101 Reasons Why Im a Vegetarian

By Pamela Rice • 2001 • Fifth Edition

Repr

int,

2002

JudeaJohnson

PaulDios

101 REASONS WHY I’M A VEGETARIAN

1There are many subsidies to themeat industry, but the biggest

break it enjoys by far comes incon-spicuously via the federal AnimalWelfare Act, which does not applyto animals raised for food. Thestates only minimally take up the le-gal slack, allowing cruelty andabuse of farm animals to be thenorm. If farmers were forced by lawto give their animals truly humaneliving quarters, such as spacious en-vironments, clean surroundings,fresh air, sunlight, and companion-ship—if it were illegal simply to ad-minister drugs to animals whowould otherwise die from the con-ditions they live in—cheap fast foodcould never exist. Time and again,the industry fights proposed mea-sures designed to ameliorate condi-tions for farm animals, evenslightly, because they would cost itliterally pennies more per animal.Ultimately, low prices have alloweddemand to stay high and the indus-try to grow. Virtually all of the over8 billion animals slaughtered forfood in the U.S. every year are theproduct of a swift-moving assem-bly-line system, incorporating dan-gerous, unprecedented, and unsus-tainable methods of efficiency.Farming in theU.S. has been al-lowed over thelast generation togrow into a grimcorporate mon-strosity, the scaleof which is hard tocomprehend oreven to believe.

2When the Clean Water Actwent into effect in 1972, agri-

culture as a source of pollution wasoverlooked. The EPA has identi-fied agricultural runoff as a pri-mary pollution source for the 60percent of rivers and streams con-sidered “impaired.” A 1997 Senatereport said that every year, U.S.livestock produce 10,000 poundsof solid manure for every U.S. cit-izen (see #22).

3After reviewing 4,500 scientificstudies and papers on the rela-

tionship between cancer andlifestyle, a team of 15 scientistssponsored by two leading cancerresearch institutions advised thatthose interested in reducing theirrisk of many types of cancer con-sume a diet that is mostly fruits,vegetables, cereals, and legumes.They declared that up to 40 per-cent of cancers are preventable,with diet, physical activity, andbody weight appearing to have ameasurable bearing on risk.

4According to the Food andAgriculture Organization of the

United Nations, two-thirds of theworld’s major fishing grounds andstocks are now exhausted or seri-ously depleted. Fishers, usingmodern techniques such as sonar,driftnets, bottom-fishing supertrawlers, longlines, and floating re-frigerated fish-packing factories,are ultimately not only puttingthemselves out of business butrapidly destroying ocean eco-systems. Early in 1998, 1,600 sci-entists from around the world de-clared that the oceans were inperil. They warned that swift ac-tion is imperative to prevent irre-

versible environ-mental degrada-tion (see #92).

5The HumaneSlaughter Act

requires that ananimal be ren-dered uncon-scious with oneswift application

of a stunning device before slaugh-ter. In today’s slaughterhouse thisrequirement can easily be violated,thanks to increasingly fast linespeeds that result in animals beingcut up while fully conscious. Sped-up conveyor belts produce moreprofits for packing plants, but thecost is borne by the animals and bythe laborers who have to work onthe petrified creatures as they fightfor their lives. And for birds (not

legally recognized as animals),“humane” preslaughter stunning isnot administered (see #72).

6Cardiovascular disease and can-cer cost the country nearly $500

billion every year. Although smok-ing, lack of exercise, heredity, andenvironmental exposures are othercausative factors, these diseases areinexorably linked to diets high incalories (meat), high in saturatedfat (meat), and low in fiber (meat).

7It might be easy on your con-science to consume the flesh of a

creature perceived to be stupid,dirty, and brutish. It may be sur-prising to some, however, that pigsare highly intelligent. Ask Profes-sor Stanley Curtis of PennsylvaniaState University. He taught severalpigs to understand complex rela-tionships between actions and ob-jects in order to play video games.Curtis, along with his colleagues,found pigs to be focused, creative,and innovative, equal in intelli-gence to chimps.

8Conservative industry figuresfor feed-to-flesh ratios are 7:1

for cattle, 2.6:1 for pigs, and 2:1 forchickens. Many factors, however,can influence feed conversion. Byvirtually all accounts, eating foodderived from animals is wasteful.And when the industry does ac-complish more efficiency, improve-ments usually come at the expenseof the animals, via genetic tinkeringand growth-enhancing drugs.

9Of the 36 million pounds of antibiotics used annually for all

purposes in the U.S., 70 percentare administered to healthy ani-mals to make them grow faster onless feed. Though perfectly legal,the practice is promoting the selec-

DEDICATION“101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian”

is dedicated to my husband, AlanRice, who maintains a constant flow

of valuable reference materialstreaming my way—without whichthis “mighty convincer” would be a

lot less convincing.—Pamela

Carni-Catastrophe: Disease cost, $500 billion

Policeman reading the “101.” Photo by Michelle Fornof.


tion of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.More and more, these bacteria arecausing human illnesses that physi-cians are finding difficult and evenimpossible to treat. The practice isadding to the general worldwidecrisis of drug-resistant disease.

10Every year, Americans suffer76 million illnesses, over

300,000 hospitalizations, and over5,000 deaths from something theyate. That something was probablyof animal origin. The govern-ment’s strategy for controllingdangerous bacteria is to inspectmeat during processing—some-thing it isn’t doing well nowadays(see #24). Except in rare instances,neither the USDA nor the FDAhas any regulatory powers onfarms where pathogens originate.With the exception of E. coliO157:H7, dangerous bacteria arelegally considered “inherent” toraw meat. It’s up to consumers toneutralize pathogens with cook-ing. Two of the legal ones—cam-pylobacter and salmonella—account for 80 percent of illnessesand 75 percent of deaths frommeat and poultry. One hamburgercan contain the meat of 100 differ-ent cows from four different coun-tries. One infected animal cancontaminate 16 tons of beef.

11Heart disease does not haveto be a death sentence or

mean a life of cholesterol-loweringdrugs and bypass surgery. By pre-scribing a vegetarian diet, regularexercise, and spiritual nourishmentfor his heart patients, Dean Ornish,M.D., proved that the progressionof this number-one killer can behalted and even reversed (see #85).

12Jim Mason and Peter Singerwrite in their book Animal

Factories, “Instead of hired hands,the factory farmer employs pumps,fans, switches, slatted or wirefloors, and automatic feeding andwatering hardware.” As with anyother capital-intensive system,managers will be concerned withthe “cost of input and volume of

output.…The difference is that inanimal factories the product is aliving creature.”

13Eating a plant-based dietguards against disease, first

in an active way, with complex car-bohydrates, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, andfiber, then by default: The moreplant foods you eat, theless room you havefor the animalfoods that clog ar-teries with choles-terol, strain kidneyswith excess protein,and burden the heartwith saturated fat. TheAmer ican Die te t i c Association acknowl-edges a correlation betweena vegetarian diet and reduced riskof coronary-artery disease, hyper-tension, diabetes, obesity, and cer-tain types of cancer.

14Meat packing is the mostdangerous occupation in the

nation. Workers may be crushed byanimals falling off the line. Poultryworkers typically make a singlemovement up to 20,140 times a dayand suffer repetitive-stress dis-orders at 16 times the national av-erage. Turnover at plants can be ashigh as 100 percent per year.

15With so many fish specieson the brink of extinction

(see #4), governments continuallytry to regulate fishing gear, catchsize, and catch season. But the reg-ulations almost never work. Polic-ing is expensive. Illegal fishingaround the world is estimated tobe between 25 and 50 percent ofthe reported catch. And this doesnot include catches from ships thatavoid interdiction from patrolboats by registering with “flag-of-convenience” countries—statesthat have not signed on to interna-tional fishing treaties that regulateenvironmental and labor conven-tions. These boats, which bring ina full quarter of the world’s fish,are often owned by phantom com-

panies in the U.S., Europe, orJapan. This legal “pirating” of theseas doubled during the 1990s.

16Factory hens today are forcedto live in “battery” cages

stacked in rows, four high, by thethousands. Each is confined toabout 48 to 86 square inches ofspace. (This page is 81 squareinches.) After months of confine-ment, necks are covered with blis-

ters, wings bare, combsbloody, feet torn. Manurefumes and rotting car-casses force poultry work-

ers to wear gas masks.When the hens be-come what the

industry matter-of-factly calls spent,

producers truck themutilated birds—often long dis-tances—to slaughter, or gas them,or grind them up while still alive, tobe used as feed for the next flock.

17Campylobacter, which mostcommonly infects chicken, is

the leading bacterial cause of food-borne illness in the U.S. Infectionsgive victims cramps, bloody diar-rhea, and fever, and lead to deathfor up to 800 people in the U.S.each year. A Minnesota Depart-ment of Health study tested a hun-dred chicken products from pro-cessing plants in five states in 1999and found an 88 percent contami-nation rate. Of these, 20 percentwere resistant to quinolones, a fam-ily of powerful antibiotics. Scien-tists blame the resistance on themid-1990s FDA approval of two ofthese drugs for therapeutic use oncommercial chickens (see #9).

