All About Veganism

This page answers nearly every question about veganism, from evolution and creation to the economy and vitamin B12. That's why it contains over 11,000 words spanning 24 different sections.

To read these sections in your order of preference, just click on your chosen title from the list below. The "Back to List" link at the bottom of the page will return you to this list. You can also follow through each of the sections in order by clicking the "Next Section" link at the bottom of the page.

Ethics and Laws

What does Republican Matthew Scully, the former senior speechwriter for George W. Bush, have in common with Ohio's ultra Democrat and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich? The same thing Pamela Anderson, Alicia Silverstone and Shania Twain have in common with Cesar Chavez, Pythagoras and Leonardo da Vinci. Besides capturing the hearts and minds of generations, all are vegan. By not wearing fur, leather, wool, silk and down, nor consuming milk, cheese, eggs, honey and the meat of any land or marine animal, they made a compassionate decision to directly save the lives of thousands of animals.

When I became vegan on July 24, 1996, and finally understood that animals had an inherent right to be free and live completely unfettered by human domination, I wondered why it took more than 25 years to attain this nonviolent awakening.

I began to ask, "Who taught me that animals were put on this Earth for food? Who taught me to disrespect animals and view them as mere commodities? Who stole my compassion, my empathy and my conscience? Who lied to me? Who instilled this vicious mindset of human-to-animal exploitation as standard operating procedure?"

Nowadays, as I travel the country giving around 250 lectures each year in scores of college classrooms, I ask thousands of meat-eaters similar questions. "Who told you to eat the corpses of dismembered animals and reduce your body to a walking graveyard? Who stole your compassion, your empathy and your conscience? Who lied to you? Why do you embrace such meaningless violence and then make inane rationalizations about the suffering of innocent creatures?"

If every meat-eater logically and compassionately re-evaluated their beliefs, they would understand why veganism is the only ethical and acceptable way to live on this planet.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, the compassionate Jewish humanitarian who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, once condemned every meat-eater by stating, "What do they know - all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka."

Singer's indictment is probably the most damning statement ever about humankind. It establishes the fact that violence is violence and murder is murder even if the victims have beaks, horns, gills, feathers or fur.

The global atrocity of eating animals kills more innocent beings in one year than all human atrocities over the past 5,000 years combined! This makes veganism the most important aspect of animal rights because almost every animal killed on this planet is eaten, despite the fact that no one in this day and age eats meat to survive. Even people who reside in icy environments or desert settings only eat animals because of habit, convenience or tradition. With the addition of profit, those are the same invalid justifications all meat-eaters espouse.

Meat-eating societies are also the main cause of world hunger. In America, we continually feed around 70 percent of our corn, wheat, oats and soy to billions of farmed animals instead of starving people! Every two seconds, someone on this planet dies from malnutrition while pigs and cows get fat. Consequently, meat-eaters are anti-human because feeding billions of animals instead of millions of hungry children is an indirect form of genocide.

Worldwide, 45-50 billion land animals [10 billion in the USA] and 85 billion marine animals [18 billion in the USA] are killed and eaten every year in a monumental Holocaust borne of ignorance, arrogance and racism. The human race v. animal race brand of racism permits humans to enslave and kill any other species with impunity. Singer calls speciesism the "purest form of racism" because it kills more innocent beings that any form of human-to-human racism.

This is why vegans are the utmost humanitarians. We indiscriminately seek justice for all by doing unto others as we would have done unto ourselves [THE GOLDEN RULE].

As an ethical vegan, it's logical for me to proclaim that the only nice slaughterhouse is an empty slaughterhouse. This statement, however, is often challenged by uninformed, egocentric individuals who believe mercy and kindness are exclusive to humans. But to deny every animal's inherent right to fly, swim and run freely is cruel and dishonest. If given an option, no animal would choose pain or death.

To understand the compassionate movement of animal rights, empathy must be used to examine the issue from the animals' point of view. This isn't a radical concept either. Abolitionists looked at slavery through the eyes of subjugated blacks, just as the Allied Forces looked at Nazism through the eyes of Jews and other non-Aryans whom Hitler labeled unworthy and expendable. Empathy allows people to understand the injustice without over-analyzing the issue, especially when those in power deem the victims unworthy and expendable, something Hitler, slave-owners and meat-eaters have all done to their respective victims.

In an attempt to defile the animal rights movement, meat-eaters often proclaim that Hitler practiced vegetarianism. However, biographers Albert Speer and Robert Payne attested to Hitler's love for liver dumplings, stuffed squab [pigeon], ham and sausage. German Chef Dione Lucas wrote about Hitler's carnivorism in her Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook, published in 1964. Rynn Berry's Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover describes how Goebbels, The Third Reich's propaganda minister, tried to sell Hitler as a vegetarian to make him seem as peaceful as Gandhi. The next section in this series, "Hitler Was NOT Vegetarian," provides ample evidence that, contrary to a good deal of popular misconception, Hitler and his henchmen were not vegetarians at all.

In his book Dominion, Scully explains that people have to choose between being radically kind or radically cruel. This illuminates the hypocrisy of the meat-eating animal welfare movement which seeks to regulate the enslavement and killing of billions of animals via "humane slaughter" laws. By definition alone, slaughter is radically cruel and can never be humane. Taking an animal's life for profit or preference is the crime. Killing "nicely" does not exonerate a killer from the killing. Buying meat, milk or eggs from organic or free-range farms doesn't exonerate the consumer from complicity either. From the animal's point of view, the killer and the consumer are one and the same.

Fortunately, de-programming the perfunctory ways of meat-eaters is possible. During my annual lecture tour, thousands convert to veganism while thousands more significantly reduce their meat, cheese, milk and egg intake. Reduction and abolition are the only options to ending this massacre. Welfare regulations are a stamp of approval to let the carnage continue unabated because compassionate ways of enslaving and killing billions of animals do not exist.

I'd like to further condemn welfare laws by exposing an excerpt of the 1966 Animal Welfare Act. It states, "The term animal EXCLUDES ... birds, rats, mice, horses ... and other farm animals such as ... but not limited to ... livestock and poultry ... and anything used or intended to be used as food or fiber [clothing]." It also states, "The term exhibitor EXCLUDES ... retail pet stores ... organizations sponsoring state and country [county] fairs, livestock shows, rodeos, purebred dog and cat shows and any fair or exhibition intended to advance agricultural arts and sciences."

In America, each meat-eater is responsible for the deaths of 3,000 land animals and thousands of other marine animals throughout their lifetime. Meat-eating, however, is not an instinctive behavior. It is learned tradition. Scientific claims of the human body being omnivorous or carnivorous are erroneous and illogical. If someone placed a two-year old child in a crib with a bunny rabbit and an apple, the child would play with the rabbit and eat the apple, an unambiguously herbivorous reaction. People become inured to the taste of blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions [milk], hen periods [eggs] and bee vomit [honey], as I will discuss in the "Humans Are Herbivores" section.

Since veganism is for anybody who wants to be kind to animals, good to the environment and healthy, millions of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native, pro-life, pro-choice, pro-gun and anti-gun people live a vegan lifestyle. Millions of Democrats, Independents and Republicans are vegan as well. Tales of tree-hugging liberals being the only supporters of veganism couldn't be further from the truth. Scully's Dominion is a right-wing, faith-based, Christian conservative view supporting veganism because ethnicity, religious affiliation or political party have no bearing on eating a veggie burger tonight instead of a hamburger.

