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humanely treated” animals and who wonder what could possibly be wrong with

eating them.

However, there’s an important distinction in ethical perspectives between

vegans and conscientious meat consumers about what’s “humane.” Vegans are

ethically opposed to any exploitation of animals. Vegans don’t view animals as

humanity’s to use and reject the notion that if they’re treated “humanely” before

being slaughtered, people are justified in killing and eating them.

Slavery provides a good analogy. Most people would agree that it’s

preferable to treat slaves kindly than to subject them to all manner of cruelty.

However, for those who oppose slavery as ethically and morally wrong, simply

treating slaves well can’t justify the practice of slavery itself.

Again, it’s certainly

preferable that farm animals suffer less than more. But the fact that they may

have suffered less than most other farm animals still doesn’t justify their

exploitation in the first place

Humanity’s annual demand on the earth’s natural

resources has been exceeding the planet’s renewal capability since the 1970s. In

They suggested a global shift toward a vegan diet to protect the world from

hunger, poverty, and the worst impacts of climate change

Currently, 60 percent of the food supply is grown for human consumption. Switching to all-plant diets would increase the global calorie supply by an estimated 50 percent, which could effectively wipe out human hungerEven if only one in ten people stopped eating animals, sufficient food would be available to sustain the one billion people who currently suffer from hunger.

In addition, if land use were reappraised and plant foods were raised for

direct consumption, the global face of malnutrition could be transformed.

Currently, approximately 80 percent of the world’s soybeans and more than 50

percent of the corn is fed to livestock However, it takes about 15 pounds of feed to yield 1 pound of beef, 6 pounds for 1 pound of pork, and 5 pounds for 1

pound of chickenThe bottom line is that raising livestock consumes far more food than it yields.

takes about 43 times more water to produce 1 pound of beef than to produce 1

pound of cereal grain when the water used to produce the animal feed is factored

in—about 43,000 liters of water per kilogram of beef versus 1,000 liters of water

per kilogram of cereal grains

intensive farming and monocrop agriculture cause nutrient depletion and soil

Researchers have established that odors from factory farms are

associated with nausea, vomiting, headache, shallow breathing, coughing, sleep

disorders, upset stomach, appetite depression, irritated eyes, nose and throat

irritation, and mood disturbances (including agitation, annoyance, and

depression) in both farm workers and residents of nearby communities.