18An English study that com-pared the diets of 6,115 vege-

tarians and 5,015 meat eaters for 12years found that the meatless dietyielded a 40 percent lower risk ofcancer and a 20 percent lower riskof dying from any cause. Accordingto William Castelli, M.D., directorof the famed Framingham HeartStudy, vegetarians outlive meateaters by 3 to 6 years.

Antibiotics: Farm animal growth stimulants


19Half of every butchered cowand a third of every butch-

ered pig becomes either by-prod-uct material or waste. In addition,920 million animals die on U.S.factory farms before reachingslaughter. What’s an industry to dowith all this death and gore? Callthe renderer straightaway! Recy-cling, they call it. Lips are exportedto Mexico for taco filling; horns aremade into gelatin; other parts arefashioned into everything fromdrugs to aphrodisiacs and cosmet-ics. The rest is minced, pulverized,and boiled down for more prod-ucts. Much is dried to a powder tobe mixed into animal feed. Thereare some regulations: Since 1997,feeding ruminant-based slaughter-house by-product to cattle is illegal(see #63). In 2001, however, theFDA found hundreds of animalfeed producers in violation.

20Essentially, if a farmingpractice is established as “ac-

cepted,” “common,” “customary,”or “normal,” no matter how cruel,anticruelty statutes do not apply.Such a legal environment serves togrant meat producers carteblanche for the development ofstill other cruel practices and tech-nologies. In general, the animalcruelty laws that do exist are rarelyenforced. Fines for violations arenegligibly small, and prosecutorsmay have to demonstrate that adefendant was in a particular men-tal state when a cruel act was com-mitted. Basically, the meat indus-try enjoys a privilege unique in theworld of law: Instead of societyjudging which of its actions shouldbe legal or illegal, it makes this de-termination itself. Is there anywonder that precious little eco-nomic loss comes for the benefit offarm animals?

21Our modern dairy cow liveswith an unnaturally swelled

and sensitive udder, is likely never tobe allowed out of her stall, is milkedup to three times a day, and is keptpregnant nearly all of her abbrevi-

ated life. Her young are usuallytaken from her almost immediatelyafter birth. A cow living in today’smodern milk factory is, as JohnRobbins puts it in his book Diet for aNew America, “bred, fed, medicated,inseminated, and manipulated to asingle purpose—maximum milkproduction at minimum cost.”

22Waste from livestock in theU.S. amounts to 130 times

that produced by people (see #2).Every time it rains, excess phospho-rous and nitrogen from the urineand feces seep into our waterways,causing algal blooms, or red tides.Another result of agricultural runoffhas been the proliferation of dino-flagellates, named for their charac-teristic dual flagella, the appendagesthey use to propel themselves. In1991, Pfiesteria piscicida was discov-ered to be a particularly nasty vari-ety, with the ability to ambush itsprey by stunning it with a disorient-ing toxin before sucking its skin off.This nearly indestructible one-celled creature, or “cell from hell,”as it soon became known, killed abillion fish during just one flare-upoff North Carolina during the early1990s. People who come in contactwith the tiny predator often experi-ence memory loss as well as gro-tesque sores on their skins. In 1982there were 22 known species ofharmful dinoflagellates. In 1997there were over 60.

23Castration makes bulls mucheasier to handle. It makes

their meat more marketable also.There are three castration meth-ods, two of which shut off theblood supply so that the testicleseither are reabsorbed into the ani-mal’s body or simply fall away aftera couple of weeks. In a thirdmethod, the scrotum is cut so thatthe testicles can be pulled out.Anesthesia is rarely given beforeany of these procedures, andsometimes operations are botched.One livestock expert adviseswould-be emasculators, “Sloppycastration means lower profits.”

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24By concealing a camera onhis body, an employee of a

Rapid City, South Dakota, slaugh-terhouse was able to obtain avideotape for CBS-TV’s “48Hours.” The tape showed how aplant with over 300 employeesthat processes an average of 50cows per hour with only fourUSDA inspectors “keeps the linemoving.” It showed workers tak-ing dangerous shortcuts in clean-ing up fluid that had broken out ofan abscess from a piece of chuckbeef—a severe violation of USDArules, which require an extendedclean-up procedure. A USDA vet-erinarian commented, “I can sayfrom my experience of nine yearsand in talking to other food in-spectors around the country, thisprobably goes on on a daily basis.”

25In 2000, the USDA came outwith its official dietary

guidelines, as it does every fiveyears, and as always it told peopleto eat less meat. Of course it didn’tuse those words; when it did, in1979, the meat industry soundedsuch a hue and cry that the U.S.agency quickly retreated. Reduce“saturated fat and cholesterol” itsays now, something that means al-most nothing to most people.

26A commercial egg-laying henis kept crammed with four to

eight other birds for life inside asmall wire cage. The birds remainperpetually tortured and frustratedas their eggs fall through the wiremesh to roll out of reach but not outof sight. Egg laying is such a per-sonal matter that a hen seeks pri-vacy when performing the function.

27The senseless waste of theworld’s growing meat-cen-

tered diet is illustrated by a hypo-thetical statement put forth by thePopulation Reference Bureau: “Ifeveryone adopted a vegetarian dietand no food were wasted, current[food] production would theoreti-cally feed 10 billion people, morethan the projected population forthe year 2050.”

28In 1997 a bird virus jumpedto a human for the first time

in history. By early 1998, the avianinfluenza strain H5N1 had killedsix people as well as entire flocks ofchickens in Hong Kong. Fearingthat the strain might be signalingthe beginning of a pandemic of hu-man influenza (see #35), authoritiesslaughtered and buried 1.3 millionpoultry-market chickens in the cityover a chaotic three-day period.

29As gigantic hog-confinementoperations dot the nation

more and more, issues of odor im-pose themselves on entire commu-nities. Fumes carry 150 volatilecompounds that can become air-borne on dust particles. “In thesummer, when they start pumpingeffluent, it wakes you up. You aregagging,” vented one neighbor of ahog factory in a March 1998 NewYork Times article.

30A male calf born to a dairycow—what does a farmer do

with this by-product of the milk in-dustry? If he is not immediatelyslaughtered or factory-raised, he ismade into fancy veal. To this end,he is locked up in a stall and chainedby his neck to prevent him fromturning around for his entire life.He is fed a special diet without ironor roughage. He is injected withantibiotics and hormones to keephim alive and to make him grow.He is kept in darkness except forfeeding time. The result? A nearlyfull-grown animal with flesh as ten-

der and milky-white as a newborn’s.The beauty of the system, from thestandpoint of the veal industry, isthat meat from today’s “crate veal”still fetches the premium price it al-ways did when such flesh came onlyfrom a baby calf. But now each an-imal yields much more meat.

31On October 12, 1999, thepopulation of the world hit 6

billion, at least in theory. Thisnumber is expected to reach 10 bil-lion by 2050. The Green Revolu-tion, which fueled much of the re-cent growth, appears to have cometo an end. Indeed, grain productionworldwide has been declining since1983, and biotech is not likely to re-verse the downturn. Today, 70 per-cent of grain in the U.S. and 40 per-cent of grain worldwide lavishlygoes to feed livestock. And justwhen the world seems to think itneeds more land to cultivate grainto feed to animals so more peoplecan eat them, per-capita worldcropland has declined by 20 percentin the 1990s alone. The WorldHealth Organization says 1.2 bil-lion people in the world don’t getenough to eat. Increasing meat pro-duction is definitely not the answer.

32Polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) are highly toxic

chemicals, once used widely in anumber of industrial applications.Though they are now banned inthe U.S. and other Western coun-tries, their residues have becomepart of the food chain, lodged inthe fat of fish, beef, pork, milk, andother dairy products. Various stud-ies have linked prenatal exposureto PCBs—even tiny amounts—toimpaired intellectual developmentin children. Women who plan tobecome pregnant are advised toavoid foods containing them, be-cause the chemicals can accumu-late in their bodies for years.

33Some farmers feed theirchicken flocks manure. No,

it’s not illegal, and yes, animals willgrow by eating it. According to theFDA, the practice is safe if, during

Pop. 6 Billion: Meat eating, not the way to go

Copyright © 2001 by Pamela Rice


composting, the feces are allowedto reach high enough tempera-tures to destroy harmful bacteria.The problem is, farmers rarelytake all the necessary steps in thecomposting process.

34The late parent advisor Dr.Benjamin Spock maintained

that cows’ milk “causes internalblood loss, allergies, and indiges-tion and contributes to some casesof childhood diabetes.” In the lastedition of his famous baby book herecommended that children afterthe age of 2 essentially adhere to avegan diet. But he also believedthat dairy milk was not good forinfants. According to renownednutrition researcher T. ColinCampbell, “Cows’ milk proteinmay be the single most significantchemical carcinogen to which hu-mans are exposed.”

