How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians

Full disclosure: I'm a Vegan.

1. If you eat turkeys, you don't see them as creatures in need of compassion... at least, not enough to keep you from killing them or paying to have them killed so you can eat them.

2. If you eat turkeys (or chickens... or ducks... or cows... etc.), this is what you are getting. It's brutal, sure... but you pay for it. If you can't face the reality of what you are paying for, perhaps you should consider how you are spending your money.

3. Albert Schweitzer: "Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight"
To behave in this fashion... sparing yourself the sight of such suffering, allows you to be "good Germans". Isn't that nice.

4. Politically... progressives should drop this thing about Palin being interviewed with a turkey being pulled apart behind her. Conservatives will use it to further embed the idea that progressives are just a bunch of pansies who can't bare the realities associated with their choices. Get over it.

If you're going to eat animals, eat animals... and accept that it is likely that some amount of suffering and brutality is going to come with it. I'm not suggesting that you inure yourselves to such things... but you kind of do need to accept that you are responsible for them.

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Agribusiness has a lot to answer for. Most animals raised on family farms were probably dispatched with far less suffering than factory farmed animals are.

It's important to recognize how agribusinesses increase animal suffering but it's also important to recognize how their practices degrade the people they hire to do the killing.

In an ideal world, the CEOs would do the dirty work.

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then don't purchase the meat.

If you would be unable for moral reasons to kill the animal you intend to eat with your own hands then you are disqualified from eating it. Letting someone else do your dirty work and looking the other way makes you a hypocrite plain and simple.

Personally I love meat, not turkey so much but I eat plenty of chicken, seafood and fish. I have no trouble cracking the neck of a fish I just caught and I have no issue chopping off the head of a chicken for my dinner. If you can't do it then you don't deserve to eat it.

What I do object to are cruel death factories staffed by sadistic people with cattle prods causing undue harm to the animals. I would be happy to cut down on my intake to allow animals to grow on a farm on a scale that is reasonable and then terminated as gently as possible. I don't see eating meat as morally wrong per say, but the industrialization of it is disgusting.

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After watching that interview on the telly, my first thought was how that scene was going to affect the turkey/poultry industry. I'll be interested in looking at the numbers. Dead turkey has got me on the run.

Does that gal even have a clue?

No Ordinary Team of Rivals

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

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with all of its glaringly graphic descriptions and slaughterhouse presence.

Some of my kinds of folk are out on the street starving . . . . I really don't think they give a fuck how the bird gets to the table or even if there is a table; some of us have to peruse garbage cans just to be present tomorrow and not on the county slab!

Who on this green earth will deny a starving man a meal? No, you don't have to dissemble and look no farther than your own mirror!

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Goddamn hypocritical blathering blue footed boobies any way.

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for a bunch of useless vegeterians, omg omfg I dont want to eat meat nor should you !

Btw plants have rights as well, I shiver when I think about all those poor soya beans, slaughtered to feed all those hungry vegetarian maws, why are you so cruel guys ? Its my belief that plants should be spared and only animals should be eaten, so what ?

Ludicrous people...

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Not a bad article. And lots of good comments here to make you think, with the obvious exceptions, of course.

I think it's a bit extreme to suggest it's a moral crime to eat meat, as some self-righteous vegetarians seem to do. Are lions, tigers, and bears criminals?

In one of the local parks, there's this pond that accumulates during the rain. In it, there are hundreds of fish who slowly die every summer as the pond dries out. What will becoming a vegetarian do for them? If I were one of them, I think I would rather have lived a short but happy life and become food for some hungry fisherman.

So I think the message ought to be about cruel factory methods, and not about vegetarianism. If Palin were to hunt for a non-endangered animal herself, shoot it as quickly and painlessly as possible, eat it herself, use the bones to make handles for her kitchenware, use the skin to make rugs or clothes for her family, etc., I wouldn't condemn her for it. I have plenty of other things to condemn her for.

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I gave up beef about 10 years ago because I don't trust the government to protect consumers from mad cow disease. I gave up all meat when I viewed some videos on factory farming. I still eat fish although not much because of mercury. I buy "cage free" eggs. I drink soy milk because I don't like the factory farming of dairy products. I also don't need the additives.
I've learned that running grain through an animal is one reason why, globally, people have less to eat. It is not efficient. In addition, animal farming is a very significant source of pollution.
I eat cheaper and much more healthy because of these changes. I have reduced the risk of many diseases by eliminating meat and dairy products. It is quite easy to change dietary habits once you decide to make those changes and have a good reason to do so. Why wait for a heart attack?

