Vegan Living & Ethical Buying

suzy_g wrote: »

While opposition to the killing of animals is a common reason cited by vegetarians, it’s often overlooked that dairy production also involves slaughter. Male calves are removed from their mother at birth and killed or exported to the continent for veal production.* Female calves are kept to become the next generation of milk-producers.Since 2010 Soil Association organic standards have specified that licensees must have a plan to end the practice of culling newborn calves within five years.
Another big reason people for going veggie or vegan is to protect the environment. Vast deforestation is taking place in Latin America to make room for soya cultivation, and with 97% of the crop being grown to feed animals for meat or dairy production, not to mention methane from farm animals which contributes 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Meat production also impacts on human rights - while people in some countries are starving, one third of the world's grain production is being fed to farmed animals in rich countries.
Because of the demand for animal feed, a Western meat-based diet uses four and a half times more land than is necessary for a vegan diet and two and a quarter times more than for a vegetarian diet. NigeWick This was copied from ethical consumer sorry I forgot how to do links

I happily eat veal as it is often healthier than older animal meat. Animals should be fed their natural foods (grass for beef & sheep) and not grains which are harmful to both animals and humans. Part of the meat problem is that we do not eat all of the animal as we used to which is also healthier for us due to the innards having more nutrients than muscle meat.

Please explain how having huge monocrop fields fed with chemicals and doused in poison can "save the environment" and keep our biodiversity.

When humans started growing grains life expectancy went down to about 25 and did not go up again until there were advances in medical treatments.

We agree that most animals for meat are not treated correctly but to me that does not mean we should not eat them, just that we should be prepared to pay for properly fed and cared for ones. I for one do not want to eat beasts fed grains & other animals and pumped up with steroids & other drugs to keep them from dying of diseases in unnatural conditions.

As to methane, far better to stop burning fossil fuels than stop eating meat. Think about global warming releasing the methane from areas of permafrost.

On to land use, there is growing evidence that the human population will peak at a bit over 10 billion. Permaculture methods that are completely sustainable are capable of feeding 12 - 13 billion and include natural animal husbandry.

Hi squirrelgirl,

Have you seen the Zero Waste Girl blog? I don't believe she's vegan but I think the concept would interest you!

Flill wrote: »

It's pretty awesome! It makes me happier when I meet people who want to do something for our planet.

Patrick_Stewart wrote: »

As for Permaculture, sounds fantastic, but as with so many practices that are good for the planet these days it really starts with the individual because at the moment governments etc are not acting fast enough.

having just come back from Iceland and seeing how quickly the glaciers are melting and receding, I couldn't agree with you guys more!!