternatives for this enzyme, it’s often sourced from the intestinal lining of calves. When you consume dairy, not only are putting chemicals, growth hormones, and other sickening toxins into your body – you’re also potentially ingesting pus and intestinal lining from baby cows… not cool!

Consider vegan to demonstrate kindness

There’s no refuting that the meat and dairy industries are beyond vicious to the animals enslaved in them. While it may sometimes be easy to ignore the horrors of these multi-billion dollar giants, animals are enduring unspeakable agony under the tyranny of their DSCF7433control. By going vegan, you demonstrate kindness and mercy to those who cannot speak for themselves. By choosing compassion over consumption, you become a savior to animals all over the world. Practicing kindness towards animals will help you discover several aspects about yourself. Many people report a profound sense of inner peace when they no longer consume meat and dairy. Vegans reduce demand for meat, dairy and eggs so less will be produced and increases demand for vegan friendly products.

Consider vegan for the environment

Animal agriculture is destroying the planet. Reports indicate that approximately 80,000 acres of rainforest are destroyed every day. This occurs so greedy companies can strip the land of resources, grow food for livestock, and raise cattle. In the U.S., animal agriculture uses from 34-76 trillion gallons of water annually. Growing crops for livestock consumes 56% of water in the United States. Each pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water. For one pound of eggs it takes 47 gallons, and for one pound of cheese it takes 900! Because water shortage is a very serious danger, especially on the west coast, going vegan is a viable option for preserving and responsibly dispensing Earth’s most precious element.

Researchers warn that without lowering our meat consumption, it will be impossible to prevent global warming from passing serious danger levels. It’s astonishing to think that more methane gasses are produced from livestock in the United States than every car, truck, and transportation vehicle in the entire world combined. Cows produce over 150 billions of methane every single day. Likewise, livestock and their byproducts create 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide per year (this is 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions). If you care about the environment, the best thing you can do is to stop eating meat. To find out more click here.

Consider for the animals

The best reason to adopt a vegan diet/philosophy (in my opinion) is for the animals. Although our health and planet’s stability are obviously important, animals deserve our respect and protection because they are living, sentient beings. They feel sadness, Farm-articleLarge-v2loneliness, and happiness just as you and me. They feel pain, anxiety, and terror as well. When we consume/purchase animal products, we contribute to the perpetual cycle of slavery, rape (artificial insemination), and death that factory/dairy farms, hatcheries, and slaughter houses practice.

Many animals destined for human consumption never see the light of day or feel a single breeze – that is until they’re transported for slaughter. At hatcheries, male chicks are often ground up alive or thrown into garbage bags to slowly die. On veal farms, calves are chained down so they can never comfortably stand. This is done so their meat will stay tender. Because veal is a byproduct of the dairy industry, when we eat cheese or drink milk, we’re contributing to these horrors. For more information on how animals are treated for meat and dairy production click here.

Whatever reason you have for improving your life this year, I hope you will extend a hand of compassion to the animal kingdom. While going vegan will significantly improve your life, you will also be advocating for animal rights all over the world. Every person that speaks for animals wins several victories in the fight against cruelty. While this article is not intended to make anyone feel guilty for their dietary practices, it merely relays facts. Because most of us were raised on meat and dairy, we can all relate to the difficulties of no longer consuming animal products. Just remember that no matter what food you’re craving, there’s a vegan option for it. Hopefully 2016 will be the year you make the vegan “moo”ve!