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The media, MSNBC in particular, may regret the time they have spent ridiculing Palin for her bloody interview, though time is slipping away. She may not be smart enough to use her notoriety to make the big-city meat-eaters squirm with embarassment, but if she had staged the turkey slaughter with the intuition that the liberal media would so over-react, she could have a field day, week, or month. Even in this article, the idea that these turkeys were being fed into some automated machinery rather than just an arresting device so their heads could be cut off, is just ridiculous. The glee and foolishness displayed by the boys on Morning Joe rivals the glee and foolishness of Sarah's VP candidacy. I believe that Palin was utterly aware of the background and disingenuously assumed that it would prove her what she always claimed to be, an ordinary small-town girl who has learned how to survive in the wild.

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Democrats need to shut up as the only reason they are concerned is that Palin is involved. You all come across as a bunch of disparate jerks.
Get a live and go out and do something constructive if you are concerned about how turkeys get to our tables.

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I owned a family farm for nearly 20 years. The animals we raised for meat, eggs and milk products were treated with respect and yes, love. We had pigs both for pets and food, a couple of dairy cows and always a couple of beautiful herfords and angus beef cows. We raised bunny rabbits, geese,turkeys, chickens, ducks goats, sheep and horses. We raised vegetable crops as well. using organic feeds and fertilizers, our garden grew well, as did our livestock. The animals we dispatched for the table were grown specifically for that end, but were very well cared for. they didn't live in cramped quarters,they ate healthy balanced food, and were thanked for their sacrifices when it came time to kill and process them. It was never easy to kill any animal, but the reality of it is, we are carnivores...omnivores. Those creatures that were farm pets lived long lives. we had a pair of pet duroc/yorkshire pigs that lived to be 11 and 12 years old respectively,who gave us a number of breeding pigs and others we ate. We had a jersey milk cow that passed on at 22 years, who was retired at 18 from milking. goats, turkeys and geese that lived out their time with no threat of being table meat...being a family farmer isn't the same as being a factory farmer. We know where our food comes from and know that we are all part of the chain of life and death. Even we will eventually be consumed, if only by bacteria and worms or food for the soil. Nothing is more precious than the gift of life, nor the bounty we have to sustain us. Caring for it is hard work, but well worth the effort, be it earth (dirt, fields, flora) and the creatures in it. Reaping the bounty with grace and deep appreciation and respect to every living thing..plant and animal is something one learns when it is literally placed in your hands to care for. I will never understand those who become less than respectful and thankful, who would abuse animals or earth when they are given so much from them. This may sound a little airy-fairy, but it's not. It's a way of life. To my vegan friends, science has been proven that plants share some sort of awareness...so remember that every salad you eat felt or was aware when it was being pulled from the sheltering earth it was rooted in. Be it the peas you pick from the vine or the roast duck you serve, it all come from one place to feed your body. It all has a place in the chain of life and death, as do you.

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It's been done since the beginning of time. But the trend toward big agribusiness results in sick animals that are maltreated, and methane from animal feces that pollutes the atmosphere. Farmers and ranchers at one time used methane as fuel; what happened to that? We need to get back to local family farms and away from chemical fertilizers and prophylactic antibiotics, which are harming our planet and endangering our health. But there's nothing wrong with hunting or keeping farm animals to feed your family.

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you write about something more meaningful, like how free-range yuppies look in their English countryside turn out gear and they still haven't even left Syosset.

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Sarah Palin is more the norm or what the norm should be.

The current American population, especially those that live in cities, have become insulated as to how they live. People seem to think hamburgers just "are" . No thought as to how it came into existence. Clothing or other consumer items just appear. Food just naturally belongs in a can or a package.

No or little thought is given to how all this happens or what it takes to live.

Maybe Palins realistic connection to how what it takes to really live will open many eyes! Somehow I doubt it though.

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It's not a question of whether we eat meat, but HOW WE TREAT IT before it becomes meat.

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"One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables."

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What did you get out of Gov. Moosegutter's TV spot? It told me this person has little reasoning capacity. Giving an interview in front of a Turkey beheading machine tells us this is what we could expect from her as a leader. It also proves she's spent too much time gutting living things.

Anyone who is so stupid as to think giving an interview from the 'killing floor' is good PR,seriously need deep psychological help.
I'll bet she'll be one that thinks it's a good idea to chew through her soon to be grandchild's ambilical cord.

Do the world a favor Sarah and take a ride on a calving glacier.

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Sarah Palin is among the few remaining Americans who actually know the source of the food on our tables. I applaud that.

Try this: Ask 10 people on the street to match foods on their table, like veal, to a picture of the source. Ask the same about Brussel sprouts or beef. I'll bet most of them flunk.

We have effectively shut ourselves off from gratitude -- at the very least -- that should come from consuming another living thing.

I am a vegetarian. While I do not nag and preach to others, I would be far happier if all of us really knew where our food comes from, the way in which animals are treated and how that should inform our decisions.

For me, the thought of animal cruelty to feed a greedy market of consumers who more often than not eat either too much or waste what they have, is excessively distressing. Buddhists say that the fear and anger in your food source becaomes part of your own body.

