Dickerson & Davies (1986) studied matched pairs of vegetarians and non-vegetarians with regard to their general health. It was found that the vegetarians made 22% of the visits to hospital out-patients of non-vegetarians, and spent a similarly reduced proportion of time in hospital. (Health and Vegetarians)
Meat production is incredibly inefficient. By growing grain which is fed to livestock which is fed to humans, you end up with much less food than you would have by feeding grain and other plant products directly to humans. Annually, an acre of land can produce 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, or a paltry 250 pounds of beef. (Why Vegetarian)
Many of the world’s massive environmental problems could be solved by the reduction or elimination of meat-eating, including global warming, loss of topsoil, loss of rain forests and species extinction.
The temperature of the earth is rising. This global warming, known as “the greenhouse effect,” results primarily from carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. Three times more fossil fuels must be burned to produce a meat-centered diet than for a meat-free diet. If people stopped eating meat, the threat of higher world temperatures would be vastly diminished. (The Environmental Argument)
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” – Albert Einstein
I share this information not to say I think eating meat is wrong. I favour mindfulness over strict ideological boundaries, but it’s clear to me that reducing meat consumption has a tremendous benefit.
If any of you have any suggestions or recipes I may find useful during this experiment I’d be happy to read them. Wikipes has a some good ideas (though it is in need of contributors, it’s a mighty fine project) and VegWeb has a nice assortment of recipes.
RAPstuff, the blog of Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini, has quickly become one of my favourite reads. When a new posting shows up in my Firefox RSS bookmarks I’m sure it will be interesting and settle in for a good read before clicking. Tonight Richard once again hit on a topic I’ve been jointly facinated and disgusted with, the horrid combination of fear and religion. The phrase “Fear of God is the start of wisdom” on a church sign prompted the post, which rightly points out that there is no wisdom in living in fear.
Albert Einstein said “One cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” To that I add, “One cannot simultaneously be fearful and be happy.” The two emotions are simply at odds with each other. Whatever energy you invest into being fearful, is taken from being happy.
Fear is the greatest tool of those who wish to control us. Whether it’s the governments (especially the Bush administration and Israel come to mind), fundamentalist religious groups (the “Christian” right or al-Qaeda), corporations or groups like the NRA, fear is the easiest way for them to bring people into thralldom.
Want to see a good example of fear in action? In response to recent school shootings in the U.S., the NRA decided to declare that it would be best to give teachers guns.
Yes, it seems we should be preventing gun violence by spreading around more guns, if we are to believe the NRA’s capitalization on fear. You can find out more in “Arm teachers, NRA official suggests” The fear mongering is stark when the NRA spokesperson describes a student with a gun as “someone who has evil in their heart.” Instead of arming teachers, couldn’t we help people who are toubled and keep guns out of their hands as best we are able?
Einstein was brilliant, you know.
15 comments on “Benefit vs. Fear”
Excellent choice man!
The key to vegetarianism is hidden within two simple words: cucumbers and zuchini… enjoy.
Thanks. I’m not big on zuchini but cucumbers with a proper dressing are mighty fine.
have you tried grilled zuchinni off a barbecue?… i wasnt big on it either until I tried it grilled and in a sandwich
No, I haven’t tried that. Is there anything special that needs to be done to it?
I have a feeling it will work for me.
Where did you go? You just up and disappeared from AIM.
Gasp! Apollo not eating meat?
Because of my horrendously small food budget, all I eat is chicken, no red meat, but I don’t know if I could go all the way. Greg gave me a tiny bit of steak last week and I got sooo sick off it. Once you get meat out of your system, it’s really hard to put it back.
Advice from observing my veggie roomate last year: learn to cook tofu really well, eat a bunch of chick peas and lentils and beans and you’ll be fine. Good luck!
lol Mom would likely flip out, knowing her “meat is good for you” mentality.
I’ve had little I miss about eating meat. I got boca burgers and they taste better than normal hamburgers, I swear.
I’m not overly fond of chick peas, lentils and beans but I’ll figure out ways to prepare them in a way they’ll taste good.
yeah, chick peas are a hard thing to like, I find. If you get hummus with garlic (they have it at the superstore) and pita, you don’t even know you’re eating chick peas, and it’s soooo good. or you can make your own hummus, I’m sure.
I think Mom will have a fit, but oh well. At least it’s healthy for you!
You know, I’ve never had hummus before. I must try some.
Well, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, I suppose. Or I can give her reams of medical and environmental statistics and recommendations. 😉
Vegetarian Pad Thai is very yummy, though it does contain eggs. I would recommend substituting the fish sauce and ketchup with pad thai sauce, which is usually fairly easy to find.
Oh, that looks very interesting. I may have to try it.
You rock man, you simply rock.
I’ve been a vegetarian for two years now and argue a lot of the same points. I hope to go vegan for the summer. Good luck on your diet!
Well, thanks, it’s good to know one rocks.
I don’t know if I’d be able to go vegan because I value nutrition and diversity of food and milk and eggs are part of a great many foods and provide nutrients that are hard to get otherwise. I do respect veganism but it seems it would take a lot more effort and resources than I’m able to devote right now.
There should be a link to the poll in my most recent entry. Did I make a mistake with it?
Oh, ok, good.