COMMON CONCERNS
Diet
and Health | Diet and Disease
| Diet and World Hunger
Diet and the Environment | Diet
and the Animals
Overview
It's critical that we are conscientious
about the foods we select to place
on our table. Not only do our
food choices impact our health
and well-being, they have broad
ramifications for planetary survival.
These implications include disease,
hunger, environmental devastation,
and ultimately death.
Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic
diseases kill 1.4 million Americans annually. Infectious
diseases, also referred to as food poisoning, sicken many
millions and kill thousands. The former have been associated
by a dozen panels of experts with consumption of animal
fat and meat. The latter are propagated by E. coli, Salmonella,
and other pathogens that thrive primarily on meat, egg,
and dairy products.
Hunger afflicts more than 800 million people worldwide and
kills 24,000 per day, mostly children. A major factor is
the waste of foodstuffs fed to animals raised for food,
rather than to starving people. This was first documented
in Frances Moore Lappe's 1972 classic Diet For a Small Planet
and was reaffirmed at the 2002 World Food Summit in Rome.
Most wars are fought over control of natural resources:
land, water, oil, minerals. Yet, animal agriculture is by
far the largest user and despoiler of natural resources.
Death is the end result of all these problems. In addition,
animal agriculture directly kills annually nearly 50 billion
animals worldwide, after subjecting them to the cruelties
of factory farming. It also kills uncounted numbers of wildlife
on land and in the seas.
Yet, these issues are not even discussed in our nation's
schools, nutrition education has been largely relinquished
to the very meat and dairy industries that create these
problems, and our children are forced to consume the harmful
products of these industries. The responsibility for this
tragedy must be shared by parents, teachers, food service
personnel, school administrators, Congress, USDA, and of
course, the meat, egg, and dairy industries.
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Diet
and Health
Consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains is
crucial to good health. These foods supply nearly all essential
nutrients. They contain little saturated fat, pesticides,
or pathogens, and no cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics,
or heavy metals. They provide fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients,
which reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. There
is evidence that children who consume wholesome plant-based
meals enjoy more energy and improved academic performance.
Conversely, meat and dairy products come laden with saturated
fats, cholesterol, hormones, pathogens, and antibiotics.
They lack carbohydrates and fiber and most vitamins and
minerals, all essential to good health.
Protein
Protein provides the body with essential amino acids and
assists in the manufacture of tissue cells, antibodies,
and enzymes. It also helps maintain the proper acid-alkali
balance, immune protection, and transmission of nerve impulses.
Protein is found in many plant foods, particularly legumes,
grains, seeds, nuts, and vegetables.
In the U.S., common legumes are soy beans (including tofu
and soymilk), garbanzo beans, kidney beans, black beans,
pinto beans, peas, and lentils. Common grains are rice,
wheat, and corn. Legumes and grains are also good sources
of complex carbohydrates.
The meat industry has raised some alarm by suggesting that
protein from plant sources may not be as 'complete' as that
from animal sources. Fortunately, any essential amino acids
that may be missing in grains are available in legumes or
vegetables and vice-versa. Our liver stores and redistributes
the essential amino acids where they are neded. This is
precisely how the animals raised for food get their ‘complete’
proteins.
In fact, most Americans consume an excessive amount of protein,
which stresses the kidneys and is stored as fat. The protein
RDA (recommended daily allowance) is about 63 grams for
an average American male and 50 grams for an adult female.
(The individual requirement depends on body size, gender,
age, activity level, and climate.) Instead, the average
American consumes about 103 grams of protein, including
70 grams from animal sources.
Fats
Some fats are essential to good health, while others contribute
to obesity, heart disease and certain types of cancer. The
four key types of fats are monounsaturated, polyunsaturated,
hydrogenated, and saturated. The Dietary Guidelines for
Americans recommends that only 30% of our daily calories
shouls be derived from fat and no more than 10% from saturated
fat. Other health experts recommend even lower limits.
Monounsaturated fats are found in olive, canola, peanut,
almond, avocado, and sunflower oils. They appear to reduce
blood levels of LDL, or 'bad' cholesterol.
Polyunsaturated fats are found in corn, soybean, safflower,
and flax oils. They lower total blood cholesterol levels
including HDL, or 'good' cholesterol. However, they contain
high levels of the essential omega-3 fatty acid.