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Hitler Was NOT Vegetarian

In an attempt to defile the animal rights movement, meat-eaters often proclaim that Hitler practiced vegetarianism. However, biographers Albert Speer and Robert Payne attested to Hitler's love for liver dumplings, stuffed squab [pigeon], ham and sausage. German Chef Dione Lucas wrote about Hitler's carnivorism in her Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook, published in 1964. Rynn Berry's Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover describes how Goebbels, The Third Reich's propaganda minister, tried to sell Hitler as a vegetarian to make him seem as peaceful as Gandhi. Immediately below is Berry's March 8, 2007 letter to the New York Times, which goes into more detail about Hitler and his henchmen NOT being vegetarians:

Thursday, March 8, 2007

The Editor
The New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

To the Editor,

I must take issue with Mr. Rothstein's glib characterization of Hitler and his Nazi henchmen, Hess, and Himmler, as vegetarians, in his review of Tristram Stuart's The Bloodless Revolution (February 25). As the historical advisor to the North American Vegetarian Society, I am constantly being taxed with having to explain Hitler's alleged vegetarianism. In researching the matter, I discovered that Hitler was not a true vegetarian. I presented my findings in a book entitled Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover (Pythagorean Publishers, 2004).

In my book, I cite numerous primary sources that attest that Hitler was not a thoroughgoing vegetarian. Here are a few examples: For instance, one of his closest friends, Frau Hess, asserted that Hitler was a strict vegetarian except for Liver Dumplings. "From that moment on, Hitler never ate another piece of meat, except for liver dumplings." (His habitual eating of liver dumplings is an important exception that disqualifies Hitler as vegetarian.)

Chef Dione Lucas, who used routinely to prepare meals for him into the early 1930s, actually published Hitler's favorite recipes in her cookbook, The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook (1964, p. 89). "I learned the recipe when I worked as a chef before World War II, in one of the large hotels in Hamburg, Germany. I do not mean to spoil your appetite for stuffed squab, but you might be interested to know that it was a great favorite with Mr. Hitler who dined at the hotel often. Let us not hold that against a fine recipe though." (His habitual eating of stuffed squab disqualifies Hitler as a vegetarian.)

In the New York Times of May 30, 1937, in an article entitled "Where Hitler Dreams and Plans," Times reporter Otto D. Tolschuss wrote, "It is well known that Hitler is vegetarian and does not drink or smoke. His lunch and dinner consist, therefore, for the most part of soup, eggs, vegetables and mineral water, although he occasionally relishes a slice of ham and relieves the tediousness of his diet with such delicacies as caviar, luscious fruits and similar tidbits." (His occasional eating of sliced ham and caviar disqualifies Hitler as a vegetarian.)

Hitler biographer Thomas Fuchs, in his book, A Concise Biography of Adolf Hitler (New York: Berkeley, 2000, p.78), also confirms that Hitler was not a vegetarian. "A typical day's consumption included eggs prepared in any number of ways, spaghetti, baked potatoes with cottage cheese, oatmeal, stewed fruits and vegetable puddings. Meat was not completely excluded. Hitler continued to eat a favorite dish, Leberkloesse (liver dumplings)."

To be sure, Hitler professed to be a vegetarian (in section 66 of Hitler's Table Talk, 1941-44), but the primary sources that I have cited in my book show that while he paid lip service to vegetarianism, he was not consistent in his practice of the diet. "Vegetarian"—which means (according to the standard dictionary definition) "the practice of eating only vegetables and refraining from eating meat, fish, or other animal products"—is like that other V word, Virgin: you either are one, or you are not. By that criterion, Hitler was a quasi-vegetarian, a would-be vegetarian, or a flexitarian. He was decidedly not a true vegetarian.

With regard to Rudolf Hess, the Fuhrer's fawning deputy, Hess may have been a vegetarian for a brief space—perhaps as a result of his faddish interest in Rudolf Steiner's bio-dynamic agricultural theories. In fact, Hess's biographer, Wulf Schwarzwaller, in his book, Rudolf Hess: The Last Nazi (Bethesda, MD: National Press, 1988), suggests (pp. 157, 161) that Hess's flirtation with biologically dynamic vegetarian foods was just that—a dietary experiment prescribed by a Steinerian doctor. By the time Hess was in Spandau prison in the 1940s, he was back to eating animal flesh with gusto. Schwarzwaller (p. 278) quotes him as complaining to the prison doctor, "The sausages are much too spicy."

Mr. Rothstein's statement that Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Final Solution, was a vegetarian advocate ["Himmler was an advocate,"] is preposterous and utterly without foundation in fact. Nowhere in the biographical literature on Himmler does it state that he was ever a practicing vegetarian. In fact, in the definitive biography of Himmler, Peter Padfield's Himmler (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1990, p. 352), Padfield writes that Himmler, despite his queasiness about the hunting of animals, "was not a vegetarian."

Finally, to suggest with Tristram Stuart, as Mr. Rothstein does, that many Nazis were vegetarians ["Many Nazis, as Stuart suggests, were either vegetarians or interested in related issues"] is a gross distortion of the facts. The truth is that not one Nazi was a thoroughgoing vegetarian—not even Hitler himself. I hope that you will be fair-minded enough to print this letter so that readers may judge for themselves whether Hitler, Hess and Himmler were vegetarians. I'm afraid Mr. Rothstein's review is just one further instance of a pundit's publicly relishing the (false) paradox that a triumvirate of genocidal tyrants should have been the followers of a Gandhian diet.

Rynn Berry

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Pigs and Feminism

Americans enslave, kill and eat more than 100 million pigs every year. In tiny gestation crates, female pigs are forcibly impregnated against their will with long steel devices that shoot hog semen into their uteruses. Sometimes the bestial rape is done by hand but regardless of the technique female pigs are the unwilling baby machines of the meat industry. When they can no longer [forcibly] make babies, they're sent to the slaughterhouse. Pig sanctuaries do not exist in the meat industry.

Smithfield, the largest killer of pigs in the world, generates $8 billion per year by killing 1,100 pigs every hour. Smithfield's five biggest slaughterhouses kill more than 78,000 pigs every day.

Shortly after birth, male piglets are mutilated in four horrific ways. First, they are held upside down as their tails are cut off without anesthetic because tail-biting is common in the overcrowded, unnatural conditions of today's farms. Then each baby has 2 to 8 teeth cut off right down to the gumline with a pair of wire cutter-like devices so when they fight and bite each other, they have no teeth to damage each other's flesh. Since female pigs are forced to produce twice as many piglets in captivity than in the wild, teeth-cutting is also a huge money maker for the meat industry. Cutting teeth on the babies allows the mothers to nurse even more piglets—who will eventually be killed for profit—because when babies suckle on their mothers without teeth, wear and tear on the mothers' nipples is kept to a minimum. Piglets also have portions of their ears ripped out to mark them. It's called ear-notching. Finally, in a sick attempt to pacify the industry-induced anger, testicles are ripped out without anesthetic.

Castration also gives the meat industry complete control over reproduction because natural reproduction is almost obsolete. Every aspect of raising animals for food is controlled, from artificial insemination and genetic engineering, to cloning and killing. The exploitation of reproductive organs is the exact reason why so many women empathize with the animal rights movement and practice veganism. Humanitarian Pattrice Jones explains, "Women and animals—along with land and children—have historically been seen as the property of male households. Both women and animals are seen as less rational and both suffer by being reduced to their bodies, or even worse their body parts."

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Chickens, Eggs, and the Free-Range Scam

Of the 10 billion land animals killed in America every year, around 9 billion are chickens. Egg farms stuff 5 to 11 hens into each tiny cage where the overcrowding engenders fighting. To prevent flesh damage from the fights, the top two-thirds of a hen's beak is sliced off in a process called de-beaking.

With chemicals and other drugs injected into their feed, hens are forced to lay around 300 eggs per year until their egg production tapers off. Then, without exception, they are killed. There are no hen sanctuaries in the egg industry.

Egg farms also breed birds so they have a fresh supply of hens to lay eggs. But if babies in the hatchery turn out to be males, they're considered by-products. They don't lay eggs. Male chicks are killed off instantly. They're tossed in the trash alive, crying out for their lost mothers, or thrown into huge rendering machines alive to be ground up and used as feed for other animals.

Factory farms have anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 chickens in each building. After 6 to 7 weeks of living in feces and urine, they're killed, soaked in a chlorine bath to remove the slime and odor off of their carcasses and shipped to the grocery store, destined for your dinner plate.