I have far more respect for the small free-range farmers and the expert hunters who gather, then consume. They do the best they can to prevent suffering and they know the truths the rest of us often do not.

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So hamburgers start as muscle in animals huh? My two sons when they were told by their older cousin that meat didn't come from the supermarket only, wouldn't touch it for a very long time. That worried us as it is part of a balanced diet especially for growing children. But now science is to the point where they will be able to grow meat without going through the live animal state. They will grow muscle with no brain attached. There will be no animal to kill for your meat.

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you get all the toxins.

now thats thinking.



if you eat meat you are eating fear. can you imagine these animals dying without fear?

antibiotics, toxins and fear, let us eat it right now. and we do. and we get what we eat.

ive heard that the most powerful food is the food most directly connected to the sun. if one can eat straight out of the garden, yes the garden of earth, one eats the most highest vibration.

ive also heard of breatharians. imagine. just breathing.

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I only eat meat about 2 days a week but try to be mindful of where it came from - not all meat animals had a factory-farmed life.

Although I am unlikely ever to be a hunter again, I was a VERY good shot when I was a hunter, and my relatives in rural Pennsylvania are Barack Obama's "bitter" people who "cling" to their guns & religion, etc. etc. -- and many of them still voted for Obama! -- and I think when they shoot one deer to deed themselves for a whole winter, they are doing the rest of us a favor. There are too many deer out there to collide with your car, or give you Lime disease or EEE in the summer, and venison is an economical and traditional American way to get through a depression.

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...that were flying around during SP's Veep candidacy, this was just too rich. Shades of Steve Buscemi and the wood chipper!

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Sarah and Todd Palin hunt and fish, acquiring first-hand a substantial portion of their family’s food. So maybe she’s just not as squeamish about life’s realities.

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I am a vegetarian and I have not agreed with a single thing Sarah Palin said or did, but at least she knows where her food comes from. I can't believe that hunters get a bad rap when 99% of our meat comes from cruel, inhumane factory farms. To be honest, I thought that the way the progressive media used the hunting pictures of Sarah Palin was manipulative and unfair - more suited to the character assassins at the GOP or FoxNEWS, really - when 90% of their readership eats cows that had a much crueller, shorter lives than that moose.

Find a local, ethical farmer, or kill your own meat, or give up on the whole sick enterprise. If you think meat comes from the frozen foods section, you are the problem. I have a lot more respect for the hunters out there than I do for the people who support the factory food industry. If the cruelty wasn't enough of a reason to stop eating meat wrapped in plastic, please be aware that you are contributing to the next great food scare: might be mad cow, might be listeria, might be E. coli, might be bird flu, might be something totally new, but it will come if we keep treating animals like this.

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Zoologist Desmond Morris makes a case for vegetarianism in his 1967 book, The Naked Ape: "It could be argued that, since our primate ancestors had to make do without a major meat component in their diets we should be able to do the same. We were driven to become flesh eaters only by environmental circumstances, and now that we have the environment under control, with elaborately cultivated crops at our disposal, we might be expected to return to our ancient feeding patterns."

In The Human Story, edited by Marie-Louise Makris (1985), we read: "...recent studies of their teeth reveal that the Australopithecines did not eat meat as a regular part of their diet, and were mainly peaceful vegetarians, rather like chimps or gorillas. The popular image of the murderous ape is now as extinct as the Australopithecines themselves."

Dr. Gordon Latto notes that carnivorous and omnivorous animals can only move their jaws up and down, and that omnivores "have a blunt tooth, a sharp tooth, a blunt tooth, a sharp tooth--showing that they were destined to deal both with flesh foods from the animal kingdom and foods from the vegetable kingdom...

"Carnivorous mammals and omnivorous mammals cannot perspire except at the extremity of the limbs and the tip of the nose; man perspires all over the body. Finally, our instincts; the carnivorous mammal (which first of all has claws and canine teeth) is capable of tearing flesh asunder, whereas man only partakes of flesh foods after they have been camouflaged by cooking and by condiments.

"Man instinctively is not carnivorous," explains Dr. Latto. "...he takes the flesh food after somebody else has killed it, and after it has been cooked and camouflaged with certain condiments. Whereas to pick an apple off a tree or eat some grain or a carrot is a natural thing to do; people enjoy doing it; they don't feel disturbed by it. But to see these animals being slaughtered does affect people; it offends them. Even the toughest of people are affected by the sights in the slaughterhouse.

"I remember taking some medical students into a slaughterhouse. They were about as hardened people as you could meet. After seeing the animals slaughtered that day in the slaughterhouse, not one of them could eat the meat that evening."