35Because of animal agricul-ture, the world sees a global

pandemic of influenza three orfour times per century. Ducks areoften the original incubators for anew subtype. In turn, pigs are pe-riodically able to act as hosts forboth the avian viruses and humanones. Within the pigs’ lungs, thetransspecies viruses swap geneticmaterial, creating a new strain thatmay be passed back to humans.Historically, the most fertile placefor this to happen has been southChina, where billions of pigs, do-mesticated ducks, and people alllive in close proximity to one an-other.

36Beef cattle are best suited tomoist climates, like those of

Europe, where they evolved. Butin the U.S., many are concentratedin the West on the driest land. Na-tive grasses long ago were overrunby heartier foreign varietiesbrought here on bovine hooves.Grazing usually takes place alongfragile riparian zones—the stripsof land along rivers and streamswhere wild species of plants andanimals concentrate and regener-ate. These delicate ecosystems,

which serve as natural purifiers ofthe water, are summarily trampledflat by cows and contaminated bymanure.

37Adult-onset diabetes is ir-refutably linked to fat in the

diet. Researchers have found thatwhen diabetics adhere to a low-fat,high-fiber, complex-carbohydrate(vegetarian) diet they are often ableto reduce or even eliminate theirmedication. Tragically, as peoplearound the world increasinglyadopt meat-based diets, incidencesof this disease—which leads to ag-gressive atherosclerosis, gangrene,blindness, and kidney failure—risedramatically.

38After years of selectivebreeding and with the help

of modern milking practices, acow today is robbed of many timesthe milk her calf would take. Thestrain on her body is equivalent towhat a human would experiencejogging six hours per day. On thefarm of yesteryear, “Bessie” mighthave lived 20 years. Today, onceher milk-producing abilities di-minish, after about four years, sheis slaughtered and ground to ham-burger. In February 1994, theMonsanto company inflicted yetanother horror on our friend: a ge-netically engineered bovine hor-mone that boosts milk productionby as much as 40 percent. And thisis an industry that receives govern-ment price supports because itperpetually produces gluts.

39U.S. subsidies to ranchers onpublic lands cost American

taxpayers about $500 million annu-ally. To eliminate livestock preda-tors—real or anticipated—one pro-gram uses steel-jaw leghold traps,firearms, cyanide, and poison gas toexterminate thousands of blackbears, mountain lions, bobcats,foxes, and coyotes every year.

40Though osteoporosis is a dis-ease of calcium deficiency, it

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diet. Excesses can leach calciumfrom the bones. The typical meat-eating American is eating about fivetimes as much protein as needed.

41Technology can save yourlife after a heart attack (see

#11), but ultimately you’ll have tolive with the consequences. In thecase of congestive heart failure—a$19-billion-per-year industry thatinvolves 550,000 afflicted peopleevery year—your heart is so dam-aged that it is unable to circulateblood to the rest of your body ad-equately. Often your only hope isto get a transplant, but you’ll haveto wait in line for that.

42An egg farmer, when facedwith a flock of spent hens,

knows he can induce them to re-sume egg production via a forcedmolt—accomplished with starva-tion and water deprivation for pe-riods of up to two weeks. No U.S.law prevents the regimen, and infact most hens are molted at leastonce in their lives. So cruel is thepractice that even McDonald’scouldn’t stomach it. In August2000 the burger giant announcedthat it would not purchase eggsfrom suppliers that employ theprocedure. The dictate was thefirst from any major U.S. foodcompany to reflect concern overthe treatment of chickens.

43According to the Occupa-tional Safety and Health Ad-

ministration, poultry processorshave the worst record for not allow-ing their employees to use the toiletwhen needed on the job. In March1998, the agency announced thatthe abuses were so bad that it wouldhave to implement explicit direc-tives to protect workers.

44In any factory-farm opera-tion, a percentage of the ani-

mals are sick or crippled. The in-dustry calls them “downers.” Fed-eral law does not protect them inany way. Downers are dealt withconveniently. Veterinary care is notwasted on them. If unable to walk,a downer is often dragged by chain

or pushed by a tractor or forklift toslaughter. Such animals may be leftto starve or freeze to death. Thedowner phenomenon would bedrastically reduced if stockyards re-fused to receive and process them.

45When researchers at CornellUniversity took on the task

of developing menus for long-termspace travel, prolonged and sustain-able life support was their mission.Astronauts not only would have toprepare their own food; they wouldhave to grow it first. In suchlifeboat conditions, meat and dairywould have to be off the menu. Toobad not enough people see planetEarth in a similar way! (See #101.)

46Cattle thrive best on grassand hay. But to give beef its

signature fatty marbling and tospeed growth, ranchers fatten cat-tle with a high-grain diet. Withoutthe use of antibiotics, the rich feedwould cause abscesses to form onthe livers of 75 percent of the ani-mals. Unfortunately, such routinedrug use raises the risk for the de-velopment of antibiotic-resistantbacteria (see #9).

47If you like the idea ofbeing welcome at

the places where yourfood is produced, don’tcount on your localpoultry grower al-lowing you to see hisbirds anytime soon.Just barely holdingonto life in theirdrugged-up, over-bred, and chroni-cally immunodefi-cient state, chick-ens and turkeys intoday’s factory sys-tems must be care-fully segregated fromthe possibility of infection beingbrought in fromthe outside. Ifeven slightly laxin applying rig-orous measures

of “biosecurity,” farmers over widegeographic regions can be forcedby a mass outbreak to destroy mil-lions of birds at a time.

48Animal feces and urine, intoday’s quantities, need to be

categorized as hazardous indus-trial waste because of the bacteria,wormy parasites, and viruses theycarry. Fumes can be so potent andeven explosive that a plume cankill a man on the spot. Still, themost common method of storagefor animal waste is an open-aircesspool (see #69).

49Eating fish from coral reefs islike burning the Mona Lisa

for kindling. Reefs are the home to25 percent of all known marine fishspecies. Yet a burgeoning demandfrom restaurants for live coral-reeffish has created huge incentives fordivers to capture the fish withcyanide. First they dissolve concen-trated tablets of the poison intoplastic squirt bottles. Once the preyis stunned, full immobilizationtends not to take place until afterthe fish have had a chance to bur-row back into the reef. Divers ex-tract their catch with destructive

tools. Some reefs are over a mil-lion years old. Yet 20 percent

have been destroyed in just thepast two decades.

50One of the most im-portant things you can

eat isn’t even a nutrient; it’sfiber. Plant foods, and grains

in particular, are replete withit. Animal muscle has next tonone, which is why societieswith meat-based diets havesuch high incidences ofcolon cancer. Early fiber re-

searcher Denis Burkitt, M.D.,observed: “The only reason you

have a laxative industry is be-cause you’ve taken fiber out ofyour diet.”

51In 1991 the PhysiciansCommittee for Responsible

Medicine came out with the NewFour Food Groups: fruits, vegeta-bles, whole grains, and legumes

Coral Reefs: Obscene plunder for live-fish trade

LindaMarie

Fogle


(beans and peas). Meat and dairyare termed “optional,” not consid-ered necessary for good health.

52Animal agriculture routinelymutilates farm animals for its

own convenience. Animals arebranded or ear-notched for identi-fication. They are debeaked or tail-docked to minimize the destructiveeffects of their naturally violent re-sponses to intense confinement.Calves and piglets are castrated forother economic reasons (see #23).And perhaps the most abhorrent:Boar bashing is also common. Jus-tification? Boars with broken nosesare less likely to fight.

53A male chick born with thegenes of an egg-laying hen is

an annoying by-product to the in-dustry. Not biologically worthy ofbecoming a broiler, and with nolaw to protect him, he is disposedof in the least expensive way thathatching operations can devise.Most commonly, he is thrown intoa bag with a thousand other malechicks to suffocate.

54Though sometimes consid-ered a panacea for our time,

fish farming, or aquaculture, iseven more disruptive to the envi-ronment than fishing the seas.� The construction of pens alongshorelines is a major reason for thedecimation of mangrove forests,where fish reproduce. � Some fishwill not breed in captivity, so fishfarmers must acquire stock fromthe wild. These species will haveless chance to replenish theirnumbers in nature. � Farmed fishoften escape into the wild, cor-rupting the genetic purity of wildspecies and spreading disease atthe same time. � Shrimp are fed ona mashed-up aquatic protein mix.So-called biomass fishing, used toderive the feed, is done with finenets. (Normally, nets are wroughtloosely to allow juvenile fish to es-cape and reproduce—thus assur-ing future stocks.) Biomass fishingextracts fish indiscriminately. Thefish that are caught may be endan-

gered or may be the food on whichendangered fish live. � Hugeamounts of nitrogenous waste em-anate from fish farms, just as withall intensive animal agriculture.

55The continued adoption ofhigh-fat diets in newly afflu-

ent nations around the globethreatens to wreak financial disasteron fragile developing economies.Without treatment infrastructuresin place, the inevitable need forhigh-tech therapies puts a strain onnational coffers.