Hydrogenated fats, also known as trans-fatty acids, are
polyunsaturated fats that have been processed into a solid
form, as in margarine and shortening. These fats elevate
'bad' cholesterol and lower 'good' cholesterol. Moreover,
the hydrogenation process causes molecular damage that has
been linked to elevated cancer risk.
Saturated fats are found primarily in meat and dairy products,
but also a few plant foods like avocados, coconuts, and
vegetable shortening. Excess proteins and carbohydrates
are stored by the body as saturated fats. The liver uses
saturated fats to manufacture the body's natural supply
of cholesterol. Excessive dietary intake of saturated fats
raises the blood cholesterol level, and places increased
stress on the liver.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the main source of blood glucose, which
fuels the body's cells, and the only source of energy for
the brain and red blood cells. The Dietary Guidelines recommend
that 60% of total daily calories come from carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are found almost exclusively in plant foods
such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains.
Complex carbohydrates, found in vegetables, legumes, and
grains, provide a sustained source of glucose. The dietary
fiber in complex carbohydrates cleans the digestive tract
and ties up cholesterol-producing compounds, reducing the
risk of colon cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Simple
carbohydrates, in fruits, are transformed into glucose more
rapidly.
However, refined grains and sugars, contained in most processed
foods and soft drinks, produce spikes in the blood glucose
level, requiring excessive release of insulin - a possible
precursor to hypoglycemia and diabetes.
Vitamins and Minerals
Plant foods are the only sources of all the vitamins (except
for B12) and minerals essential for good health. The only
vitamins and minerals claimed for meat products are the
B complex, iron, and zinc, which are widely available in
plant foods. Iron is particularly plentiful in legumes,
green vegetables, and dried fruit. Its absorption rate improves
in the presence of Vitamin C, in dried fruits. Zinc is available
in legumes, corn, nuts, and seeds.
Dairy products are widely touted as a source of calcium.
But calcium in dairy products comes with the high price
of saturated fats, hormones, and antibiotics. Moreover,
the protein in dairy products leaches calcium from the bones.
Green leafy vegetables provide ample calcium and a rich
array of other minerals and vitamins, offer a calcium absorption
rate nearly double that of dairy products, and do not leach
calcium from the bones.
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Diet
and Disease
School cafeterias across the country routinely serve meals
laden with saturated fat, cholesterol, excess protein, hormones,
drugs, and salt. It is a diet that diefies Dietary Guidelines
For Americans and promotes chronic killer diseases, bacterial
infections, and learning disorders. Moreover, children’s
early dietary habits become lifelong addictions.
Consider
the following:
• School
lunches contain 33% of calories from fat, including 12%
from saturated fat, while U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend
30% and 10%, respectively.
• 90% of children consume amounts of fat above
the recommended level.
• Less than 15% of children eat the minimum
daily recommended servings of fruit, and 35% eat no fruit
on a given day.
• Only 17% of children consume the minimum
daily recommended servings of vegetables, and 20% eat
no vegetables on a given day
• 15% of children ages 6 to 19 are overweight,
and the Surgeon General has reported that obesity is reaching
epidemic proportions, particularly among children.
• 25% of children ages 5 to 10 have high cholesterol,
high blood pressure, or other early warning signs for
heart disease.
• As many as 30,000 children have Type II diabetes,
once limited largely to adults.
• The past decade has had 300 outbreaks of
school food poisoning affecting 16,000 students.
Diets
high in animal fat and protein increase the risk of heart
disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, several forms of cancer,
and other chronic diseases that cripple and kill nearly
1.4 million Americans annually. Obesity, hypertension, and
atherosclerosis, key precursors to these diseases, begin
during childhood years.
Moreover, a number of children who are diagnosed with flu
symptoms are actually suffering from food poisoning by E.
coli, Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens contained
in meat, egg, and dairy products. In October 2002, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture disclosed that nearly 2 million
pounds of turkey meat contaminated with Listeria was used
for the School Lunch Program, prompting a controversial
move to irradiate meat destined for schools.
Vascular Diseases
Vascular diseases, including heart diseases and stroke,
are caused by blockage of the arteries that supply oxygenated
blood to the body's vital organs. The blockages are caused
by a build-up of fatty plaque along the artery walls. This
condition is called atherosclerosis. Total blockage of an
artery leading to a portion of the heart or the brain brings
on a heart attack or stroke. Nearly 860,000 Americans die
each year of vascular diseases.
