A Change Will Do You Good

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other....  ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

Believe it or not, all it takes is one person to make a change.  It's easy to make excuses, "what difference can one person make?" But one person CAN make a difference!!  The average person consumes 31 animals per year!!  That's just ONE PERSON!  Imagine if just that one person stopped eating meat for an entire year. Think about how many animals that one person would save!   It is impossible to ignore the pain and suffering that our food choices have on other animals, our environment, and on our health.  But ok, if you don't have a bleeding heart for the ethical treatment of animals, what about having a heart for the ethical treatment of YOURSELF!  Heart disease is the LEADING cause of death in the United States.  The link between our mass consumption of all things animal and increased rates of heart disease is UNDENIABLE!  Our country is overweight and unhealthy, and our consumption of meat and cheese has never been higher.  The connection is clear, and I think the answer is too.  We have the opportunity to fix a lot of problems with one change.  Cutting down our consumption of meat and dairy will improve our health AND help save our environment at the same time.  This is the logical next step in our evolution as a society.

Let me put it to you this way: can you imagine not recycling?   There was a time not so long ago when recycling was just not a priority.  However, we realized that if we didn't make a change and start to "reduce, reuse and recycle" we would eventually be living in a world of trash.  Even though this is still a work in progress as most things are, now a days people go to extremes to make sure they recycle, and we can hardly remember a time when we didn't. Our world is better for it, and I doubt anyone would argue with that.  Well, now we have a new challenge and a need to make another change.  Factory farming is destroying our world. Factory farming alone is responsible for an insane amount of destruction to our environment, and the statistics are staggering.

It seems like a no brainer to me.  Simply cutting back on your consumption of meat and dairy will have positive effects on your health and your environment,  and it will save countless numbers of helpless animals from unnecessary torture.  I am not asking you to cut meat and dairy out altogether, though I can now say that I don't think it's as hard as most people think it is.  I believe that you can make a difference by simply cutting back on your consumption of animal products, and by making sure that the meat and dairy you do eat is from responsible, organic local farms!!

I urge you to educate yourself, and consider the possibility that you don't have to eat meat and dairy at every meal.  Consider that maybe your health and your environment are more important than eating that cheese burger.  This is bigger that what tastes good. We can't continue to consume the way we do.  Even a little change will go a long way.

Check out these links for some more facts on some of the things I have touched on here:
Global Warming
The UN urges us to lower meat consumption!
Environmental Effects
Harm to Animals
Your Health
Slaughter Statistics from 2000

You can make a difference!

Love,
Melissa