Aren't humans natural carnivores?

While humans have eaten meat throughout history, there is significant evidence that we are better suited to a vegetarian diet. Carnivorous animals have long, curved fangs, claws, and a short digestive tract. Humans have flat, flexible nails, and our so-called "canine" teeth are minuscule compared to carnivores'. Human teeth are better suited to biting into vegetables, fruits, and grains than tearing through tough hides.

In addition, the health problems associated with meat consumption—a leading contributor to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and obesity—should be an indication that we aren't "meant" to eat meat. In addition, humans are capable of making ethical decisions. We can get all the nutrients we need from plant sources, which means that billions of animals are unnecessarily slaughtered every year at the expense of our health and the environment.

Never in human history have people eaten as many animal products as we do now. Today, rich and poor can afford to eat these products, largely as a result of the cost-cutting methods used to raise "food" animals. Present-day factory farms inflict massive, large-scale suffering of a magnitude never before seen in agricultural practices. In addition, the human population is larger today than ever before. Billions of people eating meat means that billions of tons of water and grain are being diverted from the world's poor people and fed to the livestock of the rich; the resultant billions of pounds of manure are destroying our topsoil, drinking water, and ozone layer. In addition, today we not only have medical evidence of the health benefits of a plant-based diet, we also have many easily accessible products, such as tofu, tempeh, nondairy milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream, and many other healthful and delicious products that make the switch to a vegan diet easy and delicious.

Don't humans have to eat meat and dairy to stay healthy?

No! There is no nutritional need for humans to eat any animal products; all of our dietary needs, even as infants and children, are best supplied by an animal-free diet.

Cows' milk is suited to the nutritional needs of calves, who, unlike human babies, will double their weight in 47 days (as opposed to 180 days for humans), grow four stomachs, and weigh 1,100-1,200 pounds within two years. Cow's milk contains about three times as much protein as human milk and almost 50 percent more fat.

The consumption of animal products has been conclusively linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Cholesterol (found only in animal products) and animal fat clog arteries, leading to heart attacks and strokes. The rate of many cancers—including colon, breast, cervical, uterine, ovarian, prostate, and lung—is highest in regions where meat consumption is high and lowest where meat-eating is uncommon. A study of more than 25,000 people found that vegetarians have a much lower risk of getting diabetes than meat-eaters. A South African study found not a single case of rheumatoid arthritis in a community of 800 people who ate no meat or dairy products.

There is no physical reason for humans to eat animal products. Cutting animal products from your diet is healthier for you, the animals, and the environment. Learn more about the health benefits of a plant-based diet at PCRM.org.

Both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Dietetic Association have endorsed vegetarian diets. Studies have shown that vegetarians have stronger immune systems than meat-eaters and that meat-eaters are almost twice as likely to die of heart disease, 60 percent more likely to die of cancer, and 30 percent more likely to die of other diseases. Consumption of meat and dairy products has been conclusively linked with diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, clogged arteries, obesity, asthma, and impotence.

What's wrong with drinking milk? Don't dairy cows need to be milked?

In order for a cow to produce milk, she must have a calf. "Dairy" cows are impregnated every year in order to keep up a steady supply of milk. In the natural order of things, the cow's calf would drink her milk (eliminating her need to milked by humans). But dairy cows' babies are taken away within a day or two of birth so that humans can have the milk that nature intended for their calves. Female dairy calves may be slaughtered immediately or raised to be future dairy cows. Male dairy calves are confined for 16 weeks to tiny veal crates too small for them even to turn around in so that their flesh, sold as veal, will be atrophied and nonmuscular. Then these weak, 4-month-old youngsters are sent to the slaughterhouse.

The current high demand for dairy products requires that cows be pushed far beyond their natural physical limits, genetically engineered and fed growth hormones in order to produce huge quantities of milk. Even the few farmers who choose not to raise animals intensively must both eliminate the calf (who would otherwise drink the milk) and send the mother to an early death when her milk production wanes. Learn more at MilkSucks.com.

Why shouldn't people drink milk and eat dairy products? Cows don't need to be killed to produce milk, right?

At least 5 million cows raised for milk in the United States live on factory farms under conditions that cause them tremendous suffering. They do not graze contentedly in fields; they live in cramped, concrete-floored milking pens where they are milked by machines that often cause cuts and injuries that would not occur if people did the milking.