Chickens on free-range farms fare no better than on factory farms. According to government recommendations, chickens raised for eggs or meat only need to have ACCESS to an outside area. However, having access and actually being allowed outside are two completely different things. Most birds never see the light of day. Even if they are lucky enough to go outside, the area is usually no bigger than a standard backyard. The term free-range is used to trick people into thinking that meat and egg production can be done happily and humanely. But all free-range chickens end up dead, and violations of the access rule are unenforceable because the Animal Welfare Act excludes birds from its substandard guidelines.

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Cows and Alzheimer's Disease

Americans kill and eat around 37 million cows every year. At first they're allowed to graze in large fields, until they wind up on dirt-covered feedlots for the last 10 months of their lives. After their horns are cut off with a pair of bolt-cutters [de-horning], cows are fed corn and protein supplements to fatten them up. Many disgusting by-products are mixed into the feed as well, including pig and chicken manure, animal blood and the ground-up bodies of downed animals. This is why Mad Cow Disease or other animal diseases like Avian Bird Flu should concern everyone who eats meat. It is perfectly legal and standard operating procedure to feed the diseased, ground-up bodies of horses, pigs, chickens and turkeys back to cows, sheep and goats, and vice versa. Only ruminant-to-ruminant feeding is outlawed.

Feeding ground-up animals to other animals is the reason Alzheimer's Disease exists and affects around 4.5 million people in America and 15 million worldwide. Before 1900, old age used to be associated with wisdom, not memory loss. Doctors recently discovered that the same agent that causes Alzheimer's, the prion or folding protein, also causes Mad Cow Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease [CJD] and a host of other neuro-degenerative disorders. Many doctors now believe Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are misdiagnosed cases of CJD. Dr. Murray Waldman, head coroner in Toronto, has done extensive research on the link between Alzheimer's and CJD. Excerpts of his book Dying For a Hamburger can be found online at www.MadCowboy.com, the site of Howard Lyman, a former fourth generation cattle and dairy rancher.

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Turkeys, Ducks, and Sheep

Every year hundreds of millions of turkeys, ducks and sheep go through the same barbaric treatment as other farmed animals. Turkeys are de-beaked to prevent flesh damage from fighting in overcrowded environments. Ducks and geese have steel poles shoved down their throats to force feed them and fatten up their livers to 10 times their natural size. Their liver is then turned into a paté known as foie gras.

Shearing sheep for their fur is not a benign activity either. Folds of skin along with the tail are cut off in an attempt to prevent flies from laying eggs near the rectum. Ironically though, the bloody mutilation often attracts more insects. When sheep stop producing quality wool, they end up at the slaughterhouse. There are no sheep sanctuaries in the wool industry. Wool is mere euphemism for fur anyway. If you are opposed to fur, then why make an exception and an excuse to wear sheep fur?

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Fish, Omegas, and Cholesterol

Americans kill and eat 18 billion marine animals every year. Some are genetically engineered on fish farms, while the rest are hooked by the mouth or netted by huge trawlers that catch and kill everything in their path.

Here's an analogy to help you empathize with fish: imagine you are walking down a country road lined with apple trees. Hungry from the walk, you reach up to grab a piece of fruit. Suddenly, your hand becomes impaled with a large, metal hook that pulls you out of the air and into an atmosphere in which you cannot breathe. We drown fish and other aquatic animals in our atmosphere the same way we drown in theirs.

Contrary to the slick advertisements of the fish industry, or the misinformed American doctors who only receive around THREE HOURS of nutrition information during their eight-year medical programs, fish meat is not a health food. With mercury, dioxin and PCBs, fish meat is the most contaminated food product available. Additionally, a 3.5-ounce serving of fish meat has twice the amount of cholesterol as a single hot dog. Contrary to anyone who espouses otherwise, cholesterol produced by YOUR body is the only good cholesterol. If you bring it in from an outside source, it's bad cholesterol.

Claims about omega fatty acids being found solely in fish are absolute lies. Some fish have omegas because they've eaten algae or consumed other fish who have already eaten algae. Every vitamin, mineral and nutrient comes from the earth in the form of fruits, vegetables (sea or land), nuts, seeds, grains and legumes. Animal products only contain trace amounts of vitamins, minerals and nutrients because animals eat plants (sea or land). Meat is, at best, a secondary or tertiary source of essential elements.

Flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, dark green leafy vegetables, soy products, canola oil, walnut oil, flax oil, acai (fruit), hemp milk and the enhanced brand of Silk soy milk all contain omega fatty acids WITHOUT cholesterol, WITHOUT enormous amounts of saturated fat, WITHOUT trans-fatty acids, WITHOUT animal protein and, most importantly, WITHOUT cruelty!

If someone told you to smoke cigarettes because they contain trace amounts omegas or B vitamins or calcium (they do not), would you do it? Of course not. Yet every meat-eater engages in the aforesaid analogy of putting a deadly product into their body (by eating meat, cheese, milk and eggs) in order to obtain trace amounts of nutrients. As the great philosopher Pythagoras said, "Men dig their graves with their own teeth, and die more by those instruments than by all weapons of their enemies."

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Dairy

The books Diet For A New America and The Food Revolution by John Robbins expose the dairy industry's deceit like no other. Robbins, the former heir to the billion dollar Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, walked away from the family business more than 25 years ago. Robbins made a moral decision not to profit from a product that abuses and kills cows and makes people sick.

Cow milk is a secretion that oozes from the udder. It's filled with a somatic cell count, commonly known as pus, with the national average hovering around 350 million pus cells per liter. A few years ago, The Hoard's Dairyman, a dairy industry trade journal, ran an article about the pus content in milk.

When machines are hooked up to the udders three times a day to suck them dry, the machines, countless drugs and myriad injections of Bovine Growth Hormone cause mastitis, and irritate and infect the udders. Pus, mucous and infections are sucked out with the milk, and pasteurization—which cleans the pus, but does not eliminate it from the milk—creates a concoction of sanitized pus. Organic, chemical-free cow milk is not pus-free either. Soy, rice and almond milks—along with human breast milk—are the only pus-free milks.

Mother cows make milk for baby cows, not baby humans, adolescents or adults. The human body has no need for cow milk as it has no need for dog milk, giraffe milk, zebra milk or rhinoceros milk. This is why dairy is responsible for most allergies, asthma, Crohn's disease and childhood ear infections.

Cows, like every other female mammal, only produce milk during and after pregnancy. Cows, therefore, are artificially impregnated to keep the milk-flow going. Within two days after giving birth, babies are stolen from their mothers. From a business standpoint, the dairy industry can't have calves sucking up milk they want to sell for huge profits.

Like male chicks on an egg farm, male calves are useless by-products of the dairy industry. Unlike the chicks who are killed at birth, calves are sent to veal farms and put in tiny crates with ropes and chains around their necks to completely immobilize them. No movement is ever allowed because no muscle development is allowed. They want the calves to grow large but still retain their infant-white flesh. The veal industry is only in existence because of the dairy industry. If you don't eat veal, but still consume dairy, it doesn't alleviate the suffering of enslaved male calves, or mother cows for that matter. When cows no longer produce quality milk, they're killed. There are no cow sanctuaries in the dairy industry.

If you think milk builds strong bones, why do Americans—the largest consumer of dairy products worldwide—have astounding rates of osteoporosis and bone fractures, while Vietnamese—who happen to be 100-percent lactose-intolerant—have the world's lowest rates of osteoporosis and bone fractures?

In Western societies, we're told that calcium is the answer to preventing bone loss. However, it's not a lack of calcium that causes osteoporosis. Excessive, acidic animal-based protein and a lack of exercise cause osteoporosis. The Lancet, The U.S. Department of Health, and Harvard University call the link between meat and dairy based diets and osteoporosis "INESCAPABLE".

In spite of milk's high calcium content—most of which cannot be absorbed by the human body—animal protein actually contributes to the acceleration of osteoporosis. Keeping blood at a neutral Ph balance always takes priority over keeping calcium in the bones. Bones can hold out for years with insufficient calcium, but blood cannot. If our blood becomes too acidic, the result is fatal. So the body withdraws calcium from the bones and uses that alkaline mineral to keep the blood's Ph level balanced. Animal products have the most excessive amounts of acidic protein. Eastern societies have the lowest rates of osteoporosis and bone fractures because of their low, mostly plant-based protein diets.

