Nowadays, eating in the Healthy and Active way could qualify as being a form of ethical
activism. It defies the usual rituals of eating dairy, meat and eggs. The farming and consumption of these products
en masse has affected the balance every single one of us on every level from
the personal to the local to the global.
Consumption of these foods has cost us our health, smaller businesses
and contributed to pollution and global warming.
Eating Less Meat Is Better For the Planet
Farming
animals is one of the main causes of water shortage in the western United
States. Farming animals require between three and eleven times the water
required to grow an equivalent s crop.
Sadly,
more than 90 percent of the Amazon rain forest cleared since 1970, or about
45,000 square miles, is now being used by the meat industry, either for land
for cattle to graze on or to grow crops to feed farm animals. The runoff from
factory farms is laced with feces, bacteria, hormones, and antibiotics, which
can dangerously affect our arable soil and drinking water.
Furthermore,
farming animals causes almost forty percent more greenhouse gas emissions then
all the trucks, planes and cars in the world. The digestive processes of farmed
animals (including their excrement, which is 130 times that produced by the
U.S. human population); combine to release astounding amounts of carbon
dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. This gaseous pollution, in turn, contributes
to global warming.
Eating
Less Meat Promotes Less Violence
When
you become vegan you are also making a strong statement against violence and
cruelty to animals. Close to 10 billion animals, (not including fish) are slaughtered
every year for food. Many of these
animals are raised in inhuman conditions and slaughtered in ways that most of
us could not watch for two minutes on a video.
In
Texas alone, feedlots produce more than 14 million pounds of particulate dust
that just flies into the air and is sits in the atmosphere. This musty mix contains
biologically active organisms such as bacteria, mold, and fungi from the feces
and the feed causing allergies and sickness. Enormous animal waste ponds also emit
airborne poisons that can cause inflammatory immune problems in humans.
On
top of that, the EPA has found that 80 percent of the toxic ammonia gas in the
United States comes from the excrement of farmed animals.
Eating
Less Refined Foods
Part
of the Healthy and Active Lifestyle is eating less processed foods. In fact,
eating none at all is preferable.
Reflect
on the good you can do in the world if you decide to lead a lifestyle that is
more healthy and active. It is not only good for you, it’s good for the planet.