56A report issued by the Na-tional Academy of Sciences

in the summer of 2000 said that60,000 children are born in theU.S. each year with neurologicalproblems caused by mercury expo-sure. Environmental groups laterconcluded that the toxic threat ofmercury in seafood was greaterthan previously thought, especiallyfor children and pregnant women.Their warning advised that certainocean fish, not just species offreshwater fish, should be avoided.

57Hoof-and-mouth disease israrely fatal, but for its victims

it’s still a death sentence. Whenblisters form on hooves and lipsand when growth slows because offever and loss of appetite, it’s off tothe abattoir. At press time, over 2million animals in Great Britainhad been slaughtered and burned.Only about 1,400 were actuallysick; the rest were destroyed to haltthe contagion. The pyres of burn-ing carcasses were found to emithuge amounts of dioxin into theair. The ultimate disaster, however,could be if wildlife becomes in-fected. Wild animals can becomelong-term or even permanentreservoirs for the disease.

58If you want to find a lawlessindustry, you don’t have to

look farther than the people whoproduce animals foods: Labor, en-vironmental, and health viola-tions—often of the most unimag-inable varieties—are a regular fea-ture in the trade journals if not the

Scentcerely Yoursaromatherapy • organic herbs

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Happy 25th B-day to Sara, my favorite veggie!

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Renewalby Timothy J. Smith, M.D.

Sandra Reed & Louis Bottino

GET YOUR Vegetarian Starter Kit202-686-2210 • www.PCRM.orgPhysicians Committee

for Responsible MedicineWASHINGTON, D.C.

WONDERFUL VEGAN COOKBOOK

The Peaceful Palateby Jennifer Raymond

Joe Passaretti

From a friend, encouraging you to join and shop at the

Park Slope Food Coop782 UNION ST. • BROOKLYN • 718-622-0560

Northern ConnecticutVegetarian Society

www.northCTveg.org

North American Vegetarian SocietyP.O. Box 72, Dolgeville, NY 13329

518-568-7970 • www.navs-online.orgRemember World Vegetarian Day: October 1

Aquaculture: No answer to overfishing the seasS P O N S O R SS P O N S O R S


general press. Occasionally, evena “humane handling” violationcomes before public scrutiny. InFebruary 2000, USA Today broke aparticularly shocking story abouttwo IBP slaughterhouses in Ne-braska. The Justice Departmentwas alleging that IBP emitted up to1,800 pounds of hydrogen sulfide aday from one of its plants. Some ofthe town’s people walked aroundwith tanks of oxygen, but mostwere just gagging. “It’s this pro-gressive loss of brain,” explainedone expert. Hydrogen sulfide alsocorrodes the lungs and destroys aperson’s ability to breathe. Welearned that IBP had a 20-year his-tory of environmental misconduct.

59The efficient mass produc-tion of animal bodies for

gustatory purposes is keeping re-searchers in genetic engineeringand cloning busy. These virtuallyunpoliceable technologies arethreatening to usher in a bravenew feedlot of animal mono-culture and cruelty. The futurewill bring us perfect-fat-to-lean-ratio designer pigs, ge-netically engineered fast-growing fish, prevacci-nated chickens, andmore super-milk-producing cows.Josef Mengele would beimpressed.

60In 1982 hamburgersickness—or E. coli

O157:H7 poisoning—wasrare. In 1999, the USDA re-vealed that the deadly strainmay infect half of the cattlethat are processed intoground beef. Every year, asmany as 73,500 Americansget sick from E. coli contam-ination, and 600 die from it.Milder symptoms may range fromdiarrhea and abdominal cramps tored-blood-cell destruction. Moreserious bouts may cause blindness,seizures, kidney failure, or paraly-sis, or they may require partialbowel removal.

61From the animal-feedbreadbasket of the nation’s

Midwest, massive amounts of fer-tilizer, pesticides, and manure run-off travel down the MississippiRiver till they end up in the Gulfof Mexico. This high-nutrient mixcauses an eco-chain reaction thatultimately ends with microscopicorganisms robbing the bottom ofthe ocean of oxygen. Animalsthere need to relocate to moreoxygen-rich waters. Slow and non-mobile species suffocate. The phe-nomenon is known as hypoxia.Scientists have dubbed affectedareas “dead zones.” Once a yearthe Gulf’s dead zone grows toabout the size of New Jersey.

62In what is still the most com-prehensive study of diet and

lifestyle ever made, the China Pro-ject found that animal protein islinked to chronic disease. Thefindings from this grand epidemi-

ological study are especiallycompelling because the datacollected allows meaningfulcomparisons between popula-

tions with similar geneticbackgrounds yet with

nonhomogeneous dietsand lifestyles.

63One by one we’rehearing of people

downed by the very mys-terious new-variantCreutzfeldt-Jakob disease,a brain-eating afflictionthat experts say is a hu-

man version of bovinespongiform encephalopathy(BSE), or mad cow disease.The 100 or more victims ofthe brain-wasting diseasesince 1986 probably be-came infected after eating

beef from cows who had been fedbrain and nerve tissue of scrapie-infected sheep. Death from the dis-

ease is inevitable, often prolonged,and thoroughly hideous. Recentevidence confirming the trans-species link gives credence to thenotion that the disease, which has a15- to 20-year incubation period,may someday become much morewidespread. Though feeding rumi-nant remains back to ruminantswas made illegal in the U.S. in1997, the imprudent practice of re-cycling animal parts back to live-stock has been going on fordecades. It could be only a matterof time before America suffers itsown version of the English saga,which saw over 200,000 cattle in-fected with mad cow disease. Thatwill be something to worry about ifit comes. Until then, it may be agood idea to remember that about2,600 Americans die from cardio-vascular disease every day. Beef eat-ing has plenty to do with it, too;there’s no mystery about that.

64Though considered morehealthful than beef, fish is

still a high-fat, high-calorie, fiber-less food imbued with artery-clog-ging cholesterol. It is concentratedwith protein (see #62), so it raisesthe risk of osteoporosis and kidneyproblems, and it often is ladenwith dangerous toxins absorbedfrom polluted environments (see#32 and #56).

65When researchers installedvideocameras in the kitchens

of 100 homes to watch meals be-ing prepared by unsuspectingstudy participants, it was foundthat up to 42 percent of the patho-gen-prone meat dishes were un-dercooked. The meat industryclaims that it doesn’t have to pro-vide pathogen-free products, be-cause bacteria are killed by cook-ing. Perhaps this policy needs tobe reconsidered—or people needto go vegetarian.

66From farm to table, animalfoods are a filthy business.

Antidotes to the many pathogensthey harbor is an ever-burgeoningindustry. � On the farm, there are

nvCJD: The brain-eating disease of beef eaters

The top two illustrations on the front cover and those near reasons #16

and #28 are by New York City artistJuan Torcoletti (212-219-8796).

RochelleGoldman


ionizing systems to reduce patho-gen-laden dust. � In the slaughter-house, there are steam, saline andacidic solutions, irradiation, ultra-high pressure, competitive exclu-sion (which adds benign bacteriato crowd out the lethal kinds),electrolyzed water, liquid nitro-gen, and ozone gas. � In the super-market, detection tabs monitorfood temperature. Other detectiondevices include scat scanners andfiber-optic pathogen sensors thatuse vibrating quartz crystals. � Inthe kitchen, a silver-coated cuttingboard kills food bacteria. � Then,if you still get sick, you can take adrug to absorb the toxicity.What’ll they think up next!

67In 1995, a USDA studyfound that “greater than 99

percent of broiler carcasses haddetectable E. coli.” Though inmost cases the E. coli strain was notthe deadly one (O157:H7), thefinding points to the unsavory factthat nearly all chicken comes incontact with fecal matter at leastsome time during processing.

68Today the poultry industryis a vertically integrated oli-

gopoly, meaning that a few giantchicken companies control pro-duction, from chick hatching togrocery-store delivery. Squeezedinto the arrangement is the con-tract grower. The big companyowns the birds; the grower sup-plies the labor and the factory con-finement hardware. The situationoften appears good to the growerwhen she signs her first contractand goes into debt by several hun-dred thousand dollars. It’s not longbefore she finds that the multi-billion-dollar corporation she hascontracted with is now calling allthe shots, and that the debt she’sincurred has reduced her to littlebetter than indentured servitude.

69The passage of local laws fa-voring massive corporate

pork operations in North Carolinarecently propelled the state intothe number-two spot in national

hog production. In terms ofsewage, twice the human popula-tion of New York City might aswell have moved to North Car-olina. University studies estimatethat half of the 2,500 open hog-manure cesspools (euphemisticallytermed “lagoons”), now an in-evitable part of hog productionthere, are leaking contaminantssuch as nitrate into the ground-water. In the summer of 1995, atleast five lagoons broke open(see #48), letting loose tens of mil-lions of gallons of hog urine andfeces into rivers and onto neigh-boring farmland. No mechanicalmethod of retrieval exists to cleancontaminants from groundwater;only nature is able to purify thingsagain. And that can take genera-tions.