The best sources of low acid, highly absorbable calcium are kale, collard greens, cooked broccoli, sesame seeds, soy, figs, blackstrap molasses, cooked navy beans and almonds. Rice milk and orange juice have also been fortified with calcium. Plant-based calcium, plant-based protein and exercise build strong bones, and nobody gets killed.

For more info on osteoporosis, check out http://www.wesnet.com/healthierways/Osteoporosis.htm. (I do NOT recommend buying the products on this website at all. But the information is solid.)

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Identifying Animal-Based Ingredients

People eat meat because it tastes good! They've acquired a taste for and an addiction to meat. I didn't stop eating meat because of the taste. I stopped for ethical reasons.

One of the coolest things about veganism nowadays is that you can have the same smell, taste and texture of animal products without the cruelty and ill health effects. No one has to suffer and die for your dinner any more. Bacon, ham, sausage, chicken, turkey, steak, tuna, hamburgers, hot dogs, milk and cheese can be made with soy, wheat or rice. Most grocery stores carry these products. If your local store isn't stocked, just ask them to bring it in. Stores exist to make money. They sell meat because people buy meat. If people buy soy meat, they'll sell soy meat, which has already begun. Don't forget about ethnic restaurants for great vegan selections as well. Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Ethiopian and Italian restaurants serve plenty of vegan food. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese places let you substitute tofu for the meat in any of their dishes. Check out the Shopping Guide to the Best Vegan Food and Clothing on this website for detailed info about vegan food. For a detailed list of animal ingredients to avoid, please check out www.HappyCow.net. Click on the HEALTH & NUTRITION section, and then click on INGREDIENTS.

You are most likely wrinkling your nose in disgust at the thought of soy meat. I did the same around 10 years ago. Isn't it illogical, though, to believe soy meat is gross when it's made of soy, vegetables, grains and spices? Yet meat, the dismembered corpse of an animal, comprised of blood, flesh, veins, muscles and tendons, is considered delectable by millions of meat-eaters. Why isn't a beverage [milk] that oozes out of a cow's udder considered disgusting? How about an egg from a hen? An unfertilized egg from a female is a period or part of a period. People scramble up hen periods in the morning and then they think vegans are weird because we don't make omelets anymore! What about bee vomit? People love it so much they renamed it honey. Honey comes straight from a bee's stomach and is regurgitated through the mouth. You can check that out with any wildlife biologist. But people don't want Bee Vomit Nut Cheerios. They want Honey Nut Cheerios. So they use a nice euphemism instead.

The standard diet of a meat-eater is blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions, hen periods and bee vomit. And once a year during a certain holiday in November, meat-eaters use the hollowed out rectum of a dead bird as a pressure cooker for stuffing. And people think vegans are weird because we eat tofu?

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Humans Are Herbivores

Most people believe humans are carnivorous or omnivorous creatures—atop the food chain—who have been eating meat since the beginning of time. However, tools, weapons, power and intelligence have not magically transformed our physiology and turned us into carnivores or omnivores. I believe a few sharks, hyenas and piranha would like to have a word with us about who's ahead of who in the food chain. Additionally, most herbivores like rhinos, hippos and gorillas could easily kill a human being, if provoked. These animals are also ahead of us in the food chain. Humans, historically and scientifically, have always been near the bottom of the food chain. Killing, during a one-on-one confrontation without weapons, and the ability to consume bloody raw flesh right from the bone without the side effect of disease, have always been the only true factors in determining placement in the food chain.

Most medical experts will attest to the fact that humans are completely herbivorous, plant-eating creatures. Dr. William Roberts, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Cardiology and a professor at Baylor University, states, "Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh—which contains cholesterol and saturated fat—was never intended for human beings who are natural herbivores."

Let's compare the bodies of humans and herbivores to the bodies of carnivores and omnivores. First, the length of human and other herbivore intestines falls somewhere between 8 and 13 times the bodies' length. The length of carnivore and omnivore intestines is only 3 to 6 times their bodies' length. The short intestinal length allows rotting animal flesh, animal protein, cholesterol and saturated fat to pass through quickly which is why it's impossible for any real carnivore or omnivore to get clogged arteries. Clogged arteries, however, kills 50 percent of all meat-eaters!

Dr. William Castelli, director of the Framingham Heart Study, supports the aforementioned findings with additional claims about human cancer rates dropping 60 percent if people stopped eating meat, cheese, milk and eggs.

Humans and other herbivores have carbohydrate digestive enzymes in their saliva, meaning our bodies were created for fruits and vegetables. Animal products have no complex carbohydrates, which is why carnivores and omnivores lack carbohydrate digestive enzymes in their saliva. Human teeth are broad, short, blunt, flat and spade-shaped like the teeth of other herbivores, not the fanged-mouths of carnivores and omnivores. Herbivores have canines, incisors and molars, which are used for ripping rough fruits like apples and carrots, or nuts.

If your lower jaw moves from side to side—and you grind and chew your food—then you are an herbivore. The jaws of carnivores and omnivores only move up and down, vertically. They don't chew, just rip and swallow. Humans sweat through their pores to cool down. They don't pant like dogs, cats or lions. There are no claws on the human hand, although claws are a trademark of the carnivore and the omnivore.

When we drive down the highway and spot a dead animal on the side of the road, I'm quite sure people don't get excited, start to salivate, come to a screeching halt, jump out of the car, scare the crows away and start munching directly on the dead animal. Real carnivores and omnivores eat dead animals on the side of the road. We always cook meat before eating it, even though lions don't have gazelle barbeques in the jungles of Tanzania. All carnivores and omnivores eat bloody, raw, bacteria-laden flesh right from the bone. This includes the eyes, nose, face, toes, tail, anus, inner organs, blood and the fur. Humans have to cook specific parts of the dismembered animal so we don't become violently ill. We also don't possess the Ph balance in our stomach to break down raw, bacteria-laden flesh.

To prove beyond a reasonable doubt that humans are herbivores, remember the two-year-old in the crib with the bunny rabbit and the apple comment in the opening ethics section? Understand humans have no carnivorous or omnivorous instincts whatsoever when we're born and growing up. There isn't a speck of carnivorism nor an iota of omnivorism in us. We acquire a taste for animal products after they're forced down our throats during childhood.

I can also expose the carnivore/omnivore lie by examining how each society, culture, race, religion and ethnicity justifies eating certain animals because they like some animals and dislike others, acquiring a taste for some and an aversion to others. These discriminatory discrepancies wreak of fake carnivorism/omnivorism.

If people from all walks of life ever sat down together for a meal, veganism is the only meal that would not offend anyone. At this table of peace, Americans would say, "We're not eating dogs, cats and horses, right?" Muslims and Orthodox Jews would say, "You're not feeding us pork, tonight?" Indians sit down and say, "We're not eating beef, right?" Cows are sacred animals in India. Seventh Day Adventists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Rastafarians would take out all the other animal products because all are vegetarian, with most being vegan. Atheist vegans take out any other animal product you might think of. The only thing left to eat that everybody could agree upon would be stir-fried tofu or some other vegan meal.

If humans want to be ethical creatures, then we have to be ethical to other species even if they don't have the mental capacity to return morality to us. We already act ethically towards humans who are incapable of understanding ethics and returning morality, so this isn't even a radical stretch. Human babies don't understand ethics. Most severely mentally retarded people don't understand ethics. But that doesn't give us the right to act unethically, immorally and violently toward them, does it? So even if animals don't understand ethics and cannot return morality, the onus falls on us to do the right thing and extend some simple decency, kindness and compassion to them.

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Evolution and Creation

In the evolutionary theory, humans were vegan long before we turned to an unnatural diet of dead animals. Before tools, weapons and fire there was no meat-eating. We were vegan scavengers and gatherers long before we tried hunting and gathering. When the Ice Age hit and most vegetation was wiped out, humans turned to a survival scenario of eating meat. When the Ice Age ended, we should have reverted back to the vegan diet that kept us connected to and part of the natural world, not fallaciously on top of it.