Author R.H. Weldon writes in No Animal Food:

"The gorge of a cat, for instance, will rise at the smell of a mouse or a piece of raw flesh, but not at the aroma of fruit. If a man can take delight in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still living body apart with his teeth, sucking the warm blood, one might infer that Nature had provided him with a carnivorous instinct, but the very thought of doing such a thing makes him shudder. On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his mouth water, and even in the absence of hunger, he will eat fruit to gratify taste."

As far back as 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that: "A vegetarian diet can prevent 97% of our coronary occlusions." More recently, Wiiliam S. Collens and Gerald B. Dobkens concluded: "Examination of the dental structure of modern man reveals that he possesses all the features of a strictly herbivorous animal. While designed to subsist on vegetarian foods, he has perverted his dietary habits to accept food of the carnivore. It is postulated that man cannot handle carnivorous foods like the carnivore. Herein may lie the basis for the high incidence of arteriosclerotic disease."

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Keith Akers in A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983), responds to the argument that killing animals for food is natural:

"This is quite an admirable argument. It explains practically everything; why we do not eat each other, except under conditions of unusual stress; why we may kill certain other animals (they are, in the order of nature, food for us); even why we should be kind to pets and try to help miscellaneous wildlife (they are not naturally our food). There are some problems with the idea that an order of nature determines which species are food for us, but an examination of human history indicates the broad outlines of just such an order, though inhibitions against eating certain species may vary from culture to culture.

"The main problem with this argument is that it does not justify the practice of meat-eating or animal husbandry as we know it today; it justifies hunting. The distinction between hunting and animal husbandry probably seems rather fine to the man in the street, or even to your typical rule-utilitarian moral philosopher. The distinction, however, is obvious to an ecologist. If one defends killing on the grounds that it occurs in nature, then one is defending the practice as it occurs in nature.

"When one species of animal preys on another in nature, it only preys on a very small proportion of the total species population. Obviously, the predator species relies on its prey for its continued survival. Therefore, to wipe the prey species out through overhunting would be fatal. In practice, members of such predator species rely on such strategies as territoriality to restrict overhunting and to insure the continued existence of its food supply.

"Moreover, only the weakest members of the prey species are the predator's victims: the feeble, the sick, the lame, or the young accidentally separated from the fold. The life of the typical zebra is usually placid, even in lion country; this kind of violence is the exception in nature, not the rule.

"As it exists in the wild, hunting is the preying upon isolated members of an animal herd. Animal husbandry is the nearly complete annihilation of an animal herd. In nature, this kind of slaughter does not exist. The philosopher is free to argue that there is no moral difference between hunting and slaughter, but he cannot invoke nature as a defense of this idea.

"Why are hunters, not butchers, most frequently taken to task by the larger community for their killing of animals? Hunters usually react to such criticism by replying that if hunting is wrong, then meat-hunting must be wrong as well. The hunter is certainly right on one point--the larger community is hypocritical to object to hunting when it consumes the flesh of domesticated animals. If any form of meat-eating is justified, it would be meat from a hunted animal."

In his 1975 book, Animal Liberation, Australian philosopher Peter Singer writes:

"Killing an animal is in itself a troubling act. It has been said that if we had to kill our own meat we would all be vegetarians. There may be exceptions to that general rule, but it is true that most people prefer not to inquire into the killing of the animals they eat.

"Very few people ever visit a slaughterhouse; and films of slaughterhouse operations are rarely shown on television...Yet those who, by their purchases, require animals to be killed have no right to be shielded from this or any other aspect of the production of the meat they buy.

"If it is distasteful for humans to think about, what can it be like for the animals to experience it?"

Peter Singer concludes that "by ceasing to rear and kill animals for food, we can make extra food available for humans that, properly distributed, it would eliminate starvation and malnutrition from this planet. Animal Liberation is Human Liberation, too."

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Factory farming is cruel.

If one has decided to embrace an omnivorous diet, one can still work to make sure as little suffering as possible took place. Small, local, often organic and/or non-hormone feeding farms can be a solution.

As for Palin's latest demonstration of GOP leadership skills -- I generally find any program that depicts the actual death of a creature as being tasteless unless it's an anthropological program that provides context. Those generally depict people who have an actual respect for the animals they'll eat, however, and an appreciation for the sacrifice they've made. I detect no such perspective from Palin.

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You know something? Maybe it is a good idea to bomb Pakistan for harbouring terrorists and targetting areas of diversity. Mr. Obama, do your duty and redirect the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan and get rid of those god damned motherfucking militants !!

And Alternet, Huffpost, etc ..., leave Paling alone already ! She already lost and the election is OVER even on the Senate side where Begich won !

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Kefir is a delicious and nutritious healthy drink. It's milk fermented by a Scoby colony. The end product contains all the vitamins and minerals, aminos (including essentials) and loads of anti-oxs, in addition to being very probiotic. It this way it can also cure lactose intolerance and wipe out yeast infections, among other gut-related diseases, including Crohn's.