70Between 1984 and 1994 athird of U.S. packinghouses

went out of business thanks to laxenforcement of the antitrust laws.Consequently, a more powerfulindustry was able to get faster killspeeds approved even while thenumber of line employees was be-ing reduced. Meat and poultrysafety has been suffering eversince. In 1996 alone, USDA regu-lators made 138,593 “critical” cita-tions against the country’s 6,400processing plants. Each infractionhad the potential to sicken con-sumers if the food had been dis-tributed. Thanks to loopholes inthe law, plants were almost alwaysallowed to continue operating.

71Turkeys today have been selectively bred to such an

extent that their huge breastsmake it impossible for them to ac-complish the sex act on their own.The industry must artificially in-seminate them. The job is nearlyas dehumanizing for the work-ers—who must work rapidly forlong hours and low wages—as it isdeplorable for the torturedbreeder birds, who are essentiallyraped once or twice a week for 12to 16 months until slaughter.

THANK-YOUS

VivaVegie is grateful to Glen BoisseauBecker for his tireless work as the copyeditor for VivaVegie’s publications: TheVivaVine: The Vegetarian-Issues Mag-azine and “101 Reasons Why I’m aVegetarian.” Also, thanks to NALITHand David Sielaff for their support.

Joan Zacharias & Tom Lyons

Wilson Wong

Wholistic Health/Macrobiotic Counseling and Dietary Guidance

212-249-1428

Naomi Weinshenker

Veggie Singles EventsParties and dances for single vegetarians

and those who enjoy meeting them.(718)633-9817

[email protected] • www.veggiesingles.com

The Vegetarian Resource GroupP.O. Box 1463

Baltimore, MD 21203410-366-8343 • www.vrg.org

Vegetarian GourmetWholesale • Retail • Mail order

210 Centre St. (btwn. Grand & Canal)212-625-3980 www.VegeCyber.com

WONDERFUL NEW BOOK

Turn Off the Fat Genesby Neal Barnard, M.D.

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Pathogen Parade: Ingenious antidotes to filth S P O N S O R SS P O N S O R S


72In most large commercialchicken slaughter plants the

heads of doomed birds are firstplunged into an electrifiedbrine-water bath. The elec-tric current is set at a voltagejust high enough to immobi-lize the birds and to promotebleedout without hemorrhage.The birds not only are sentientduring slaughter, but must sufferthe excruciating shock. The cur-rent serves to minimize any incon-venient flailing that might inter-fere with the slaughter process.

73Legally, the term free-rangeis virtually meaningless. The

federal government has only thevague requirement that the ani-mals from which such meat is de-rived have access to the outdoors.This could mean one small open-ing for thousands of birds. Thereis nothing in the law to preventthese “free-range” animals fromthe same kind of cruel treatmentimposed on any other factory-farmed animals. In March 1998,Consumer Reports found free-rangepoultry actually more contamina-ted with salmonella and campylo-bacter than other poultry.

74New York State’s Depart-ment of Environmental

Conservation and its Departmentof Health put out a flyer called“Eating Sport Fish.” The advicespeaks for itself: No one should eatmore than one meal of fish perweek from any of the state’s freshwaters; chemical contaminantsmay be a problem; trim all fat;don’t consume cooking liquids.On the other hand, if you stillwant to enjoy the “fun” of sportfishing but don’t want to contami-nate yourself, the flyer suggests“catch and release.” But don’t tearout the hook, “cut its leader.” Alsoavoid playing fish to exhaustion,the flyer advises.

75The tiny, mostly impover-ished nation of Albania re-

cently became the setting for anepidemiological study that com-

pared the diets of two segments ofits population. One segment sub-

sists on foods that are mostly of an-imal origin; the other enjoys whatis today termed the Mediterraneandiet, which consists mainly of freshfruits and vegetables, cereals, andolive oil. Death rates were notablyhigher in the segment that primar-ily consumes animal foods. The re-searchers announced that the studycould well serve as a model forhealth-policy planners everywhere.

76As the trade in meat be-comes more global, “carni-

vore” conflicts inevitably come tothe fore. A recent glaring examplewas the 2001 hoof-and-mouth dis-ease disaster (see #57), when coun-tries quickly severed trade with theentire European Union, thoughthe disease was mostly confined toEngland. Meanwhile, the hor-mone-in-beef dispute between theU.S. and the EU remains a stick-ing point, and meat safety stan-dards from nation to nation alsocontinually need to be hashed out.Furthermore, disagreements overfishing rights regularly bring na-tions to the verge of armed con-flict: In 1997 the United Nationsreported that over 100 countrieswere involved in fishing disputes.

77The population explosionshould not be thought of ex-

clusively in terms of people—notwhen the combined weight of theworld’s 1.3 billion domesticatedcattle exceeds that of the entire hu-man population. Cattle disruptecosystems over half the world’sland mass. In the past half centuryalone, more than 60 percent of the

world’s rangelands have been dam-aged by overgrazing, the most per-

vasive cause of desertifica-tion.

78Overwhelming evi-dence has indicted red

meat because of its fat con-tent. Now, this all-Americandisaster food just got more

toxic, thanks to numerous studiesthat link its high iron content toheart disease and atherosclerosis.Iron, it is believed, generates freeradicals—unstable particles thatdamage cells. It may also interferewith nitric oxide in the body, achemical that allows blood to flowthrough the blood vessels morefreely. New research is also pokingholes in the belief in the heart-pro-tective effects of estrogen in pre-menopausal women. That protec-tion may be because of the monthlyloss of iron through menstruation.

79Animal foods are high insodium, which causes the

blood to retain water. They alsocause plaque to build up in the ar-teries, narrowing the flow area forblood. Combine these phenomenaand you have a recipe for a diseasethat afflicts about 50 million Amer-icans: high blood pressure. You cantake calcium channel blockers anddiuretics to control it, but studieswarn that you risk losing intellec-tual function if you do.

80In the early twentieth cen-tury man learned to extract

nitrogen from the air, cheaply andin large quantities. The discoveryhas allowed 2 billion more peopleto inhabit the Earth and givenfarmers the luxury of feeding crop-land to livestock. Yet what gives theworld abundance has poisoned wa-terways from the China country-side to the Ohio Valley. Billions ofanimals recycle excess nitrogeninto the environment with theirmanure. Even human sewage hasbecome more nitrogen-rich, espe-cially with the many more meateaters that the world can now sup-port. Waterways in North America

Free-Range: A deceptive marketing gimmick

COWSare friendsnot foodGo VegPhoto by

DebbieLeahy

JulieDigangi


and Europe have 20 times the ni-trogen they did before the Indus-trial Revolution. To produce agram of meat you need over 15grams of nitrogen; to produce agram of wheat flour, only 3 grams.

81Food animals are trans-ported in all weather. When

it is brutally cold, animals mayfreeze right to the sides of trucks orbecome frozen in the urine and fe-ces that build up on truck floors. Inhot weather, heat stress will killmany. Losses, however, are figuredinto the cost of doing business. Ac-cording to swine specialist Ken-neth B. Kephart, “Even with a zerodeath rate that might be associatedwith providing more space on atruck, the hogs that we save wouldnot be enough to pay for the in-creased transportation costs ofhauling fewer hogs on a load.”

82W h e nmeat, fish,

or poultry is barbecued,dripped fat over the openflame sends up plumes ofsmoke that coat the foodwith carcinogens. Otherunhealthful chemicalsare created just by ex-tended cookingtimes. Chemistsare telling meateaters today to keep those grilltimes down. Even environmental-ists are saying that restaurantgrilling is a major source of sootand smog. But you still need tocook your meat thoroughly: Howelse are you going to kill all of thedeadly bacteria?

83As a result of the introduc-tion of cattle to this hemi-

sphere, major forest fires in theAmerican West occur today at therate of one every three years, whereearlier they may have occurred onlyonce in a century. Historically,ranchers suppressed “cool” grassfires on the bovines’ behalf, allow-ing tinderboxes of dense foliage tobuild up below taller trees. Factorin cheatgrass, a nonnative plant

that would not have had the oppor-tunity to take root in America with-out the overgrazing of cattle. Thisprolific weed provides dry, paperykindling in early summer, perfectlyconducive to massive forest fires.

84Thanks to a growing special-ization in the several stages

of cattle production and to produc-ers seeking the best price at everystep of the process, your ham-burger may have come from a steerwho suffered the brutality of trans-port between Mexico and the U.S.two or three times. The USDAand the financial community hailthis back-and-forth animal shuf-fling as a development that showshow the various “cattle sectors”can “complement” one anotherthrough “free trade.” It’s not likelythat the steers who suffer these

junkets share the zeal oftheir analysts.

85Clog up your ar-teries on a diet

loaded on saturated ani-mal fat year after year

and you’re putting your-self at risk for the greatkillers of the Westernworld: heart attack andstroke. Of course, youcan always opt to fore-stall the inevitable with

repeated angioplasty—a $16,000medical procedure done with a bal-loon-tipped catheter that flattensplaque against artery walls, thusopening up passageways for bloodflow. But a vegetarian diet—alongwith regular exercise—can have thesame effect.