In the creation theory, humans were vegan long before we turned to a sinful diet of dead animals. The religions of Buddhists, Hindus, 7th Day Adventists, Jains and Rastafarians unambiguously admonish followers to harm no animal, and to treat the body as a temple by ingesting healthy, non-animal based foods. Meat is never permissible.

If you are a follower of Judaism, Christianity or Islam, look no further than the Garden of Eden. It was a vegan haven, and Adam and Eve were the first vegetarians on this planet. Genesis 1:29, God's first dietary law, states, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." Isaiah 11:7, God's last dietary law, states, "The wolf will live with the lamb, the cow will feed with the bear, the lion will eat straw like the ox, and a little child will lead them. And neither will harm nor destroy on My Holy Mountain." The beginning and the end are vegan because veganism causes no bloodshed and cruelty. Many other scriptures like Hosea 2:18 and Ecclesiastes 3:19 also profess God's love for animals.

Since animal products cause almost all of our diseases, and the human body is 100 percent herbivorous, rationalizing God's approval of this deadly fare doesn't make sense. It's awfully convenient that most people believe God, Jesus and Mohammad embrace the misery, murder and consumption of animals. Yet, those same people also believe God, Jesus and Mohammad are all-compassionate, all-loving and all-merciful, not bloodthirsty, murderous devils. These scenarios contradict each other, so it can't be both ways. Causing misery to animals and supporting their murder is causing misery to God, Jesus and Mohammad and murdering Their souls.

The THOU SHALT NOT KILL commandment should make everyone vegan anyway. Since each vegan spares the lives thousands of animals every year, honoring this commandment can only bring one closer to God.

In the Gospel of the Nazirenes, viewed as inauthentic by the Church, Jesus proclaims, "Wherefore those who want to be my disciples, keep your hands from bloodshed and let no flesh meat enter your mouths for the Lord is just and bountiful who ordains that man shall live by the fruits and the seeds of the earth alone." He also states, "Verily I say unto you, for this end I have come into the world; that I may put away all blood offerings and the eating of the flesh of the beasts and the birds that are slain by men. In the beginning the Creator gave to all the fruits of the trees and the seeds of the earth and the herbs for food. But those who loved themselves more than the Lord or their fellows, corrupted their ways and brought diseases into their bodies and filled the earth with lust and violence."

Of the 114 chapters in the Qu'ran, 113 begin with the phrase "In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful." All Muslims accept that showing compassion and charity is a service to Allah. Yet, to kill animals and eat their flesh is anything but compassionate and charitable. The Holy Prophet Muhammad states, "Allah will not be affectionate to a man who is not affectionate to Allah's creatures. Whoever is kind to the creatures of Allah is kind to himself. A good deed done to an animal is as good as doing good to a human being while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being."

Animals are the most innocent beings on this planet and need the most protection. When we exclude animals from God's circle of compassion, we exclude God from our lives. God demands mercy, compassion and meekness. After all, the meek shall inherit the earth, and the meek are the animals and those who walk humbly with them.

For more detailed information about religion and veganism, go to the Other Animal Rights Issues page, and check out the articles entitled The Qu’ran and Islam and The Bible, Jesus, and Veganism.

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Health, Protein, and Trans Fatty Acids

Veganism not only reduces the most voluminous amount of cruelty on this planet; it also prevents, treats and cures most heart diseases (strokes and heart attacks), cancers (prostate, colon, breast and pancreatic), kidney disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, obesity and impotence, just to name a few. Veganism is preventative medicine, which is why vegans live 5 to 15 years longer than vegetarians and meat-eaters.

Drs. Dean Ornish of UCSF and Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic are world-renowned heart specialists who admit that a little more than 50 percent of meat-eaters will have a heart attack or a stroke because of clogged arteries. Cholesterol, saturated fat and trans-fatty acids are the only way to clog the arteries. All cholesterol, and 95 percent of saturated fat, are found in animal products. Besides the trans-fatty acids artifically created through the hydrogenation of oils, meat, cheese and milk are NATURALLY comprised of trans-fatty acids. Check out this article from the June 1998 edition of the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis: www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ap/fc/1998/00000011/00000002/art00570. (An abstract of this article appears at the end of this section.)

If that news isn't bad enough, animal-based protein is the reason why 1 in 3 meat-eaters get cancer. Animal protein is too acidic for the human body and was never intended for us because we are natural herbivores. We need to stop pretending that animal products are healthy. If it contains cholesterol, saturated fat, trans-fatty acids and animal protein, it is unhealthy. I'm still looking for the first medical report in history that can indict broccoli, bananas or asparagus as a cause of illness.

Don't be fooled by the spinach—E. Coli incident a few years back. E. Coli has only one source: SHIT (human or animal excrement)! Since spinach doesn't shit, spinach cannot be blamed for the problem. E. Coli ended up on the spinach because people who enslave animals for meat, dairy or eggs contaminate the waterways by dumping nearly 2.1 trillion tons of manure into America's lakes, rivers and streams. Contaminated water eventually ends up on some of the crops, passing E. Coli to the consumer. Also, more frighteningly, there are many times when farmers literally spray tons of RAW animal shit directly on the crops. I'm sure everyone has experienced these nauseating fumes at one time or another while driving down a country road. In summary, all E. Coli incidents occur because of animal agriculture. Meat-eaters want to eat flesh. The flesh comes from animals. Animals must be fed 70-80 percent of America's crops. Animals SHIT. The shit ends up on some of our crops. People consume the crops.

Contrary to the misinformation spewed forth by uninformed doctors, there is no shortage of protein in a vegan diet. Cauliflower and broccoli are 40 percent protein, while most other vegetables contain around 30 percent. Soy, tofu, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils and brown rice are great sources of protein. Even fruit has around 2-5 percent protein, which is the same amount of protein (5 percent) human babies receive from their mother's breast milk.

If you would like to chat with someone who understands human nutrition, please contact Dr. Jerry Vlasak at JWVlasak@pol.net. You can also check out Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or www.VegSource.com for links to Drs. Ornish, Esselstyn, Roberts and Castelli. Dr. Michael Greger has lots of health info too, at www.VeganMD.org.

Trans Fatty Acids in Dairy and Meat Products from 14 European Countries: The TRANSFAIR Study

Authors: Aro A.¹; Antoine J.M.²; Pizzoferrato L.³; Reykdal O.⁴; van Poppel G.⁵

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Volume 11, Number 2, June 1998, pp. 150-160(11)

Publisher: Academic Press

Abstract: The fatty acid composition of dairy products and meat from 14 European countries was analyzed with particular emphasis on trans fatty acids. In cow's milk, butter, and cheese the proportions of trans fatty acids ranged between 3.2 and 6.2% of fatty acids. C18:1 isomers comprised about 60% and C16:1 and C18:2 isomers about 15% each of total trans fatty acids. Goat's and sheep's milk and cheese contained between 2.7 and 7.1% trans fatty acids. Summer milk contained up to 57% more trans fatty acids, both C18:1 and C18:2 isomers, more cis-unsaturated and less saturated fatty acids than winter milk. Ice-cream with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils contained between 21 and 31% trans fatty acids and low-trans modified-fat ice-cream between 0.2 and 0.9%. The high-trans ice-cream samples contained more cis-unsaturated and less saturated fatty acids than most dairy-fat and low-trans products. Beef contained 2.8-9.5% and lamb meat 4.3-9.2% trans fatty acids whereas pork (0.2-2.2%) and chicken (0.2-1.7%) and meat from other nonruminants were lower in trans fatty acids. With very few exceptions, sausages contained pork and showed low trans fatty acid levels. In conclusion, ruminant fats contained moderate amounts of trans fatty acids, mainly C18:1 isomers. There were considerable differences both between and within the countries, probably due to seasonal factors and differences in feeding practices and the age of the animals.