In addition, while many consumers have heard about the cruelty of the veal industry, most people don't know that the dairy and veal industries are inextricably linked. Cows, like humans, only give milk after they've had a baby. Thus, in the eyes of the farmer, the cows' offspring are simply a byproduct of this milk-production cycle. Perhaps the greatest pain suffered by cows in the dairy industry is the repeated loss of their young, which is quite traumatic to these extremely maternal animals. Female calves may join the ranks of the milk producers, but the males are generally taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and sold at auction either for the notorious veal industry or to beef producers.

Within 60 days, the cow will be impregnated again. For about seven months of her next nine-month pregnancy, the cow will continue to be milked for the fluid meant for her older calf—and this cycle is repeated until her milk production wanes, at which time she is sent to slaughter, most likely to be ground up into fast-food burgers. Calves will continue to suffer as long as there is a market for dairy products. To learn more, please visit MilkSucks.com.

It's OK to eat eggs because chickens lay them naturally. The eggs we buy in the supermarket are sterile and not unborn fetuses, right? What's so bad about eating eggs?

Chickens don't need to be killed for their eggs, right? While both male and female chickens can be raised for meat, only females can produce eggs, so about 280 million male chicks per year are disposed of by being shoved into plastic bags and left to suffocate. They cannot be raised profitably as "broilers" or "fryers" because they have not been engineered to produce a lot of muscle.

Conditions at egg factory farms are atrocious. Cage floors are of wire mesh so waste falls from the upper tiers onto the chickens below. A single cage, roughly 16 by 18 inches, holds five to six hens, each with a wingspan of 32 inches. Hens bred to be super layers experience so much stress that their accelerated laying span lasts only a year and a half—two years at most—compared with the 15 to 20 years that hens produce eggs under natural conditions. Hens today lay about twice as many eggs per year as hens laid several decades ago, before factory farming, and their tired bodies pay the price.

The cruelty of egg production lies in the treatment of the "laying" hens themselves, who are perhaps the most abused of all factory-farmed animals. Up to five hens are packed into each cage the size of a filing cabinet drawer. The cages are stacked many tiers high; feces from the cages above fall onto the chickens below. Hens become lame and develop osteoporosis from forced immobility and calcium lost to produce egg shells. Some birds' feet grow around the wire cage floors; they starve to death because they are unable to reach the food trough. At just 2 years of age, most hens are "spent" and sent to the slaughterhouse. Egg-laying hatcheries have no use for male chicks so they suffocate, decapitate, crush, or grind them up alive.

Don't vegetarians have difficulty getting enough protein?

By contrast, too much protein is the major cause of osteoporosis and contributes to kidney failure and other diseases of affluence. Learn more at GoVeg.com.

A wealth of evidence shows that vegans need not worry about getting enough protein; if you eat a reasonably varied diet and sufficient calories, you will undoubtedly get enough protein. The average person who eats animal products eats about double the protein that his or her body needs, and there is medical evidence to show that eating too much protein can lead to serious health problems. In addition, unlike animal products, vegan foods have absolutely no cholesterol and hardly any saturated fat.

If I stop consuming dairy products, won't that put me at greater risk for osteoporosis?

High-protein foods, such as meat, eggs, and dairy products, produce poisonous byproducts when they are broken down so the body buffers the toxins with calcium before they are eliminated. This leaches calcium from the body, including from the bones, resulting in a loss that cancels out the dietary intake of calcium from animal products. In countries where dairy products are not generally consumed, there is less osteoporosis than in the United States, where dairy consumption is among the highest in the world. The Harvard Nurses' Health Study followed 78,000 women for 12 years and found that milk did not protect them against bone fractures. In fact, those who drank three glasses of milk per day had more fractures than those who rarely drank milk. To learn more, please visit PCRM.org. Also, an excellent discussion of dietary links to osteoporosis can be found in Dr. John McDougall's The McDougall Plan and in Dr. Neal Barnard's The Power of Your Plate.

Vegan options are more expensive than their nonvegetarian counterparts. Can I afford to go vegan?