86More than half of the nation’s seafood companies

do not follow federal food-safetyrules. Regulators from the Foodand Drug Administration visitprocessors only once a year tooversee essentially voluntary com-pany sanitation measures. Inspec-tions often entail nothing morethan an overview of paperwork.Moreover, half of all fish con-sumed in the U.S. are imported.

None but a few of the largest for-eign processing plants are everseen by U.S. inspectors.

87Rats grow more slowly onvegetable protein than ani-

mal protein. When this fact wasdiscovered 75 years ago, the meatindustry seized upon it as proof thatpeople should buy meat products.Subsequent studies, however, haveshown that foods that promoterapid growth cause rapid aging andare more likely to facilitate cancer.

88As hog feces and urine col-lect in giant cesspools

around factory farms, the sludge isbroken down naturally by bacterialdigestion. Hazardous nitrogen iseliminated, but in the process it isconverted into ammonia gas. Withsubsequent rainfalls, the ammoniais returned to the Earth, pollutingrivers and streams.

89In central California, 1,600dairies produce the feces and

urine of a city of 21 million people.Not enough surrounding land isavailable to absorb it all. When theSan Francisco Chronicle reportedthat the surplus cow sludge waspolluting local waterways, only onestate official was employed to trackit all down. Once he located asource, frequently far upstream, heoften discovered that a drainageditch had deliberately been built.Violation notices that he wrote upwere often simply ignored. In onecase that made it to court, thejudge imposed a relatively smallfine of $10,000. The dairy wassoon polluting again. The deputydistrict attorney in the area com-mented that the case was only thetip of the iceberg.

90One meal of a burger, fries,and a milk shake, or a large

steak and baked potato with sourcream, can put even the healthiestperson at risk for a heart attack.The same meal is all the morelethal to a person with clogged ar-teries, according to a 1996 study atthe University of Maryland (see#85). Researchers there measured

Protein Dilemma: Don’t worry; go vegetarian


the arterial response to stress inten subjects before and after ahigh-fat meal—one with 50grams of fat or more. Fat-filledarteries were able to expand (re-spond) only 50 percent of thenormal amount. After a no-fatvegetarian meal, there was noreduction in artery function. Asimilar study reported in 2001found that a moderately high-fatmeal dramatically reduces elas-ticity in the arteries, which raisesthe risk for heart attack.

91Drains and sewers at slaugh-terhouses often become

backed up with guts and coagu-lated blood. The pools that de-velop may come up to workers’ankles. The muck may splash uponto the animals, spreading conta-mination. Or whole heads ofshackled animals may even bedragged through it.

92As fishermen find that theirusual catch has been dimin-

ished by overfishing, they are likelyto turn to species lower on theaquatic food chain to fill their nets.Knowingly or otherwise, peopletoday are putting fish that wouldnormally be food for endangeredfish on their own dinner plates. Ifthe trend continues, experts pre-dict, marine food webs will col-lapse in 30 to 40 years (see #4).

93Hard, cold, strawless floors,filth, and space hardly bigger

than her own body—this is the lifeof a breeding sow on today’s factoryfarm. This highly intelligent crea-ture will repeatedly endure artificialinsemination, pregnancy in solitaryconfinement, and farrowing-stallimprisonment, where her body willbe pinned in place to expose herteats to her piglets. Relentless bore-dom, frustration, and lonelinesswill drive her insane. When herbody’s productive capacity wanes,she will be sent to slaughter.

94At least one in every fiveU.S. cow herds is believed to

be infected with Johne’s disease.The infection is increasingly being

linked to Crohn’s disease in peo-ple, a condition of chronic diar-rhea, which requires victims tohave parts of their intestines re-moved periodically. In May 2001,the National Milk Producers Fed-eration asked the U.S. governmentfor $1.3 billion to pay for massherd destruction to eradicate thecow scourge. Where did the groupget such a skewed sense of entitle-ment? Blame Congress: Everyother dollar that goes to U.S.farmers comes from taxpayers.

95In order to grow necessarilyimmense amounts of feed

grains (see #31), farmers world-wide are depleting undergroundaquifers faster than rainfall cankeep up. The great OgallalaAquifer in the central U.S. is beingdepleted about 140 percent fasterthan it is being replenished.

96A USDA microbiologist de-clared in a TIME magazine

story on processed poultry that“the final product is no differentthan if you stuck it in the toilet andate it.” No wonder: A 1978 USDArule allows poultry processors to“wash” contaminated birds ratherthan discard them or cut away af-fected parts. Wash, as interpretedby the poultry industry, essentiallyamounts to a communal dunk inwhat industry insiders refer to asthe “fecal soup,” virtually ensuringsalmonella cross-contamination.

97To produce foie gras, maleducks are force-fed 6 or 7

pounds of grain three times a day

with an air-driven feeder tube.This torturous process goes onfor 28 days until the ducks’ liv-ers, from which the pâté ismade, bloat to 6 to 12 timestheir normal size. About 10 per-cent of the ducks don’t make itto slaughter: They die whentheir stomachs burst.

98Every year, 24,000 fisher-men worldwide die on the

job, making fishing the mostdangerous occupation in theworld, according to the Food

and Agriculture Organization ofthe U.N. In the U.S., a fishermanis 16 times as likely to die on thejob as a policeman or fireman.

99Every day 600 people in theU.S. die so suddenly from

cardiac arrest that they don’t evenmake it to the hospital. Of the vic-tims, 90 percent have two or morearteries narrowed by atherosclero-sis (hardening of the arteries), adisease inexorably linked to ameat-based diet.

100A heat wave in July 1995killed about 4 million

chickens east of the ChesapeakeBay on the Delmarva Peninsula in asingle weekend. (Unofficial countswere as high as 10 million.) Suchcatastrophic mortalities are not un-usual. But you may not always hearabout them; no farmer is compelledto report when they happen, eventhough the mounds of dead birdscan be an environmental hazard. Iflocal soil is sandy, as it is on theDelmarva, burying carcasses (thecheapest, most common solution)will contaminate the groundwater,no matter how carefully it is done.

101A symposium of scientistspredicted in 1995 that en-

ergy shortages, exhausted land,scarce water, and a doubling popu-lation will impose more of a plant-based diet onto America’s dinnertables by 2050. They acknowl-edged that this diet, born ofscarcity, would “actually be ahealthier one.” Surely the soonerwe all learn to enjoy it the better!

Sudden Death: High-fat meals kill on the spot

SAUSAGE KILLS ME: “Babe” at a pork-eating fes-tival—the annual San Gennaro feast in NYC.

REFERENCESNOTE: “(www)” indicates areference found on theWorld Wide Web and there-fore no page reference.

1. David Wolfson, Beyondthe Law: Agribusiness andthe Systemic Abuse of An-imals Raised for Food orFood Production, FarmSanctuary, 1999, pp.13–16.

2. “Animal Waste Pollutionin America: An Emerg-ing National Problem,”Report Compiled by theMinority Staff of theU.S. Senate Committeeon Agriculture, Nutri-tion and Forestry, Dec.1997.Joby Warrick and ToddShields, “MarylandCounties Awash in Pol-lution-Causing Nutri-ents,” The WashingtonPost, Oct. 3, 1997, p. A1.

3. David Brown, “Panel:Up to 40% of CancerCases Are Preventable,”The Washington Post,Oct. 1, 1997, p. A12.

4. Erica Bulman, “U.N. andNature Fund Blame Sub-sidies for Global FisheriesCrisis,” Associated Press,June 2, 1997.Gary Polakovic, “Saving aPlace for Marine Life”(www), Los Angeles Times,Aug. 27, 1999.Carl Safina, “TheWorld’s Imperiled Fish,”Scientific American, Nov.1995, pp. 48–49.Scott Sonner, “ScientistsConcerned AboutOceans,” AssociatedPress, Jan. 6, 1998.

5. Gail Eisnitz, Slaughter-house: The Shocking Story ofGreed, Neglect, and Inhu-mane Treatment Inside theU.S. Meat Industry,Prometheus Books,1997, p. 24.Karen Davis, PrisonedChickens, Poisoned Eggs:An Inside Look at theModern Poultry Industry,Book Publishing Com-pany, 1996, p. 139.“Meat Inspectors SayUSDA Ignores HumaneSlaughter Act,” Reuters,June 13, 2001.

6. “2001 Heart and StrokeStatistical Update,”American Heart Associa-tion, p. 31.Maggie Fox, “GroupSays US Cancer CasesWill Surge in 2001,”Reuters, Jan. 4, 2001.

7. “He’s Smarter Than YouThink” (www), The Elec-tronic Telegraph, London,England, May 31, 1997.

8. Ed Ayres, “Will We StillEat Meat?” TIME, Nov.8, 1999, pp. 106–07.Julie Forster, “Who’sAfraid of a Little Mud?”Business Week, May 21,2001, p. 113.

“Technical Services Pro-vides Behind-the-ScenesSupport to Producersand Plants” (www), Per-due News (press release).

