★ GO VEGAN! ★

I'll save some of you time:

★ "Humans NEED to eat meat."
Answer:
"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, & may provide health benefits in the prevention & treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, & adolescence, & for athletes."

★ "Meat is good for you"
Answer:
Meat & animal products are NOT good for you.
The National Cancer Institute researchers studied 500,000 people & found, "those who reported eating the highest amounts of red meat had a 30 percent greater risk of dying compared to those who ate the lowest amounts of red meat."

★ "But animals can be cruel, & animals eat animals."
Answer:
When an animal eats for food & survival it does not destroy and pollute the planet. Furthermore, animals in the wild often benefit if they TAKE from others (food, shelter, etc), whereas I believe the human race benefits more by GIVING to each other. That is a crucial difference. We DO NOT need meat & animal products to survive. And, I won't even bother to explain how we humans should KNOW better, even if animals don't.

The God argument:
★ "Animals were put here for us to eat them."
Answer:
"The harmful effects of animal agriculture on the environment, world hunger, animal welfare, and human health lead the Christian Vegetarian Association to conclude that, if Jesus were among us today, he would likely be a vegetarian."
They also state: "The Bible describes the Garden of Eden as vegetarian (Genesis 1:29-30), & the prophet Isaiah envisioned a similarly peaceful end of time, when the Messiah will come & "the wolf shall lie with the lamb" & "the lion shall eat straw like the ox" & "they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain." (Isaiah 11:6-9).
I do not claim to be a Bilble expert, but you can easily find the CVA site online if you want to argue about God & Jesus.

★ "You shouldn't waste your time on animals when there are so many suffering HUMANS, don't you care about PEOPLE?"
Answer:
"[T]hose who claim to care about the well-being of human beings & the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people everywhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, & cease contributing to the clearing of forests; moreover, since a vegetarian diet is cheaper than one based on meat dishes, they would have more money available to devote to famine relief, population control, or whatever social or political cause they thought most urgent. [W]hen non-vegetarians say that human problems come first, I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals."
- Peter Singer

★ "Then we shouldn't eat plants"
Answer:
1) The by-products of plants degrade naturally into the earth, & do not cause the global catastrophe meat & animal products do.
2) Plants do not have a nervous system. You believe what you wish but I do not believe plants can experience pain & suffering as animals do.

★ "Then just buy your meat & animal products from small local farms."
Answer:
If everyone bought their animal products from small local farms, these farms would have to TURN INTO factory farms to meet the demand!
It is impossible & unsustainable!

★ "If humans stopped eating meat, we'd be overcome by farm animals."
Answer:
People won't go vegan overnight. It's a gradual process. If people keep eating less meat, then prices for meat will drop, & producers will in turn breed fewer animals. Eventually they'll start going out of business. When there's only a few thousand domesticated animals left, likely people will set up sanctuaries for them to live on peacefully. The cropland used to feed these animals could be replanted & poverty around the globe would diminish & could theoretically disappear altogether.

Animal rights supporter and vegan.

For anyone considering veganism:
Applesauce and other items such as banana can be substituted for eggs (1/4 c. applesauce for 1 egg), and I haven't had any trouble cooking with soy milk. So, most of your favorite recipes can still be made, even as a vegan!

*Note: A co-worker & I order lunch together all the time and she (to accomodate me) was kind enough to go vegan. She was astonished at how good the food is. Everyone assumes the food is awful or we eat like rabbits. NOT TRUE!

Lastly, believe me or not, I swear there are lines of vegan foods put out by the meat/dairy industry, because they taste so bad that you cannot imagine anyone would actually eat them, and they'd make people run screaming! It does take a little experimentation and an open mind!