And, perhaps best of all, since they are living things, they reproduce and grow! Once you buy a colony you never have to buy it again.

Same thing applies to Kombucha, which is fermented from Tea.

Do a search for those words, Kefir and Kombucha. No need to harm animals when you have these things available.

Disclaimer: I still eat meat. I make no claims to being a vegt., although I am considering it in the future.

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The whole thing with the turkey PR stunt was hysterical on so many levels. First, local TV put out the "pardon the turkey" scene inside the turkey barn. They picked up some poor crap-covered bird and Palin smilingly laid her hand on it to "pardon" it. Yeah, I'm sure that bird lived a long and happy life...until the camera was turned off. But wait! Palin trots outside the barn a few minutes later to do another interview about the "fun" aspects of being Govenor....right in front of the be-header/bleeder station. (Where the hell was the TV producer? Her PR person?) Local news was pretty much oblivious to the background as well as us Alaskas who are pretty used to such tough scenes so we really didn't notice - until outside news sources and bloggers noticed the carnage and starting posting it on the web. And the final irony is that the whole scene was a very visual portrayal of how Palin operates her political office.

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The following quotes, facts, figures and statistics are excerpted from Please Don't Eat the Animals (2007) by Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:

"A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter: What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet."

---John Robbins, author, Diet for a New America, and President, EarthSave Foundation

One study puts animal waste in the United States to between 2.4 trillion to 3.9 trillion pounds per year. The United states produces 15,000 pounds of manure per person. This is 130 times the amount of waste produced by the entire human population of the United States.

A 1,000-cow dairy can produce approximately 120,000 pounds of waste per day. This is the functional equivalent of the amount of sanitary waste produced by a city of 20,000 people.

A 20,000-chicken factory produces about 2.4 million pounds of manure a year. Poultry factories are one of the fastest growing industries throughout Asia.

One pig excretes nearly three gallons of waste per day, or 2.5 times the average human's daily total. One hog farm with 50,000 pigs in France produces more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles, and some pig farms are much larger.

Factory farm pollution is the primary source of damage to coastal waters in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Scientists report that over sixty percent of the coastal waters in the United States are moderately to severely degraded from factory farm nutrient pollution. This pollution creates oxygen-depleted dead zones, which are huge areas of ocean devoid of aquatic life.

Meat production causes deforestation, which then contributes to global warming. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and the destruction of forests around the globe to make room for grazing cattle furthers the greenhouse effect. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports that the annual rate of tropical deforestation has increased from 9 million hectares in 1980 to 16.8 million hectares in 1990, and unfortunately, this destruction has accelerated since then. By 1994, a staggering 200 million hectares of rainforest had been destroyed in South America just for cattle.

"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and sub-division developments combined."

---Philip Fradkin, in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York

Agricultural meat production generates air pollution. As manure decomposes, it releases over 400 volatile organic compounds, many of which are extremely harmful to human health. Nitrogen, a major by-product of animal wastes, changes to ammonia as it escapes into the air, and this is a major source of acid rain. Worldwide, livestock produce over 30 million tons of ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide, another chemical released from animal waste, can cause irreversible neurological damage, even at low levels.

The world Conservation Union lists over 1,000 different fish species that are threatened or endangered. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 60 percent of the world's fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95 percent in the north Atlantic.

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The following quotes, facts, figures and statistics are excerpted from Please Don't Eat the Animals (2007) by Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:

The United States and Europe lose several billion tons of topsoil each year from cropland and grazing land, and 84 percent of this erosion is caused by livestock agriculture. While this soil is theoretically a renewable resource, we are losing soil at a much faster rate than we are able to replace it. It takes 100 to 500 years to produce one inch of topsoil, but due to livestock grazing and feeding, farming areas can lose up to six inches of topsoil a year.

Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals. By comparison, urbanization only affects 3 percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world's land resources.

Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.

The United States government spends $10 million each year to kill an estimated 100,000 wild animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, bears, and mountain lions just to placate ranchers who don't want these animals killing their livestock. The cost far outweighs the damage to livestock that these predators cause.

The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 34 pounds of topsoil.

33 percent of our nation's raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only 2 percent of our resources will go to the production of food.

"It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second- and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the overpopulation of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat."

---Jeremy Rifkin, author, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation

Lester Brown of the Overseas Development Council calculates that if Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent per year, it would free at least 12 million tons of grain for human consumption--or enough to feed 60 million people.

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The article is about the callouness, brutality and deadened heart of our society.
I was vegetarain for many years but now eat small quantities of meat from time to time.
Flesh is flesh, vegetable or animal.
What is important is to accept with gratitude what is given or one has earned to eat and to be filled with respect for the living organisms which have lived to keep you alive.
Those who work in the turkey industry become deadened in their minds and hearts to their fellow creatures. They are as dead as the corpses they process.
I am not a muslim but find something touching in the slaugher practices of that tradition.

