Actually, due to the immense gravity of the harms directly linked to the confinement & the slaughter of farmed animals, each and every non-vegan does quite a large amount of harm indeed … Please consider the following facts:

*For every pound of meat you consume, you are indirectly responsible for the production of over 20 pounds of carbon dioxide-equivalent GHG emissions …

*For every pound of animal flesh you consume, you are indirectly consuming the roughly 16 pounds of soy &/or grains it took to create it …

*For every pound of meat you eat, 220 square feet of forestland has been destroyed or 220 square feet of potential cruelty-free cropland has been occupied …

*For every pound of chicken flesh you consume, you are indirectly “drinking” 815 gallons of potable water. For every pound of pig flesh eaten, that number rises to over 1600 gallons, and for every pound of cow flesh — to over 2500 gallons. By the way, drought is becoming more than a mere nuisance in many regions of the world, and many global think-tanks continue to maintain that the next major global war will be fought over fresh water supplies.

*Most importantly of all, every time you eat a hamburger for lunch or enjoy an ice cream cone for a snack, you are directly asking the meat & milk industry to match that demand by enslaving, mutilating, abusing and eventually murdering yet another cow … Every time you eat bacon for breakfast or pork chops for dinner, you are directly asking the meat & milk industry to match that demand by enslaving, mutilating, abusing and eventually murdering yet another pig … And every time you eat eggs for breakfast or fried chicken for lunch, you are directly requesting the meat & milk industry to match that demand by enslaving, mutilating, abusing and eventually murdering yet another chicken.
My Friends, there is simply no way around the fact that it is YOUR choices that drive this cruel industry, every time you make them. Yes, you most certainly do have the right to choose — there is little doubt about that. And yet even though you do indeed have the freedom of choice, what you cannot escape is the direct & inevitable consequences that come from those choices. Your decisions DO make a difference, my Friends … Please make that difference a positive one.

 

Current status of this Myth: Overturned
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE

“If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.” ~ Albert Einstein

“We humans, it seems, have a tremendous capacity for empathy; and yet we also have a strong tendency towards apathy. We are capable of great good, and also great evil. And we are, for the most part, blessed with the luxury of choosing between them. So the question becomes: which will we choose? The next time we go grocery shopping, will we choose kindness or cruelty? The next time we go to a restaurant, will we choose to support justice or perpetuate slavery? The next time we throw a party or prepare a meal, will we choose to care about the earth and the fate of other people, or will we continue to buy the animal-based foods which stimulate global warming and further world hunger? In the end, every single day of our lives we must decide whether we will strive to make the world a better place, or continue to defend and perpetuate its miseries? … The good news is, it’s up to us. The bad news is…it’s up to us.” ~ Jo Tyler

Filed under: Minimizing the Myths of Meat by Scaughdt