9. “Seventy Percent of AllAntibiotics Given toHealthy Livestock,”Union of ConcernedScientists press release,Jan. 8, 2001.

10. Nicols Fox, Spoiled: TheDangerous Truth About aFood Chain Gone Hay-wire, Basic Books, 1997,pp. 139-40, 274.Nicols Fox, “Safe Food?Not Yet,” The New YorkTimes, Jan. 30, 1997,Op/Ed page.Slaughterhouse (see #5),pp. 158–59.Amanda Spake, “Out-break,” U.S. News &World Report, Nov. 24,1997, pp. 70, 72.“As Hamburgers Go, SoGoes America?” The Econ-omist, Aug. 23, 1997, p. 22.

11. Roberto Suro, “Heartsand Minds: Bypassing theBypass; Dr. Dean OrnishUses Diet, Exercise andMeditation to UnclogCoronary Arteries,” TheNew York Times Maga-zine, Dec. 29, 1991, p. 18.

12. Jim Mason and PeterSinger, Animal Factories,Crown Publishers, 1980,p. 18.

13. “Position of the Ameri-can Dietetic Association:Vegetarian Diets,” Amer-ican Dietetic Association,Chicago, IL, 1997.

14. Slaughterhouse (see #5),pp. 32, 62, 76, 271.Eric Schlosser, Fast FoodNation, Houghton Mif-flin Company, 2001, p. 172.“Trouble on the Line,”Consumer Reports, Mar.1998, p. 16.

15. Paul Brown, “UN toCrack Down as PirateBoats Threaten to DriveFish to Extinction”(www), The Guardian,Aug. 15, 2000.“The Tragedy of theOceans,” The Economist,Mar. 19, 1994, p. 21.

16. Prisoned Chickens(see #5), pp. 54–55, 64,76–77, 106–07.

17. David Brown, “Drug Re-sistance in Food Chain,”The Washington Post, May20, 1999, p. A2.Marion Burros, “HealthConcerns MountingOver Bacteria inChicken,” The New YorkTimes, Oct. 19, 1997, p. 1.

18. “Eat Your Vegetables!” Har-vard Health Letter, Nov.1994, p. 8.Neal Barnard, M.D.,Power of Your Plate, BookPublishing Company,1995, p. 25.

19. “FDA Warns LivestockFeed Makers ViolatingMad Cow Rules,” Associ-ated Press, Jan. 12, 2001.Sandra Blakeslee, “Fearof Disease Prompts NewLook at Rendering,” TheNew York Times, Mar. 11,1997, p. C1.“Number of VictimsReaches New High,”The FARM Report, news-letter of Farm AnimalReform Movement, Sum-mer/Fall 1997, p. 8.J. Peder Zane, “It Ain’tJust for Meat; It’s for Lo-tion,” The New YorkTimes, May 5, 1996, p. 5.Michael Satchel andStephen J. Hedges, “TheNext Bad Beef Scandal:Cattle Feed Now Con-tains Things Like Ma-nure and Dead Cats,”U.S. News & World Re-port, Sept. 1, 1997, p. 23.

20. E-mail correspondencewith David Wolfson, au-thor of Beyond the Law(see #1).

21. John Robbins, Diet for aNew America, StillpointPublishing, 1987,pp. 110–12.

22. Michael Satchel, “TheCell from Hell,” U.S.News & World Report,July 28, 1997, pp. 26–28.Tony Bartelme, “ScientistsTrack the ‘Phantom’”(www), The Post andCourier, Charleston, SC,Sept. 1, 1996.“Animal Waste” (see #2).

23. Matt Claeys, “Castra-tion: Not Cutting WillCut Profits” (www), Animal Husbandry News-letter Jan./Feb. 1996.John W. Comerford,“Get the Calves Cas-trated” (www), LivestockNotes, PENpages,Feb./Mar. 1997.

24. “Is Your Food Safe?” “48Hours,” CBS-TV,Feb. 9, 1994.

25. Marian Burros, “Guide-lines Mix Politics andChicken Skin” (www),The New York Times, Jan. 25, 2000.

26. Prisoned Chickens(see #5), pp. 54–55.

27. “Diverse Diets, WithMeat and Milk, Endan-ger World Food Supply”(www), Hearst NewsService, Mar. 8, 1997.

28. Rone Tempest, “New,Lethal Flu May Stemfrom ‘Chicken Ebola’ ”(www), Los Angeles Times,Dec. 14, 1997.Kathy Wilhelm, “HongKong Made MassSlaughter Errors,” Asso-ciated Press, Jan. 2, 1998.

29. “Options for ManagingOdor: A Report Fromthe Swine Odor TaskForce” (www), NorthCarolina General Assem-

bly, North Carolina StateUniversity, Mar. 1, 1995. John H. Cushman, Jr.,“Pollution by FactoryFarms Inspires IndustrialApproach to Regulation,”The New York Times, Mar.6, 1998, p. A12.

30. Diet for a New America(see #21), pp. 112–17.

31. “Will We Still EatMeat?” (See #8.)David Pimentel, “HowMany Americans Canthe Earth Support?”(www), EcoFuture, May18, 2000.“Population Expected toHit 6 Billion,” Associ-ated Press, Oct. 9, 1999.T.R. Reid, “Feeding thePlanet,” National Geo-graphic, Oct. 1998, p. 65.

32. Elizabeth Kolbert, “TheRiver,” The New Yorker,Dec. 4, 2000.Jane E. Brody, “StudyFinds Lasting DamageFrom Prenatal PCB Expo-sure,” The New York Times,Sept. 12, 1996, p. A14.

33. “The Next Bad BeefScandal” (see #19),pp. 22–24.

34. T. Colin Campbell,Ph.D., “New York Times:Reality Check Needed”(www), Oct. 26, 2000.Joe Crea, “Don’t Have aCow, Man: MakingSense of WarningsAbout the Hazards ofMilk,” Good Living,Daily News, New York,Oct. 21, 1992, p. 6.

35. Judy Foreman, “TeamHopes to Unearth 1918Flu Virus,” The BostonGlobe, Nov. 3, 1997, p. C1.David Brown, “SecondPerson Identified WithFlu Previously FoundOnly in Birds,” TheWashington Post, Dec. 3,1997, p. A2.

36. Jeremy Rifkin, BeyondBeef: The Rise and Fall ofthe Cattle Culture, Dut-ton, 1992, pp. 187–88,205, 211.Todd Oppenheimer,“The Rancher Subsidy,”The Atlantic Monthly,Jan. 1996, pp. 26–38.

37. Neal D. Barnard, M.D.,Food for Life: How theNew Four Food GroupsCan Save Your Life, Har-mony Books, 1993,pp. 123–27.Power of Your Plate(see #18), pp. 125–128.

38. C. David Coats, Old Mac-Donald’s Factory Farm,Continuum, 1989, pp. 51, 55–56. Raymond Hernandez,“Pataki’s Dairy Farm PlanRisks Consumers’ Anger,”The New York Times, Jan.29, 1998, p. B1.

39. “The Rancher Subsidy”(see #36), p. 38.

“Grazing Fact Sheets”(www), Forest Guardians,Santa Fe, NM, 1996.

“Hot Issues for the SecondSession of the 105th Con-gress” (fact sheet), Hu-mane Society of theUnited States, Jan. 7, 1998.

40. Michael Klaper, M.D., A Diet for All Reasons(video), the Institute ofNutrition Education andResearch, 1993.

41. “2001 Heart and StrokeStatistical Update” (see#6), p. 19.Denise Grady, “As HeartAttacks Wane, HeartFailure is On the Rise,”The New York Times,May 4, 1999, p. F1.

42. Prisoned Chickens(see #5), pp. 74–75.Rod Smith, “McDon-ald’s Guidelines SendSignal Across All Ani-mal-Production Seg-ments” (www), Feedstuffs, Aug. 28, 2000.

43. “OSHA To Require Bath-room Access,” AssociatedPress, Mar. 12, 1998.

44. “Why Farm Sanctuary IsDriving for Protectionof ‘Downers’ ,” FarmSanctuary, www.farmsanctuary.org.

45. Reed Karaim, “What WillFuture Astronauts Eat?”USA Weekend, Mar.13–15, 1998, p. 20.

46. “High-Calorie CattleFeeding Studied”(www), Meat IndustryInsights News Service,May 20, 2001.

47. Kenton Kreager, et al.,“Biosecurity Tips,” Califor-nia Poultry Letter, Univer-sity of California at Davis,Jan. 1997, p. 19.Peter Jackson, “PoultryEpidemic Threatens In-dustry,” Associated Press,June 23, 1997.

48. Grace Truman, “ManurePits—A Deadly Risk”(www), PENPages, May23, 1995.“Pork Power,” “60 Min-utes,” CBS-TV, Dec.22, 1996.

49. Dirk Bryant, et al., Reefsat Risk, WRI, ICLARM,WCMC, and UNEP,1998, pp. 5, 7, and 15.“Coral Reefs: Magnifi-cent Creations of Na-ture” (www), The CoralReef Alliance.