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The word "ahimsa" literally means "nonviolence," and that's how I read it. According to Nine Beliefs of Hinduism, a tract published by the Himalayan Academy of San Francisco: "Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore practice ahimsa, or nonviolence."

Brother Wayne Teasdale, a Benedictine monk who passed away a few years ago, wrote in 1995: "...it is necessary to elevate nonviolence to a noble place in our civilization of loving compassion because nonviolence as ahimsa in the Hindu tradition, a tradition that seems to possess the most advanced understanding of nonviolence, IS love! Love is the goal and ultimate nature of nonviolence as an inner disposition and commitment of the heart. It is the fulfillment of love and compassion in the social sphere, that is, in the normal course of relations among people in the matrix of society."

Contemporary Hindu spiritual masters have taught that if one wishes to eat cow's flesh (or the flesh of any other animal for that matter), one should wait until the animal dies of natural causes, rather than take the life of a fellow creature. This indicates that we are vegetarian first and foremost out of nonviolence towards and compassion for animals, rather than because we follow "dietary laws."

A popular vegetarian bumper sticker reads: "Vegetarianism is Love in Action." The number of animals killed for food is 70 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds. So if we really want to end animal cruelty, vegetarianism and veganism would be a good place to start!

Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights similarly says:

"Merely by ceasing to eat meat
Merely by practicing restraint
We have the power to end a painful industry

"We do not have to bear arms to end this evil,
We do not have to contribute money,
We do not have to sit in jail or go to
meetings or demonstrations or
engage in acts of civil disobedience

"Most often, the act of repairing the world,
of healing mortal wounds,
is left to heroes and tzaddikim (holy people)
Saints and people of unusual discipline

"But here is an action every mortal can
perform--surely it is not too difficult!"

During the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon was asked by a reporter, "Does your hair require any special attention?" Lennon replied, "Inattention is the main thing." Similarly, with vegetarianism, we're not asking people to engage in activity--we're asking them to REFRAIN from engaging in an activity. By refraining from eating animals, they are, in effect, refraining from killing them.

By refraining from eating animals, refraining from using products tested on animals, refraining from patronizing forms of "entertainment" that use animals, refraining from wearing the furs or skins of animals, etc., we are, in effect, refraining from harming and killing animals altogether...just as pro-life Christians who refuse vaccines containing aborted fetal cells are refraining from contributing to the death of another human being.

Christians are sometimes reluctant to engage in what they misunderstand to be "good works," but again, we're not asking them to perform good deeds, just to REFRAIN FROM KILLING. This is not merely an academic point, it's one I make when discussing current trends in animal liberation theology:

Perhaps the real question true believers should be asking themselves with regards to animal rights and vegetarianism is not "Why should Christians abstain from certain foods?", but rather, "Why should Christians want to harm or kill God's innocent creatures in the first place?"

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I'm a vegetarian, so I have a particular perspective. I think the point of this article is to illustrate how cruelly animals are treated when they are killed so you can eat them, which is a choice - not a necessity.

Kicking and deliberately maliciously prodding animals and being sadistic in dealing with them in the method of killing them seems to largely go with the territory with these types of employees, and people surely do not condone this kind of behavior. I understand there are many who want their 'meat fix' and I'm not saying eating meat is bad - but the barbaric way in which these animals are treated must stop. Boycott eating meat for a week or two and those corporate places that allow this insanity. The whole Thanksgiving thing is a joke anyway. The way the First Nation people have been treated in our country is just as bad - check out Pine Ridge Reservation in N. Dakota.

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But I not sure Palin has driven any carnivores to become vegetarians, and nothing the writer of this article said seemed to argue that point, and with the title's claim being unsubstantiated, this article kinda stank. Not because of its content which I am ideologically aligned with, but because it didn't follow up on its premise. A catchy hook is useless if your content doesn't support it. I would expect at the very least interviews with new veggies or with people considering becoming vegetarians as direct result of Palin's blatant bloodiness when it comes to animals.

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Has anyone noticed the incredibly aggressive nature of some of the meat eating commenters? Could there be a correlation? Of course, food that is killed before the end of it's natural life cycle transmits the aggression and fear that is involved in the slaughter ,to the eater. Or , is it that aggressive people are naturally drawn to the consumption of flesh?

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This is from a Bruce Friedrich article (sorry for the previous misspelling):

"Vitamin B-12. Many vegetarians lack
vitamin B-12 simply because it does not exist
naturally in any non-animal forms. Vegetarians
should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods,
such as certain soy milks and cereals to
supplement what they lack. "

We do have modern supplements in recent history. But only in recent history. If a diet needs a supplement, it's not a natural human diet.

http://brucefriedrich.org/Top_Five_Nutrients.html

An Oxford U. study showed no differences in longevity between vegetarians and omnivores except for neurological diseases, which lack of B12 exacerbates.