Affiliations: 1: National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland 2: Centre Jean Thèves, Danone Group, Athins Mons, France 3: Istituto Nazionale della Nutrizione, Rome, Italy 4: Agricultural Research Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland 5: TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, Zeist, 3700 AJ, The Netherlands

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B12, Iron, and Zinc

Vitamin B12 grows in the soil, and we only need three micrograms per day. Some animals have trace amounts of B12 in their flesh because they eat dirt from the ground. Eating meat for trace amounts of B12—a secondary source that comes with cholesterol, saturated fat and animal protein—is inefficient and deadly. This explains why 99 percent of all people with B12 deficiencies are meat-eaters and vegetarians who subsist on cheese and eggs. Cheese-and-egg-eating vegetarians are also at risk for anemia because cheese and eggs are void of iron. Vegans are never at risk for B12 deficiencies or anemia, or any other ailment. Veganism causes no disease. It is preventative medicine, the treatment and the cure.

The best way to get B12 is to eat hemp seeds, add nutritional yeast to your meals, drink hemp milk or consume the "B Monster" smoothie by Odwalla which has 360 percent of the daily recommended dosage! The human body stores B12 for up to three years, so one Odwalla smoothie can go a long way. Cereals, tempeh, seaweed, unwashed vegetables, and fortified soy and rice milks are great sources of B12, too. For the record, hemp also has protein, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorous, zinc, calcium, iron, folic acid and all amino acids. Each serving also has 900 mg. of Omega 3 and 2800 mg. of Omega 6. Hemp is by far the best food you can put into your body. I recommend the Living Harvest brand of hemp milk.

The best sources of iron are green vegetables, soy, bran flakes, Grape Nuts, cooked chick peas, cooked pinto beans, raisins, dried apricots and blackstrap molasses. The best sources of zinc are beans, peas, corn, cashews, peanut butter, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

As a vegan, I never take supplements because everything I need comes from fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and legumes. Meat-eaters and cheese-and-egg-eating vegetarians require supplements because they have the worst diet imaginable and never get their daily requirements of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

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Fad Diets

Any diet other than veganism—including vegetarianism—is unhealthy. Atkins, South Beach, The Zone, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig cannot produce optimum health. These fad diets gloss over the fact that excess calories and excess fat, along with inactivity, make people overweight and sick. The advertising hustlers and shyster doctors of the fad diet industry convince people that it's not the meat and cheese of a sandwich making people overweight and sick...it's the bun! They tell people it's not the bacon, milk and eggs of the standard American breakfast making people overweight and sick...it's the side of strawberries and cantaloupe.

Even moderate amounts of animal products are detrimental to the human body. Moderate amounts of cholesterol, saturated fat and animal protein are just as harmful as moderate amounts of tobacco and heroin. If one wants to avoid lung cancer and emphysema, moderately smoking five cigarettes per day would not be too bright. If one wants to avoid clogged arteries, most cancers, diabetes and other diseases, a moderate amount of meat, cheese, milk and eggs cannot be on the menu. From an ethical standpoint, too, cruelty in moderation is never acceptable.

Dr. James Anderson, professor of medicine and nutrition at the University of Kentucky said, "If you wanted to find one diet to ruin your health, you couldn't find one worse than Atkins." These asinine fad diets are exact recipes for heart diseases and cancers.

Fad diets, however, are capable of bringing about weight loss. If losing weight—and not being healthy—is the only goal, people should try some other fabulous weight-loss methods like smoking crack, bulimia, anorexia or getting AIDS. I'm not recommending those insane techniques, but I bet if a few advertising hustlers, shyster doctors and pharmaceutical companies got together and decided to package crack and called it "The Low-Carb Crack Snack," everyone would be snacking on crack!

Skinniness doesn't equal healthiness. Skinny meat-eaters have heart attacks and get cancer all the time. After you or someone else you know gets skinny on a fad diet—and then dies from a heart attack or cancer—I'm sure the pallbearers will be thrilled they won't have to strain too much as they carry the casket from the hearse to the grave.

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Environment and World Hunger

Since animal-based agriculture is the number one cause of environmental destruction, meat-eaters and vegetarians are not environmentalists. Fifty percent of all the water in America is wasted on animal-based agriculture. Enormous quantities of insecticides and pesticides are sprayed on the billions of food animals to keep flies and mosquitoes off of them. In 1992 Cornell University determined through The China Project that 69 percent of our chemical intake comes from meat and dairy, while only 11 percent comes from fruits and vegetables. The latter can be solved with organic farming. And while organic farming can solve how many chemicals are injected into the animals, it cannot solve how many chemicals are sprayed onto the animals to alleviate the insect infestation. Organic farms do not solve the ethical and health problems associated with killing animals and meat-eating. In addition, crops set aside as animal feed—which are most of the crops in America—are allowed to be sprayed with more chemicals than crops used for human consumption.

What about the 2.7 trillion pounds of manure that 10 billion land animals produce every year? Most of it ends up in rivers and lakes from illegal dumping or indirect run-off after the manure is used as fertilizer. The pig industry also sells some of its manure to the chicken industry and the chicken industry sells some of its manure to the cow industry so it can be mixed into the animals' feed. This saves money on the feed expense account.

Moreover, meat-eating societies are the main cause of world hunger because they continually feed around 60 percent of the world's crops [around 70 percent in America] to billions of land animals instead of millions of starving people. Even the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology, a group comprised of people involved in animal agriculture, states that 10 billion people could be fed with the available crop land in America if everyone became vegan. One acre of land can yield 30,000 pounds of carrots, 40,000 pounds of potatoes or 50,000 pounds of tomatoes. However, one acre of land can yield only 250 pounds of meat.

For more info about the environment, check out www.EarthSave.org and http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutriEI.pdf. And to find out how animal agriculture is the MAIN cause of global warming (because of nitrous oxide and methane), please check out this November '06 report from the United Nations: www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/.

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Expense

In the grand scheme of things, veganism is the most inexpensive diet on this planet. Once animal products have been eliminated from your diet, virtually any chance of getting a disease has been eliminated as well. Our health is priceless. Yet, meat-eaters are rarely healthy and vibrant in their golden years due to disease. Add the cost of health care and prescription drugs, and carnivorism is the most expensive lifestyle around!

When eating at fast food restaurants or other establishments, veganism is the cheapest way to go or, at worst, the exact same price as meat. For instance, the cheapest item at Taco Bell is the bean burrito without cheese. The cheapest item at Subway is the Veggie sub. When eating Thai or Chinese food, tofu and vegetables is the exact same price as meat and vegetables. When ordering a cheese-less pizza, it's the exact same price as a pizza with cheese. Specialty vegan restaurants can be pricey but eating at vegan restaurants is not a requirement.

Pre-processed, packaged soy meats—a specialty item in the vegan diet—can be a little expensive. But specialty items are always that way. Filet mignon, lobster and fish are more expensive than a package of hot dogs or a can of Spam. One does not have to eat pre-processed soy meats to be vegan. Vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix only eats fruits and vegetables. After all, you can fill up your refrigerator with $20 worth of produce and eat for a week.

In the long run, pre-processed soy meats have a greater monetary return as they will not cause disease and debilitate you later in life. You can buy textured vegetable protein [TVP] in bulk and make soy meat yourself, which is very inexpensive. Check out www.VegSource.com for thousands of free vegan recipes. Or you can e-mail my friend Kate Timko. She's a great chef with awesome recipes.

Ten times out of ten, poverty-stricken societies are vegetarian or vegan because rice, beans, lentils, potatoes, spinach, chick peas, tomatoes, peanut butter and jelly, and noodles are the cheapest food items around. This is why humanitarian organizations like Plenty and Food for Life Global feed vegan food to the hungry.

Finally, I give lectures to poor college students nationwide. Thousands end up choosing veganism because it's truly easy and inexpensive. More importantly, veganism is an ethical lifestyle decision. It's not a fad or an experiment. Just like people who have decided not to rape women and molest children, ethical vegans have expanded their circles of compassion and decided not to rape women, molest children nor support the killing of animals. Once an ethical decision has been made, it will be done. Until you've made the decision to be vegan, excuses not to be vegan will be plentiful. Once you choose to be kind to animals, all excuses will fall by the wayside.