Diets laden with saturated fat, cholesterol, and salt are
the key factors in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.
Cholesterol is the key component of the fatty plaques. Saturated
fats raise blood cholesterol level more than any other factor.
Salt consumption promotes water retention and blood volume,
leading to hypertension, which contributes to the incidence
of heart disease and stroke, as well as to rupture of blood
vessels.
All animal foods contain cholesterol, but plant foods do
not. In fact, antioxidants and folic acid in plant foods
protect arteries from plaque formation. Plant foods are
also naturally low in saturated fats and salt, and the potassium
in plant foods reduces hypertension.
Cancer
Cancer is actually a variety of diseases that occur when
the cells grow out of control, spread through the body,
and interfere with the function of a vital organ. Cancers
of the lung, breast, prostate, and the digestive tract have
all been linked with a diet high in animal foods. Nearly
260,000 Americans die of these types of cancer each year.
Several reasons have been noted. Consumption of animal fats
raises blood testosterone and estrogen levels that promote
prostate and breast cancers, respectively. Carcinogenic
pesticides spread on animal feedcrops accumulate in animals'
fatty tissues. In the digestive tract, animal fats interact
with bile acids to release carcinogens. All animal fats
heated to high temperatures, as in deep-fried foods, also
form carcinogens. Nitrites in hot dogs and other 'cured'
meat products are known carcinogens. The Insulin Growth
Factor (IGF) in dairy products promotes malignant cell growth.
Conversely, plant foods contain fiber, which helps prevent
cancer of the digestive tract by speeding food transit before
formation of the carcinogens and reduces the risk of breast
cancer, perhaps by lowering estrogen level. Plants also
contain antioxidants and flavones that impede formation
of cancer cells.
Diabetes
The cells of our body feed on glucose that is escorted by
a hormone called insulin. Animal fat in the bloodstream
blocks insulin from playing its vital role. This causes
adult-onset or Type II diabetes. The incidence of this disease
has been growing among children because of their faulty
diet. In some children, cow's milk generates antibodies
that destroy the pancreatic cells that produce insulin,
leading to Type I diabetes. Diabetes is a serious disease
which causes shortness of breath, vomiting, dehydration,
and eventually contributes to heart and kidney diseases.
Diabetes kills nearly 70,000 Americans each year.
Other Chronic Conditions
Kidney stones and other kidney diseases are typically associated
with excessive consumption of meat, dairy, and other proteins
that these organs convert into fat and waste products. Kidney
diseases kill nearly 40,000 Americans each year.
Dairy products are responsible for a number of serious digestive
and allergic reactions. Nearly 50 million Americans, including
75% of African Americans and 90% of Asian Americans suffer
from severe cramps caused by lactose intolerance (inability
to digest the lactose sugar in dairy products). Common allergic
reactions include asthma, skin rashes, and ear infections.
Infectious Diseases
Infectious diseases, commonly referred to as food poisoning,
are caused primarily by pathogens that thrive in animal
foods. The biggest culprits are Escherichia coli, Salmonella
enteritidis, Campylobacter jejuni, and Listeria monocytogenes.
These diseases cause several days of misery and occasional
deaths. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 9
million cases occur annually, though most are not reported.
Because the USDA has been unable to vouch for their safety,
all meat and poultry products are now required to carry
warning labels. In 2002, following repeted incidents of
school food poisoning, the Department decided to irradiate
meat destined for the school lunch program.
Meat products also contain antibiotic residues, which build
up resistance in pathogens, and render antibiotics less
effective in treating infectious diseases.
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Diet
and World Hunger
Worldwide, nearly a billion people suffer from chronic hunger.
24,000 people per day or 8.8 million per year die from hunger
or related causes. Three-fourths are children under five.
Chronic hunger causes stunted growth, poor vision, listlessness,
and susceptibility to disease.
Only 10% of hunger deaths are attributed to catastrophic
events like famine or war. Most are due to chronic malnutrition
caused by gross maldistribution and waste of food resources.
The waste is due to non-sustainable agricultural practices,
such as depletion of cultivable land, topsoil, water, energy,
and minerals, and the conversion of plant to animal protein.