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Humans are not natural herbivores. The human body can't break down cellulose, the principle component of plant foods (though it does serve a purpose as dietary fiber). This is the reason we can't graze or live on grass. Anatomically, we resemble the other primates (frugivores), whose diet is mostly vegetarian. We're meant to live predominately, if not entirely, upon plant foods. Only vitamin B-12 cannot be obtained from plant foods. Predators are found in nature, but so are cannibalism and rape. Killing other animals for food, in this sense, really is an ethical issue, not a "dietary" issue.

Keith Akers writes in A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983):

"There is no question that lacto-ovo-vegetarians easily obtain enough vitamin B-12; dairy products and eggs are generous suppliers of vitamin B-12. The controversy pertains only to those who live on plant foods and do not eat any animal foods at all--the 'total vegetarians' or 'vegans.'...The evidence shows, however, that there are numerous sources of vitamin B-12 other than animal foods, and that vitamin B-12 is not a particularly difficult vitamin to get. In short, the Great Vitamin B-12 Controversy, like the protein controversy, is largely generated by lack of information concerning already available research data.

"Only incredibly small quantities of vitamin B-12 are thought to be needed in the diet. According to the National Research Council, 3 micrograms daily will meet the body's requirements. but Victor Herbert, a noted authority on the subject, puts the requirement at 0.1 micrograms, making even the National Research Council's microscopic figure 30 times in excess of the actual need."

John Robbins, author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated Diet for a New America (1987), says that vitamin B-12 is found naturally in the environment around us; on the dirt on a carrot pulled out of the ground, in rainwater, etc., but we live in a sanitized society, removed from nature.

Keith Akers similarly observes:

"Vitamin B-12 has been found in rainwater and in many plant foods. In small quantities, Vitamin B-12 has been found either in or on various foods such as the roots and stems of tomatoes, cabbage, celery, kale, broccoli, leeks, and the leaves of kohlrabi. An ounce of the roots of leeks, beets, and other vegetables will provide 0.1 to 0.3 micrograms of B-12, which is more than a day's requirement.

"There are other plant foods which provide 'massive' quantities of vitamin B-12 -- 'massive,' that is, in relation to human requirements for the vitamin. These include nutritional yeast, tempeh, seaweed, algae, kelp, and fermented soy sauces. The human liver can store vitamin B-12 for years, so once it is ingested from one of these sources, one can go for long periods of time without having to worry about a source of B-12."

The Garden of Eden was vegan, but veganism as an historical trend is a recent phenomenon.

The Vegan Society was formed in England in 1944.

In his 1979 book, Vegetarianism: A Way of Life, Dudley Giehl writes that some ancient Egyptian priests were vegetarian to help them with their vows of celibacy and that they avoided eggs and milk, which they called "liquid flesh." Giehl also writes that Leonardo da Vinci was a vegan, out of ethical concern for animals.

In his 1923 book, The Natural Diet of Man, Adventist physician Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
writes:

"The Ladrone Islands were discovered by the Spaniards around 1620. There were
no animals on the islands except birds, which the natives did not eat. The natives had
never seen fire, and they lived entirely on plant foods--fruits and roots in their
natural state. They were found to be vigorous, active, and of good longevity."

Americans should go vegetarian or vegan.

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AT CHRISTMAS

GUILA MANCHESTER

The card I send to you this year
Will not be thoughts of Christmas cheer
Or Santa riding in a sleigh
With loads of gifts to come your way.

A starving dog, a homeless cat,
A beaver lying in a trap,
A sparrow punctured in the eyes
To win some kid a science prize,
A horse that's trampled in a ditch
To make a movie baron rich,
A tiny baby left alone,
Old folks forgotten in a home.

If you believe in God at all,
Then love His creatures, great and small,
And help in any way you can
A suffering beast or bird or man.
If you believe these things are wrong
Then let this be your Christmas song
And raise your voice with all your might,
For only you can make them right.

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Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.

The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably. They are deprived of exercise so that all their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by cramming animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some die. Industry journal National Hog Farmer explains, "Crowding Pigs Pays," and egg-industry expert Bernard Rollins writes that "chickens are cheap; cages are expensive."


They are fed drugs to fatten them faster and to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, and they are genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally. Many animals become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of water and food.

While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types of cruelty.

http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

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A Meat-Based Diet Is Dangerous for Your Heart's Health
The heart is the hardest working muscle in the body, pumping blood, oxygen, & nutrients to all the body’s organs. A healthy heart is a prescription for a healthy body.