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The Economy and 10 Billion Land Animals

Meat-eaters believe might-makes-right and money-trumps-morals when it comes to animal rights issues. Sadly, these thoughtless mindsets were the catalysts of black slavery in White America and Jewish servitude in Nazi Germany. American and German businesses profited handsomely from slavery until the majority of people realized morals should trump money. Slavery was then abolished and the Holocaust stopped. In those instances, freedom and justice far outweighed economic stability or financial ruin. The same ethics of freedom and justice should apply to animals. Jobs and profits don't justify animal slavery and animal murder.

Furthermore, there isn't even proof of a societal transformation to veganism damaging the economy. Vegans don't subsist on air. We eat food grown by farmers, packaged by factory workers, shipped by truckers to the grocery stores of America. We eat at restaurants where chefs cook the food, waiters serve it and dishwashers scrub the plates. We buy shirts, pants, shoes and jackets. We purchase cars, bikes and airline tickets to travel. We listen to music, watch TV, attend concerts and read newspapers. Vegans can be just as beneficial to the economy as meat-eaters. We simply want an ethical economy that harms no one.

Farmers who enslave and kill animals could easily transform their land back to its original purpose: the harvesting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and legumes. In a capitalist society, consumers dictate how businesses operate, from the products corporations produce to the items grocery stores sell. If you want pork chops, pigs will suffer and die. If you want soy dogs, nobody gets killed.

Vegetarian companies like Amy's and Boca aren't struggling to make ends meet. In fact, the vegan food industry is so profitable, ConAgra recently purchased Lightlife, [Jimmy] Dean Foods acquired Silk, and Kraft bought Morningstar Farms. The animal industries are preparing for a vegan world. When times change, and killing animals for profit is considered every bit as obscene as enslaving blacks and Jews, people will still have jobs, and corporations will still make huge amounts of money.

As for the 10 billion land animals enslaved and killed in America every year, please don't think they will be running rampant through the city streets when everyone becomes vegan. The meat, dairy and egg industries artificially impregnate 10 billion land animals to satisfy the appetites of around 300 million Americans. Therefore, when people stop eating animal products, no company in a capitalist society will create a product [animals] that cannot sell. When each person stops eating animals, 3,000 fewer animals will be produced.

In the 21st century, around 300 million Americans eat 10 billion land animals. In the 22nd century, when only 150 million Americans eat animals, only 5 billion land animals will be killed. When just 75 million Americans eat meat...you get the picture. In 200-300 years, when America is vegan, there will only be a few thousand cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys left. At that point, you can set them free or give them a nice life at a sanctuary. The only other scenario is Smithfield, Tyson, ConAgra, Perdue and the other animal-killing conglomerates eradicating these animals completely. As a result, the only cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys left would be the ones already at sanctuaries. Extinction is a far better fate than perpetual misery and endless murder.

It takes all social justice movements hundreds, if not thousands of years to achieve their goals of freedom. It took 400 years to end slavery. Women were given the right to vote just 85 years ago. Segregation wasn't abolished until the '60s. Sadly, the world is not going vegan overnight, so worrying about space for 10 billion land animals isn't even an issue.

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Tradition

Tradition is an invalid rationalization for the preservation of slavery, cruelty and murder. I understand traditions and habits are hard to break, but evil traditions and bad habits need to be broken. The abolition of slavery in America proves that evil traditions can be eradicated.

If you honestly put yourself in the position of an animal enslaved in the meat industry, confined to an artificial world, denied the chance to live a long, healthy life, even denied sunlight most of the time, and then imagine yourself chained upside down by your legs at the slaughterhouse as someone cut your throat and dismembered your body, you would understand why the unconscionable tradition of meat-eating must be abolished. Compassion should be the driving force of evolution, not arrogance, greed and gluttony. Today, we knowingly contribute to an endless loop of killing animals to preserve the abstract notion of tradition. We kill animals, the meat kills us, and we kill this planet with the detrimental practice of animal-based agriculture.

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Native Americans

Vegans often hear comments about Native Americans living off of the land and being in harmony with nature. According to Native American historian Rita Laws, however, the majority of Natives ate very little to no meat. Choctaw, Mayan, Osage, Aztec, Pawnee, Zapotec, Mandans, Wichitas, Arikaras, Caddoans, Cherokee, Creek and Chicksaw lived largely vegan lifestyles. After all, Natives did teach infiltrating Europeans how to crop the land that was eventually stolen from them, not how to kill animals. Cattle-ranching cowboys, who displaced Natives by stealing land for cattle, drove Natives to hunt and eat meat en masse. And these cattle-ranching cowboys ended up murdering millions of Natives because they wanted Native land for the cows to graze on, so other white people could have plenty of beef. What whites did to Native Americans is a perfect reason to go vegan, not a reason to continue eating flesh.

Plus, horrifying stories of Lame Deer or Chief Seattle praying over murdered animals also display a primitive understanding of compassion and decency. Many Natives refuse to accept this fact because they are meat-eaters themselves, and would rather blindly defend their heritage instead of acknowledging the wrongful acts of their ancestors. There is no honor in defending cruelty, however. I was born Jewish and won't hesitate to condemn rich, pretentious Jewish women who own fur coats because they stupidly believe it's a status symbol. Compassion and decency are far more valuable than heritage.

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Why the Government Allows Meat Consumption

This is the same government that condoned slavery and segregation for hundreds of years. The same government that denied women the right to vote until 85 years ago. The same government that stole America from Natives and called it manifest destiny. The same government that denies equal rights to gays. The same government that labels anyone opposed to the Iraq War as unpatriotic or a supporter of terrorism. The same government that denies health care to the needy. I think you get the picture.

The meat and dairy industries represent two of the most powerful and profitable businesses on this planet. Since money makes our government churn, how can it even begin to promulgate the unhealthiness of meat, eggs and dairy, or the immorality of killing billions of animals?

We should never rely on politicians to make the world a more ethical place. Only when we, collectively, climb out of our abyss of callousness, open up our circles of compassion, stop viewing animals as commodities and property, and start viewing them as family, will animals ever achieve the freedom they rightly deserve. Senators, representatives, the President, even your local police chief, have no incentive to outlaw the killing of animals because society doesn't reward the ethical vegan, it deifies the cruel meat-eater.

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Genetically Modified Organisms and Pesticides

Creating and re-creating plant and animal life is obscene and blasphemous. 99 percent of animals in the meat, egg and dairy industries have been genetically-modified, while the majority of GM soy and corn are used as feed for the animals most people eat. For your benefit, none of the soy meat companies use GMOs. From a health standpoint, I have yet to see evidence of plant or animal GMOs being deleterious to the human body. Animal products cause disease regardless of the genetic modification factor. If plant GMOs were proven unhealthy, my opposition would still be an ethical one as I am vegan for the health of the animals.

As for pesticides, this is also a health issue, not an ethical one. However, if you are concerned about chemicals, Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University discovered that 69 percent of pesticide intake comes from meat, cheese, milk and eggs, while only 11 percent comes from fruits and vegetables. Animals are doused with pesticides to kill the flies and mosquitoes that spread disease from animal to animal. Plus, the government allows crops raised for animal feed to be sprayed with up to 20 times the amount of chemicals as opposed to crops raised for human consumption.

Campbell's 1992 China Project, the world's largest dietary study ever conducted, is remarkable and unchallengeable. Campbell points out how chemicals seep through the pores of animals and are permanently stored in their fat cells. Conversely, chemicals can be easily washed off of fruits or vegetables. You can always buy organic fruits and vegetables that were never sprayed with chemicals, thereby solving the minor problem of pesticide residue. While you can purchase animal products without some chemicals, you cannot get away from the cruelty, nor the cholesterol, saturated fat and animal protein—the three causes of all of our main diseases.