Vegan specialty foods, like prepared veggie burgers, etc., are sometimes more expensive than their nonvegan counterparts, but fortunately, they aren't the only options. Prepared food will always be more expensive than food you make yourself, so buying the ingredients and making them at home will typically save you money. Veggie staples such as pasta, rice, tofu, and beans are much cheaper than meat. The money you save from not buying meat can go toward paying just a little extra for nondairy milk and other staples, like fruits and vegetables. Another suggestion is to buy food in bulk, either at the store, over the Internet, or through catalogs. You can find many vegan mail-order catalogs listed in the classified section in the back of Vegetarian Times magazine.

In addition, consider your health: Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables may cost more than some junk foods, but isn't your health worth the extra couple of bucks? If you're still not sure, given the health benefits of a vegan diet, you'll likely save hundreds or thousands of dollars on health care, which will more than make up for the extra cost of soy milk.

How does eating meat harm the environment?

When land is used to raise animals instead of crops, precious water and soil are lost, trees are cut down to make land for grazing or factory-farm sheds, and untreated animal waste pollutes rivers and streams. In fact, it has such a devastating effect on all aspects of our environment that the Union of Concerned Scientists lists meat-eating as the second-biggest environmental hazard facing the Earth. (Number one is fossil-fuel vehicles). No wonder, when you consider facts like these:

In the West, our problem is that we get too much protein, not too little. Most Americans get about seven times as much protein as they need. You can get enough protein from whole wheat bread, oatmeal, beans, corn, peas, mushrooms, or broccoli—almost every food contains protein. Junk food aside, it's almost impossible for vegans to eat as many calories as we need for good health without getting enough protein. 

* Cows must consume 16 pounds of vegetation in order to convert them into 1 pound of flesh. Raising animals for food consumes more than half of all water used in the U.S. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.

* Producing just one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles. Of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S., more than one-third are used to raise animals for food.

* A typical pig factory generates the same amount of raw waste as a city of 12,000 people. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, raising animals for food is the number one source of water pollution.

* Of all agricultural land in the U.S., 87 percent is used to raise animals for food. That's 45 percent of the total land mass in the U.S. About 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to produce feed for animals raised for food. The meat industry is directly responsible for 85 percent of all soil erosion in the U.S.

* More than 80 percent of the corn we grow and more than 95 percent of the oats are fed to livestock. The world''s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth. According to the Worldwatch Institute, "Roughly 2 of every 5 tons of grain produced in the world is fed to livestock, poultry, or fish; decreasing consumption of these products, especially of beef, could free up massive quantities of grain and reduce pressure on land."

Is commercial fishing bad for the environment?

Many commercial fishing vessels practice bottom-trawling in order to catch sea animals who live near, on, or under the sea floor, such as flounder, cod, grouper, shrimp, and scallops. Scientists say that the destruction caused by bottom-trawling is similar to that caused by clear-cutting old forests, only on a far greater scale. For example, the area of seabed trawled each year is roughly the size of the 48 contiguous states: 150 times greater than the area of forest cut! Elliot Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, says, "Scientists find that bottom-trawling is the largest disturbance to the world's sea floor and possibly the largest human-caused disturbance to the biosphere." For more information, please visit FishingHurts.com.


What about fish in the wild caught by commercial fishers?

Today's commercial fishers use vast trawlers the size of football fields. These huge nets, sometimes miles long, stretch across the ocean, swallowing up everything in their path and killing countless animals in addition to those they are intended to catch. Factory trawlers are emptying the oceans of sea life at an alarming pace. Thirteen of the 17 major global fisheries are depleted or in serious decline. The other four are "overexploited" or "fully exploited." I'll never forget one fisher who operated a small fishing boat in Washington state. She said to me of an otter who had died in her net that day, "Anything stupid enough to get in my net deserves to die." Nearly one-third of all species of fish have declined in population in the last 15 years, and many species may be wiped out in the next decade. The decline in fish populations is leading to increasing conflicts between fishers and the wildlife who eat fish. Some fishers intentionally kill or maim seals, birds, and marine mammals whom they perceive as a threat to their catch. Some species are in decline as a result of overfishing. The number of Steller's sea lions in the Bering Sea has declined by 80 percent since the 1950s. An estimated 100,000 seals, whales, and porpoises and a million birds every year become entangled in nets and drown. Because dolphins habitually swim with schools of tuna, the tuna fishing industry even today "accidentally" drowns at least 20,000 of these intelligent mammals annually. Critically endangered sea turtles have been killed incidentally by the thousands by shrimp trawlers. Eating one fish results in the deaths of many.