Eating animal-based foods impairs the heart’s ability to do its job. Meat & dairy products are high in cholesterol and saturated fat. As these fatty substances, or “plaques,” build up inside the walls of arteries, blood flow to all areas of the body is impeded. This artery damage is called atherosclerosis.

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One study compared cancer rates of vegetarians and meat-eaters in 34,000 Americans. The results showed that those who avoided meat, fish, and poultry had dramatically lower rates of prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer compared to meat-eaters.

Read about specific carcinogens in meat, such as arsenic in chicken and mercury in fish:
http://www.goveg.com/cancer_meat.asp

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The Causes of Strokes
Atherosclerosis

According to Teresa Fung, a researcher who studies strokes at the Harvard School of Public Health, "In essence, an ischemic stroke is much like a heart attack that occurs in your brain and [that] can result from atherosclerosis."6 Atherosclerosis is the narrowing and hardening of our blood vessels that is caused by the consumption of saturated fat and cholesterol. Meat, eggs, and dairy products are the leading sources of saturated fat and the only sources of cholesterol in the human diet. Although the average cholesterol level in the U.S. is 210, the average vegetarian in the U.S. has a cholesterol level of 161, and the average American vegan has a cholesterol level of 133.7

Since vegetarians have lower cholesterol levels and lower intakes of saturated fat than meat-eaters do, they are less likely to suffer from the hardened and clogged arteries that often lead to heart disease and strokes.

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Impotence

High cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancers or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence. The good news is that medical science has proved that all of these conditions can be virtually eliminated (and even cured) with a low-fat vegan diet.
High Cholesterol-

"I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is drastic, while it's mediclly conservative to cut people open or put then on powerful cholesterol=lowering drugs the rest of their lives." -Dean Ornish, MD
Obesity & Diabetes

A man with a 42-inch waistline is nearly twice as likely to fall victim to impotence as a man with a 32-inch waistline.

But there is good news! A healthy vegan diet promotes a fit and slim figure. It is estimated that only about 2 percent of American vegans are clinically obese compared to 18 percent of meat-eating Americans. Obesity causes much more than your middle section to go soft. This is yet another excellent reason to go vegan and slim down.

Hormonal Concerns
High Blood Pressure

http://www.goveg.com/impotence.asp

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Animal products contain much more fat than plant-based foods—animal flesh, after all, is designed to store calories, which makes it one of the worst things that a dieter can eat.
**********
Protecting Our Children From Obesity-

Kids in the U.S. are getting fatter for the same reasons that adults are getting fatter: The typical Western diet, which relies heavily on animal foods, is high in fat and cholesterol and is the major cause of obesity and coronary heart disease.
**********
It’s the easiest ‘diet’ I’ve ever been on—I saw results right away.”

Before: 200+ pounds, size 16
After: 134 pounds, size 6

Read Leah’s story:
http://www.goveg.com/f-veganweightloss.asp

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Alzheimer's and Brain Health

"Studies have shown that risk for AD [Alzheimer's disease] is greater in people who consume diets high in cholesterol, saturated fats, & total calorie & low in fiber, vegetables, & fruits."-Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Also See:
Meat Hinders Heart & Head
Meat Vs. Veggie Amino Acids
Alzheimer's & Free Radicals
The Veggie Solution
Fat, Fish & Intelligence
http://www.goveg.com/alzheimers.asp

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Huge, corporate-run factory farms have greatly increased the threat of deadly animalborne diseases like bird flu and mad cow disease, which, according to scientists, have the potential to become global pandemics. The cramped, filthy conditions on factory farms—where animals are crammed into warehouses or feedlots by the tens of thousands—lead to the rampant spread of contagious organisms and diseases like salmonella, E. coli, and avian influenza, which can spread to humans who eat the flesh or eggs of infected animals. Animals are fed a steady dose of antibiotics and other drugs in an effort to keep them alive long enough to be slaughtered, which leads to the development of drug-resistant pathogens, or “super-bugs.”

http://www.goveg.com/AnimalBorneDiseases.asp

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The causes of diabetes are complex, and there are many reasons why going vegetarian helps to prevent and treat the disease.

A few of the most prominent reasons include the high amount of fiber in plant foods, the lack of artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated animal fats in vegetarian diets, differences between the types of iron found in animal flesh and plant foods, and the fact that vegetarians tend to weigh less and have less excess body fat than meat-eaters do (maintaining a healthy weight is an extremely important factor in preventing and treating diabetes.

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Pesticides & Cancer
******
Organic and Hormone-Free: Conning Consumers-

Some health-conscious consumers have turned to organic milk and flesh because they think it’s hormone-free, but they are mistaken. Despite its label, “organic” animal products are often treated with hormones—when inspectors in the European Union randomly sampled “hormone-free” cow flesh from the U.S., they found that 12 percent of the meat had been treated with powerful hormones that are banned in Europe!

http://www.goveg.com/contamination_other.asp

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