Role of Animal Agriculture
A meat-based diet requires 10-20 times as much land as a
plant-based diet. Nearly half of the world's grains and
soybeans are fed to animals, resulting in a huge waste of
food calories. The extent of waste is such that even a 10%
drop in U.S. meat consumption would make sufficient foodstuffs
available to feed the world's starving millions.
Moreover, animal agriculture has been devastating the world's
agricultural land. The process begins with clear-cutting
of forests to create cattle pastures. Eventually, the pastures
are plowed under and used to grow animal feedcrops. Depletion
of topsoil and minerals begins soon after the trees are
cut down and escalates with tilling. Without the plant growth
to hold it in place, topsoil, laden with minerals, fertilizer,
and organic debris, is carried by the runoff of rain and
melting snow into nearby streams. The insatiable demand
for animal feed crops leads to the use of sloping land with
greater runoff and arid land requiring irrigation. Irrigation
accounts for more than 80% of all water available for human
use, leading to widespread water shortages.
Future Outlook
Western agribusiness interests, faced with saturated markets
and increasingly stringent environmental regulations at
home, seek to export factory farming practices and to expand
the demand for their products in developing countries.
This would bring a number of disastrous consequences. It
would exacerbate the mal-distribution and waste of food
resources. The resulting drawdown of grain supplies would
precipitate major famines. The public health impacts would
impose an intolerable economic burden. The impacts on soil,
water, and wildlife would threaten fragile ecosystems.
Sustainable cultivation of plant foods favored by developing
countries offers a safe, nutritious, and affordable solution
to hunger and malnutrition. Vegetables, legumes, grains,
and fruits can be grown in most climates and on small plots
of land. Such crops require minimal investment in equipment,
fertilizers, pesticides, water, and energy, and they cause
negligible soil degradation and water pollution.
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Diet and
the Environment
Animal agriculture is more devastating to our natural environment
than all other human activities conbined. This devastation
impacts land, water, air, and wildlife.
Land
Animal agriculture has been turning lush forests and prairies
into barren deserts since the dawn of human history. The
process begins with clear-cutting of forests to create pastures
for cattle and other ruminants. This is a major loss, because
trees provide wildlife habitats, keep topsoil in place,
replenish groundwater aquifers, absorb carbon dioxide, and
stabilize climate.
As the pastures become overgrazed, they are plowed under
and turned into animal feed croplands. With little or no
plant growth to hold it in place, topsoil is carried by
rain and melting snow into streams and lakes, and its productive
capacity is lost forever. This process is accelerated by
the use of marginal sloping lands to meet the insatiable
demand for animal feed.
Water
The rain and melting snow that runs off animal feed croplands
and factory farms dumps more pollution into our lakes, streams,
and estuaries than all other human activities combined.
The cropland runoff contains soil particles, salts, organic
debris, fertilizer, and pesticides. Soil particles smother
fish eggs and bottom dwelling organisms and block stream
flow. Salts, primarily sodium and potassium chloride, raise
the salinity of the water, rendering it unsuitable for certain
organisms. Organic debris feeds microorganisms that deplete
the water’s oxygen supply and kill the fish. Fertilizers
spur algal blooms that smother or actually attack aquatic
organisms. Pesticides kill all living organisms.
Animals raised for food in the U.S. produce 130 times the
amount of waste that people do. This waste, containing nutrients,
pathogens, and hormones, is stored in huge open cesspools,
euphemistically called 'lagoons.' Eventually, this waste
winds up in the nearest waterway, killing aquatic organisms
directly or through formation of algal blooms. Waste from
mid-Atlantic pig and poultry factory farms has destroyed
fisheries along the Eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico.
Some of the waste leaks into the ground, poisoning vital
groundwater supplies.
Animal agriculture's insatiable demand for land presses
into service arid lands that require irrigation. Irrigation
now accounts for more than 80% of all water available for
use in the U.S. and leads to critical water shortages, particularly
in the Western states.
Air
Wind erosion from animal croplands is the largest source
of airborne particulates, which irritate respiratory passages
and make them more susceptible to respiratory infections.
Factory farms produce a stench that poses a major nuisance
to neighbors for miles around. Methane emitted by cattle
and carbon dioxide generated by power plants that operate
factory farms are major contributors to global warming.