My biggest problem with commercial fishing is all the unintended animals who are caught, killed, and thrown away. That's not an issue when fish are aquafarmed, though, is it?

Fish-eating birds are drawn to open aquaculture ponds as a source of food. Rather than using nonlethal measures to keep birds from eating the fish, such as netting the ponds, many aquafarmers simply kill the birds. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), which issues the permits allowing the birds to be killed, has no method in place to ensure that aquafarmers obey the permit limits for numbers and species of birds killed.

When the National Audubon Society investigated aquaculture sites, they found massive burial pits of dead birds—far more than USFWS permits allowed. Nevertheless, distinguishing between intended and unintended victims is arbitrary; animas don't suffer any less because they get eaten.

Is aquaculture bad for the environment?

Fish farms, or "aquafarms," discharge waste, pesticides, and other chemicals directly into ecologically fragile coastal waters, destroying local ecosystems. And aquaculture farms that raise fish directly in fenced-in areas of natural waters kill off thriving natural habitats by overloading them far beyond their capacity. Waste from the excessive number of fish can cause huge blankets of green slime on the water's surface, depleting oxygen and killing much of the life in the water. In Brazil, destruction caused by aquaculture changed the local climate so much that some aquaculture operations have been forced to shut down. Raising 1 ton of fish takes 8 tons of water. Intensive shrimp production takes up to 10 times more water. According to the journal Science, a 2-acre salmon farm produces as much waste as a town of 10,000 people. Salmon farms in British Columbia were found to be producing as much waste as a city of half a million people. And while aquafarmers like to tout aquaculture as an alternative to depleting wild fish populations, many of the fish species they farm are predators, like salmon and shrimp, and are fed ocean fish. It takes 5 pounds of ocean fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish. For more information, please visit FishingHurts.com.

The only meat I still eat is fish. Can fish feel pain?

Research has shown that indeed they can. According to Dr. Donald Bloom, animal welfare advisor to the British government, "Anatomically, physiologically, and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals." Fish have fully developed brains and nervous systems and very sensitive mouths. Fish use their tongues and mouths as humans might use their hands—to catch or gather food, build nests, and even hide their offspring from danger. Fish also experience fear. An Australian study found that when fish are chased, confined, or otherwise threatened, they react as humans do to stress: with increased heart and breathing rates and a burst of adrenalin.


If everyone switches to vegetables and grains, will there be enough to eat?

Yes. We feed so much grain to animals in order to fatten them up for consumption that if we all became vegetarians, we could produce enough food to feed the entire world. In the U.S., animals are fed more than 80 percent of the corn we grow and more than 95 percent of the oats. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth. Click here for more on meat and the environment.


Why blame me? I didn't kill the animal.

No, but you hired the killer. Whenever you purchase meat, that means the killing was done for you and you paid for it.


Vegetarianism is a personal choice. Why are you trying to force it on everyone else?

From a moral standpoint, actions that harm others are not matters of personal choice. Murder, child abuse, and cruelty to animals are all immoral. Our society now encourages meat-eating and the cruelty of factory farming, but history teaches that society also once encouraged slavery, child labor, and many other practices now universally recognized as wrong.


Was Jesus really a vegetarian?

Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus' message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths. Jesus mandates kindness, mercy, compassion, and love for all God's creation. He would be appalled by the suffering that we inflict on animals just to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.

We all have a choice. When we sit down to eat, we can add to the level of violence, misery, and death in the world, or we can respect God's creation with a vegetarian diet. For more information, please visit JesusVeg.com.

Why should we worry about animals when there are so many problems involving humans?

There are very serious problems in the world that deserve our attention; but these issues do not diminish the urgency of our cause or any other. Fortunately, pro-animal activities have great power to better the human condition as well.

As vegetarians, we advocate eating lower on the food chain, which not only would save 9 billion innocent animals from slaughter each year, but also would save humans from a diet known to cause heart disease, cancer, and obesity. Instead of feeding grain to livestock, a plant-based diet makes 16 times more grain available to hungry people. Eliminating intensive factory farming of animals would save precious water and topsoil; in addition, without the ozone-damaging nitrates resulting from billions of pounds of manure, our air would be cleaner and we would take a giant step toward fighting global warming. In this way, animals, humans, and the environment are interconnected—we all stand to gain by not harming animals.