I’ve been vegan for twenty years. As I learned about the plight of animals in modern agriculture from Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, John Robbins’ Diet for a New America and numerous undercover films that showed the conditions under which the great majority of animals are raised for food, I knew I didn’t want to participate in causing unnecessary suffering and death to sentient beings. What I learned from books and films was confirmed by my own experiences when I brought high school students to see factory farms for themselves; what we saw solidified my commitment to a plant-based diet. I know that there are farmers who raise animals more humanely, and slaughterhouses that kill animals less brutally and cruelly, but since I don’t need to eat animals — and thereby cause their deaths — I choose not to. And because the system is what it is, in dairy production — even at the most humane farms — calves are still removed from their mothers at birth so the milk meant for the calf can be collected for people; the male offspring are killed because they’re of no use to the dairy industry; and, the dairy cows are eventually slaughtered when they’re no longer producing much milk. And even the most humane egg farms cull (meaning kill) their unproductive older hens and purchase their chicks from hatcheries that destroy the males, who are of no use to the egg industry.

But there are other reasons I was happy to have chosen a vegan diet. I learned about the health hazards of the typical American diet and the ways in which animal-based diets contribute to heart disease, many forms of cancer, strokes, diabetes, kidney disease, and other illnesses. My own health improved when I became vegan.

I also learned about the environmental problems associated with animal agriculture, from global warming to deforestation to water waste to soil erosion to pollution. Then in 2006, the U.N. issued a report citing beef production as contributing more to global warming than transportation. This stunning finding was barely mentioned in the news. So, although I had learned about all these issues from many books, articles, films and research, rarely did I read about the problems associated with meat-eating and animal agriculture in the mainstream media.

Until now.

Quite suddenly, there are numerous articles, TV news reports and interviews, and op-ed essays about the problems associated with meat-eating and the benefits of vegetarianism, and no longer are these coming only from alternative media. They are coming from CNN, The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Times (UK) and more. Here are just a few from the past few weeks:

• http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/10/28/opinion.jonathan.foer/index.html
• http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html
• http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1887266,00.html
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece

Take a look and let these articles be food for thought as you consider the diet that does the most good and the least harm for yourself, other people, animals and the environment.

Bon Appetit,

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind

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Filed under: animal protection, food and diet, MOGO (Most Good), news media Tagged: | animal agriculture, critical thinking, environmental protection, factory farming, food and diet, media literacy, MOGO choices, news media, veganism