Meat consumption in the U.S. is out of control. The modern balanced diet is hardly balanced at all. According to the author of The Case for Vegetarianism, John Lawrence Hill, the average American will consume 11 cattle, 1 calf, 3 lambs and sheep, 23 hogs, 45 turkeys, 1,100 chicken and 862 pounds of fish, for a total of about two hundred pounds of meat per year and over seven tons of meat in a lifetime. This, obviously, can create problems, given that the population of the U.S. is around 307 million people.

Unfortunately, such an incredible demand for meat has had a disastrous effect on the earth and it is paying the price for our desire to consume animals. According to Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO Livestock and Information and Policy Branch, ”Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy this situation.”  Raising livestock adds to greenhouse gases, destroys land, and consumes resources. A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report found that livestock contribute to greenhouse gases even more than automobiles. It also found that livestock now use more than 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface. This includes 70 percent of previous forests in the Amazon that have been converted into land for cattle to graze. Hill writes that 80 percent of Costa Rica’s tropical rain forest has been removed over the last twenty years and in Mexico 37 million acres are now used to raise cattle. Along with the problem of deforestation come soil erosion, overgrazing, and the relocation of both indigenous people and animals. Sadly, the future looks bleak. The world consumes far more animal products than it did 40 years ago and consumption is estimated to more than double by 2050 to 465 million tons a year.

As mentioned earlier livestock, especially cattle exhaust a tremendous amount of resources, with water topping the list. In his book, Hill writes that 2,500 gallons of water are required to produce a single pound of beef and that livestock production uses eighty percent of our nation’s water supply. This does not include the amount of water polluted as a result of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics, and other harmful chemicals.

Yet another issue stemming from an increasingly high demand for meat production is that of world hunger. Hill writes that, “In the United States, over 70 percent of the grain produced is fed to cattle and various other livestock. Worldwide about a third of all grain is similarly disposed of.” Ultimately, everything goes back to land. Land is needed to raise the crops that feed the livestock that occupy more land. According to Jeremy Rifkin, “a third of the world’s grain harvest is now being fed to cattle and other livestock while nearly a billion human beings go to bed malnourished.” As land continues to become more scarce, it truly makes sense to use available land to grow food for people, not animals.

Some say that a vegetarian diet is unnatural and unhealthy, but evidence suggests otherwise. Numerous links have been made between eating meat and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. Studies show that a diet that is free of meat not only reduces the risk of many diseases but, in some cases, actually restore a person’s health by strengthening the immune system, lowering cholesterol and increasing blood circulation. Putting twenty-eight patients with heart disease on a vegetarian diet, Dr. Dean Ornish found that the coronary disease was reversed in 82 percent of the patients. These results aren’t to be taken lightly considering that heart disease is the #1 killer in the U.S. Rashmi Sinha, who led a study recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, said,” The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality.” Not only does meat itself pose a serious health risk but so do the chemicals found within it. The FDA has reported that as many as six hundred chemicals may be in the nation’s meat supply. These chemicals range from antibiotics and sulfa drugs to pesticides and drugs that are known to cause cancer.

A common misconception is that most vegetarians suffer from a lack of protein. According to Hill the opposite is actually true. A vegetarian will actually receive the proper amount of protein, while meat-eating Americans generally consume two and a half times the protein their bodies require. This excess protein would not be an issue if the body simply expelled it. Unfortunately, a link has been found between excess protein and osteoporosis.

Why should anyone blindly accept any tradition? Especially when that tradition affects their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others? It does not make sense to do something purely because it’s what past generations have done. The repetition can only bring destruction. It is far more important to seek out the truth, however hidden it may be and follow the convictions that truth creates with us.