50. Power of Your Plate(see #18), pp. 116–120.

51. “Eating Well: RethinkFood Groups, DoctorsSay,” The New YorkTimes, April 10, 1991,p. C1.

52. “The Cruelties of ‘FoodAnimal’ Production,”Sanctuary News, Summer1997, pp. 4–5.

53. Prisoned Chickens(see #5), p. 122.

REFERENCES54. Kieran Mulvaney, “A

Sea of Trouble” (www),E/The EnvironmentalMagazine, Jan./Feb.1998.“Imperiled Fish”(see #4), pp. 49–50.

55. “Cardiovascular DiseaseEpidemic ThreatensDeveloping Countries,Global Economy”(www), American HeartAssociation, Feb. 16,1998.

56. Robert Braile, “Warn-ing Sounded on Safetyof Seafood,” The BostonGlobe, Mar. 11, 2001,p. W1.

57. Verlyn Klinkenborg, “PoxPouli” (www), The NewYork Times, May 6, 2001. Stephen Pincock,“Britain InvestigatesHealth Risk of AnimalPyres,” Reuters Health,Apr. 29, 2001.Joshua Lipsky, “The Birthof a Crisis: The Foot andMouth Disease Time-line” (www), The Meat-ing Place, Mar. 1, 2001.

58. Elliot Blair Smith,“Special Report: StenchChokes Nebraska Meat-packing Towns,” USAToday, p. B1.

59. Karl Wolfshohl, “FarmAnimals Map the Fu-ture” (www), Progres-sive Farmer Online,Mar. 1997.

60. “Preventing FoodborneIllness: Escherichia coliO157:H7” (www), Cen-ters for Disease Control,Atlanta, GA, Apr. 1, 1993.Gina Kolata, “DetectiveWork and Science Re-veal a New Lethal Bac-teria,” The New YorkTimes, Jan. 6, 1998,pp. A1, A14.“New E. coli ReportQuestions Safety of U.S.Beef” (www), Reutersand Associated Press,Nov. 11, 1999, posted toCNN Web site.

61. Tim Beardsley, “Death inthe Deep: ‘Dead Zone’ inthe Gulf of Mexico Chal-lenges Regulators,” Scien-tific American, Nov. 1997,pp. 17–18.

62. Jane E. Brody, “HugeStudy of Diet Indicts Fatand Meat,” The New YorkTimes, May 8, 1990, p. A1.

63. Sandra Blakeslee, “NewEvidence Said to DispelDoubt on Mad Cow Dis-ease” (www), The NewYork Times, Sept. 30, 1997.Terence Chea, “‘MadCow’ Fears Create aMarket,” The Washing-ton Post, May 29, 2001,p. E1.“Bungled,” The Econo-mist, Mar. 14, 1998. pp.21–23.Anita Manning, “MadCow Disease Runs a

Baffling Course” (www),USA Today, Science,Dec. 2, 1997.2001 Heart and StrokeStatistical Update (see#6), p. 4.

64. Power of Your Plate(see #18), pp. 22,194–196.“The Big Problem”(www), Rachel’s Environ-ment & Health Weekly,#450, July 13, 1995.

65. Lauran Neergaard, “Hy-giene Lapses Cited AsCause of Food Poison-ing,” Associated Pressstory in The Boston Globe,June 20, 2000, p. A3.

66. Contact the VivaVegieSociety. References aretoo numerous to list.

67. Spoiled (see #10),pp. 178–79.

68. Larry McKnight, “AllFarmers Have a Stake inOur Chicken War”(www), National Con-tract Poultry GrowersAssociation, Feb. 1997.

69. Joby Warrick and PatStith, “The Power ofPork: New Studies ShowLagoons Are Leaking,”The News & Observer,Feb. 19, 1995, pp. 2–3.Ronald Smothers, “AConfrontation OverHog Growers in NorthCarolina, The New YorkTimes, Mar. 2, 1996,Op/Ed page.

70. “Records Show MeatPlants Operate DespiteViolations,” AssociatedPress, Jan. 17, 1998.Slaughterhouse (see #5),p. 62.

71. Jim Mason, “Inside aTurkey Breeding Fac-tory: Of Rape and Pil-lage,” Farm SanctuaryNews, Fall 1997, pp. 5–7.

72. Prisoned Chickens(see #5), pp. 115–116.

73. “Home, Home onthe…Small Patch ofDirt,” Consumer Reports,Mar. 1998, pp. 14–15.

74. For a copy of the flyer,call 800-458-1158, ext. 27815.

75. “Albanian LongevityLinked to Diet,” Reuters,Dec. 22, 1997.

76. Norman Kempster,“U.S., EU Dig In Healson Meat Ban, Food Re-strictions” (www), Los An-geles Times, Mar. 29, 2001.Jonathan Friedland, “Eco-Threats: Redefining Na-tional Security,” Dow JonesNews, Nov. 25, 1997.

77. Beyond Beef (see #36), p. 1. “Be an Environmentalist,”EarthSave, newsletter of theEarthSave Foundation,Mar. 1995, p. 6.

78. “Japanese Heart-Dis-ease Study Focuses onRole of Iron,” Reuters,Oct. 26, 2000.

79. Diet for All Reasons(see #40).Theresa Tamkins,“Blood Pressure DrugsAffect Intellect,” Reuters,Dec. 3, 1997.

80. Tom Horton andHeather Dewar, “Feedingthe World, Poisoning thePlanet” (www), BaltimoreSun, Sept. 24, 2000.Heather Dewar and TomHorton, “Seeds of Solu-tion to Nitrogen Glut”(www), Baltimore Sun,Sept. 28, 2000.

81. Slaughterhouse (see #5),pp. 100–01, 211.Kenneth B. Kephart,“Handling Hogs” (www),PENPages, Oct. 15, 1997.

82. “Smogburgers WouldBe Out Under Air-Quality Plan,” San JoseMercury News, Sept. 6,1994, p. 3B.“These Few Tips MakeFood Cooked On theGrill Healthier,” TheWall Street Journal,June 2, 1997, p. B1.

83. Mark Robichaux, “Sci-entists Fight Fires ByTrying to Outwit A VeryPersistent Weed,” TheWall Street Journal, Sept. 1, 2000, p. 1.

84. “U.S., Mexican Cattle Sec-tors Complement EachOther,” Financial NewsNetwork, June 22, 1995.

85. Diet for All Reasons(see #40).“An Abandoned DrugOffers Hope for HeartPatients, Study Finds,”

The New York Times,Aug. 7, 1997, p. A19.

86. Melinda Fulmer,“Study: System forSeafood Safety Inspec-tions Flawed” (www),Los Angeles Times, Feb.14, 2001.

87. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.,Fasting and Eating forHealth, St. Martin’s Grif-fin, 1995, pp. 95–96.

88. “The Power of Pork”(see #69), pp. 2–3.

89. Elliot Diringer, “In Cen-tral Valley, DefiantDairies Foul the Water,”San Francisco Chronicle,July 7, 1997, p. A1.

90. ”The ABC evening newswith Peter Jennings,”WABC, May 9, 1996.Keith Mulvihill, “High-Fat Meals HamperArtery Function,”Reuters, June 1, 2001.

91. Slaughterhouse (see #5),pp. 30, 83–84.

92. William K. Stevens,“Man Moves Down theMarine Food Chain,Creating Havoc,” TheNew York Times, Feb.10, 1998, p. F3.

93. Gene Bauston, BatteredBirds, Crated Herds: HowWe Treat the Animals WeEat, Farm Sanctuary,1996, pp. 19–22.

94. Philip Brasher, “DairiesSeek Disease Funding,”Associated Press, May27, 2001.Dan Morgan, “Farming’sChronic Woes ConfrontNew USDA Chief: Rise

in Direct Aid is Thorni-est Issue,” The Washing-ton Post, Jan. 26, 2001, p. A21.

95. “How Many AmericansCan the Earth Support?”(see #31).

96. Spoiled (see #10),pp. 193–194.

97. “The Grief Behind FoieGras,” People for theEthical Treatment of An-imals (fact sheet, www),May 15, 1997.

98. “Fishing at Sea ClaimsMore Than 70 Lives aDay, FAO Says,” Foodand Agriculture Organi-zation press release(01/02), Jan. 25, 2001.John Hendren, “No Ex-perience Necessary toOperate Fishing Vessel”(www), Seattle Times,Apr. 22, 2001.

99. Power of Your Plate(see #18), pp. 12–14.2001 Heart and StrokeStatistical Update (see #6), p. 3.

100. Conversation withJohn H. Martin,Ph.D., Assoc. Profes-sor, Dept. of Animaland Food Sciences,University of Dela-ware, Georgetown,Jan. 19, 1998.Kenneth B. Kephart,“Dead Pig Disposal”(www), PENPages,Feb. 1992.

101. “Scarcities to Force aLeaner Diet, ExpertsSay,” The New York Times,Feb. 18, 1995, p. 22.

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101 Reasons Why Im a Vegetarian