The stark truth is that this diet and the industry behind it, is literally killing us, aided and abetted through our ignorance and their greed. Land which could vastly be more productively used to grow crops is instead used for livestock for the meat industry which provides only a fraction of the food, and often not for the local communities but for overseas consumers in the developed world, which leaves many subject to poor diets, food shortages and inevitably higher priced food. This industry causes mass deforestation in order to provide land for cattle, wastes enormous quantities of water in production leading to shortages of clean drinking water and also consumes vast amounts of our ever vanishing, and polluting, fossil fuels. The US alone consumes a staggering 25% of the fossil fuels used globally, an entire third of which is exhausted solely by the meat industry.

We do not need to eat meat, for health or for any other reason. Tradition and habit is no excuse. One of the more absurd justifications that I have heard vented more than once, is that agricultural livestock such as sheep and cattle will become extinct if we cease to use them in this manner. This is so bizarre and ridiculous I’m often at a loss for words as to an appropriate response. Numbers would dwindle, naturally, and these animals could simply be left in the long term to get on with their lives as with any other animal in the wild. The more harmful of our effects upon these species would eventually in most cases be reduced and disappear altogether. Plus, the very concept that we have to continue to use and abuse, and kill, other sentient animals with the notion that we are somehow preserving them and ensuring their continuity in doing this, is so absurd that it beggars belief.

Carnivorism is unethical, immoral and selfish. It harms the environment, involves the grotesque abuse of other sentient beings, squanders precious and rapidly diminishing resources and contributes to global food shortages. Furthermore, for the consumer it is increasingly expensive and dangerous to the health, meat products being often contaminated with waste, chemicals and toxins that are either incidental or a direct result of the production process.

If you want to make a significant contribution towards change, to benefit the environment for us all, and even to lessen the burden upon your finances with the soaring costs of meat products; then become a vegetarian. It is the only option which makes sense.