Transcript Vegetarianism in a Nutshell

Aligning Ethics & Action:
1) the environment;
2) concern for animals.
97 percent of Americans
believe that animals deserve
legal protection from abuse.
Gallup, May 2008
Gallup, May 2003
“The unexamined
life is not worth
living.”
—Socrates
Aligning Ethics & Action 1:
the environment
Resource Use
The Global Food Crisis
Example:
Soybean Production
Aligning Ethics & Action 2:
concern for animals
Animal Rights—The Science
“[Other] animals,
like humans,
manifestly feel
pleasure and pain,
happiness, and
misery.”
—Charles Darwin
Animal Rights: The Science
Animal Rights: The Science
Animal Rights: The Science
From PETATV.com
Animal Rights: The Science
Animal Rights: The Science
Integrity: Would you kill them yourself?
What does “integrity” mean?
“It’s staggering when think
about it. Vegetarianism
takes care of so many
things in one shot:
ecology, famine, cruelty.”
—Sir Paul McCartney
Aligning Ethics & Action:
1) the environment;
2) concern for animals.
Thank You!
Facebook.com/OfficialPETA
Facebook.com/BruceGFriedrich
© Susan Ocean
Environment
Eating animals is
“one of the most
significant
contributors to the
most serious
environmental
problems, at every
scale from local to
global.”
Environment
Eating animals
contributes to
“problems of land
degradation,
climate change
and air pollution,
water shortage and
water pollution,
and loss of
biodiversity.”
Environment
Eating animals
causes 40 percent
more greenhouse
gasses than all SUVs,
18-wheelers, jumbo
jets, and other
vehicles combined.
Humane Meat?
Integrity: Would you kill them yourself?
If you care about
(a) the environment or
(b) cruelty to animals,
the only ethical diet is
a vegetarian one.
Thank You!
Facebook.com/OfficialPETA
Facebook.com/BruceGFriedrich
© Susan Ocean
Going vegetarian is “the single most effective thing
you can do to reduce your carbon footprint”
[emphasis in original].
—Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook
“A major shift toward plant-based diets is
imperative if we are to have even a chance
of preventing catastrophe …”
—Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair,
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, Nobel Peace Prize winner
If you oppose gluttony
or cruelty to animals,
the only ethical diet
is a vegetarian one.
Thank You!
Facebook.com/OfficialPETA
Facebook.com/BruceGFriedrich
© Susan Ocean
[Misc. additional slides
follow, for Q&A use]
United Nations Report
The different methodologies
do not invalidate the
conclusions of Livestock’s Long
Shadow, including the
conclusion that livestock
production contributes 18
percent to total global climate
change in both direct and
indirect ways. Gerber told the
Columbia Journalism Review,
“We stand entirely behind the
18 percent figure.”
Global Poverty
“Meat production is an inefficient use of
grain―the grain is used more efficiently when
consumed directly by humans. Continued
growth in meat output is dependent on feeding
grain to animals, creating competition for
grain between affluent
meat eaters and the
world’s poor.”
―WorldWatch Institute
Health
According to the American Dietetic Association
(2010):
•Vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, diabetes,
high blood pressure, cancer, and obesity than meat-eaters.
•Vegetarian and vegan diets are appropriate for all life
stages, including infancy and pregnancy.
Health
According to the American Dietetic Association
(2010):
• Vegetarian diets have health benefits in the prevention
and treatment of certain diseases.
Obesity Rates:
Meat-eaters
Vegetarians
Vegans
65%
20%
3%
Fish
“I never eat anyone
I know personally.
I wouldn't deliberately
eat a grouper any
more than I’d eat a
cocker spaniel. They're
so good-natured, so
curious. You know,
fish are sensitive, they
have personalities,
they hurt when
they’re wounded.”
Hunting
© 2011 Jupiterimages Corporation