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Diet and the
Animals
Each
year, ten billion cows, pigs, sheep, and other innocent,
sentient animals are caged, crowded, deprived, drugged,
mutilated, and manhandled in U.S. factory farms. They are
then hauled to the slaughterhouse and slaughtered under
atrocious conditions. Ten percent never make it to the slaughterhouse,
dying from stress-induced diseases or injuries.
Cattle & Calves
Beef cattle are typically fattened in feedlots - vast enclosures
packed with tens of thousands of animals. They have no protection
from rain or snow, freezing wind, or searing heat. They
are castrated, dehorned, and branded with no anesthesia
or surgical training.
Dairy cows spend their entire lives chained to metal poles
on concrete floors inside dark barns. They are allowed limited
movement twice a day, when they are herded into ‘milking
parlors’ and hooked up to milk machines. Many cows
are injected with bovine growth hormone to boost milk production
to unnaturally high levels, causing infectious udder diseases
and additional stress to the animals.
In order to maintain their high milk production, the cows
are impregnated each year. Most of their offspring are torn
from their mothers at birth and chained by the neck in tiny,
filthy wood crates to keep their flesh soft. They are fed
a liquid formula that is deficient in iron and fiber to
keep their flesh pale. These conditions breed diarrhea,
respiratory disease, and anemia. The calves are deprived
of natural food, fresh air, and their mothers' love. After
16 weeks, they are dragged to slaughter and served as veal.
Pigs
Breeding
sows suffer a similar fate. They are kept constantly impregnated
in tiny metal 'gestation stalls,' until they are ready to
give birth. Then they are immobilized further in 'farrowing
pens,' where they give birth and nurse their litter of 10-12
piglets. The natural nursing period of 12 weeks is cut to
2-4 weeks, so that the sows can be impregnated again. After
3-4 years, their exhausted bodies are sold for slaughter.
Over 20 percent of the prematurely weaned piglets die of
stress and disease. Those who survive are tagged and castrated
without anesthesia, then placed in stacked wire cages euphemistically
called 'nurseries.' Instead of mother's milk, they are force-fed
a synthetic formula. When the pigs are able to eat solid
food, they are transfered to large, crowded pens. Here they
are fed for six months until slaughter.
Chickens and Turkeys
Each
year, approximately 300 million turkeys and nine billion
chickens are raised and slaughtered for human consumption
in the U.S. The animals are crowded into large, dimly lit
sheds that hold as many as 10,000 birds. Because they are
bred to gain weight quickly, many birds are crippled by
their own weight and unable to walk. They are then unable
to get to food and water or to defend themselves from the
other birds who trample them on the way to the feeding station.
Over time, the building fills with the poisonous stench
of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane. After seven weeks,
the animals are crammed into wood cages for transport to
slaughter.
Chickens bred for egg production undergo a sex selection
at birth. The males are dumped into plastic bags, left to
suffocate slowly, and ground up for chicken feed. The females
are debeaked with a hot iron to prevent stress-induced cannibalism.
They are crammed 5-7 birds into 20x24" 'battery cages,'
stacked on top of one another. They must stand on a sloping
wire mesh floor, which cuts their feet, while the wire mesh
walls tear out their feathers. The birds are alternately
starved or overfed to manipulate egg production.
Transport and Slaughter
Animals are hauled to slaughter for many hours without food,
water, or rest, while exposed to extreme temperatures. Many
die in transit, and those too sick or injured to walk are
dragged with chains to the kill floor.
At the slaughterhouse, some of the animals are skinned,
dismembered, or drowned in boiling water while still conscious.
They are then cut into smaller pieces, wrapped in cellophane,
and presented at the supermarket counter to consumers who
have no clue about the cruelty they subsidize.
Wildlife
In
addition to the ten billion animals killed by animal agriculture
each year for human consumption, hundreds of thousands of
prairie dogs, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, bears, bison,
and other wild animals are shot, maimed, poisoned, and burned
alive by farmers and government agents to keep them from
interfering with agricultural operations. Tens of millions
of starlings and blackbirds are poisoned each year to keep
them from eating animal feed.
An even greater threat to wildlife is posed by the destruction
of their habitats. Animal agriculture turns hundreds of
acres of forest, wetlands, and other habitats into grazing
and crop lands to feed farm animals.
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