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Killing Plants

When meat-eaters run out of excuses to eat dead animals, they attempt to indict the vegan lifestyle by claiming that plants suffer and die to feed the vegans of the world. Yet, I am still searching for the founders of People for the Ethical Treatment of Carrots, Last Chance for Broccoli or Apples Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow. For every injustice that has ever existed, there has always been a group of people fighting to end that injustice. However, People for the Ethical Treatment of Carrots doesn't exist because everyone knows the difference between taking a carrot out of the ground and slicing a pig into pieces. Everyone also knows the difference between mowing a lawn and tossing a live baby chick into a rendering machine. If one does not understand the difference, then that person is disingenuous and irrational.

It's also illogical to discuss giving rights of freedom and bodily integrity to insentient plants while sentient animals suffer and die by the billion. Plants—unlike animals—are insentient beings void of central nervous systems, lungs, hearts, kidneys, intestines, blood, ears and eyes. They do not defecate or urinate, and have no ability to feel pain or experience a plethora of emotions. Nobody screams in horror when their neighbors are mowing the grass either (grass is a plant too). But if our neighbors were slicing pigs into pieces on the front lawn, there would be tears, physical interventions and the proper authorities would be summoned to stop the bloodshed. Plus, if people honestly believe it's wrong to eat plants, they could always choose the ultra-vegan lifestyle of fruitarianism (eating the fruits and nuts that fall from trees). From a Judeo-Christian-Islam perspective, the Garden of Eden was a fruitarian haven.

Furthermore, meat-eating societies destroy more plants than vegan ones. In America, 70-80 percent of our crops (corn, wheat, oats and soy) are fed to the 10 billion land animals who are killed annually. Worldwide, 60-70 percent of the plants are fed to around 50 billion land animals. So if humans stopped eating flesh, then fewer plants would be harvested and less land would be used/destroyed as well. Veganism is still the ONLY answer to this issue because fewer beings (sentient and insentient) would die if humans—who are physiologically herbivorous anyway—ate plants directly. Even The Council for Science, Technology and Agriculture, a group of animal ag people, stated in the early 90s that all the crops in America could feed every human on this planet if plants were consumed directly.

Vegan humanitarian George Bernard Shaw once said: "If you believe absurdities, then you will commit atrocities." When it comes to pain and suffering, the screams, the blood, the writhing, and the fear that animals (and humans) exhibit trump the so called "waves" of plants.

Some meat-eaters also claim that more animals die from the tractors that harvest crops than the knives that slice the throats of 10 billion land animals who are murdered with premeditation in slaughterhouses every year. Even if that statement were true, the premeditated killings of 10 billion land animals in slaughterhouses are diametrically opposed to the accidental killings by tractors in the farmlands of America. Our unjust legal system even recognizes the difference between a premeditated murder and an accidental killing.

Nonetheless, it is unreasonable to intentionally starve millions of humans to death by feeding around 70 percent of the harvested grains in America to the 10 billion land animals murdered with premeditation, and then accidentally kill wild animals with tractors. With veganism, we could eliminate two problems instead of living with three!

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Making the Transition to Veganism

Many people find the transition to veganism easy, but some people have a hard time with it. A few make the transition overnight; for others, it will be a gradual process spanning weeks, months, even a year or more. Old habits are hard to break, and new habits can be hard to form. I went vegetarian for a year in 1995 before I went vegan on July 24, 1996. The only thing to keep in mind is to get to the state of total veganism sooner rather than later. The animals are counting on it, especially cows on dairy farms and hens on egg farms. As I've already said on countless occasions, and on this website, the beef and dairy industries are inextricably linked, as are the chicken and egg industries. Dairy cows who can no longer produce milk profitably, and hens who can no longer lay eggs, are sent IMMEDIATELY to slaughter. And that's not even to account for their misery while they're imprisoned, tortured, inseminated, and forced to act as egg- and milk-producing machines. Therefore, even if you consume no meat, there is NO way you can cause little impact when consuming milk and eggs. Don't be fooled by claims to the contrary.

Furthermore, don't buy into the agriculture industries' self-contradicting language suggesting that their products have been "farmed humanely." Terms like "free-range," "cage-free," "grass-fed," and "organic" are only advertising scams to trick people into buying cruel, deadly products. The aforesaid labels don't benefit the animals; they only make meat-eaters sleep better, by making them think that these murdered animals were happy and well cared for.

Start eating a variety of fruits in the morning for breakfast. Or go buy some TOFUTTI cream cheese and some bagels. All bagels at the bagel store (Panera, Bruegger's, etc.) are vegan except for the egg, cinnamon raisin, and cheese bagels, obviously (frozen bagels at the grocery are rarely vegan). I like to eat several different berries in the morning: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. At some point during the day, I also try to eat a banana, watermelon, peach, plum or orange. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a bagel is a great way to start the day as well. PB&J works for lunch, too. For lunch, have a veggie burger instead of a hamburger. The soy meats are easy to cook. Put the same toppings on them as well. Tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts, cucumbers, pickles and mustard or ketchup or MY FAVORITE— VEGANAISE! It is soy mayo and it is OUT OF THIS WORLD! For dinner, eat some ethnic foods. Get the Aloo Gobi (cauliflower) or Aloo Palak (spinach), or Chana Masala (chick peas) at an Indian restaurant. Make sure there is NO cheese or cream, of course. Or get some falafel and hummus and tabouli and fatoush at a Middle Eastern place. Eat pasta or spaghetti at an Italian restaurant. Just inquire which noodles have NO eggs in them. And of course add vegetables like broccoli or mushrooms with some garlic, too. Hit those Asian places and substitute tofu for the meat. Make sure to tell them to cook it without fish and oyster sauce. Check out the Veg-Friendly Restaurants page on this site as well.

Sometimes it takes extra effort to care, but I am always willing to put in extra effort to make sure OTHERS don't suffer and die for me. If the cafeteria at your school isn't offering enough veg food, get some students together and walk into the cafeteria office and ASK for more veg food. No need to scream or yell or protest, just peacefully demand that they cater to you and your fellow vegetarians/vegans. Rice and beans are super cheap, too, and easy to cook. And so are lentils. You might sometimes have to bring to school a lunch or dinner that you made at home, thereby consuming valuable time that you might have spent studying, or partying; but consider the victim's point of view. If YOU were destined to be imprisoned, enslaved, tortured, and finally killed, wouldn't you pray that somebody else would make that effort so you don't have to suffer and die?

Don't forget about the veggie sub at Subway (order it on Italian bread). Order the bean burrito without cheese at Taco Bell, too. It is the cheapest fast-food item around, and it's vegan. The veggie sub at Subway is also the cheapest item on their menu. If you order a cheeseless pizza at Papa John's (their sauce and dough are vegan), it is the same price as a pizza with cheese. When eating at ethnic restaurants, you'll find that their vegan items are the same price or cheaper than the meat entrées. So there is no extra expense there.

Veganism is easy as pie once you get used to it. So keep thinking compassionately and logically about this issue and you will be vegan before you know it.

Let me just add this for clarity's sake about dealing with people who might give you a hard time with your new lifestyle. Unethical people—whether they are friends, family members, or strangers—should not be advising ethical people on how to live their lives. You need to do what you now know to be true. So don't let others bring you down. Misery loves company; those who still eat flesh are drowning in misery, and would love some company. So stay strong. The animals are counting on you to make compassionate decisions.

I do have some bad news, though. Friends and family ARE the toughest people to talk to about veganism. Naturally, this hurts the most because they are the closest to us. But there is hope. My sister, who is now vegetarian, and my father, who made the transition to total veganism, changed their lifestyles years after we stopped discussing the issue. So you never know when logic will break through.

First and foremost, you MUST learn the facts about veganism. I recommend using my website to get all the info—and all the arguments—you will need to refute the lies that people will throw your way. Start with the articles on this webpage, All About Veganism. And then you can peruse the Other Animal Rights Issues page to find info about all the other issues involving animals.

I lost every meat-eating friend I had along the way, except ONE! My best friend for the last 28 years, Darin, is still my best friend, even though he still eats meat. You will find out quickly who your REAL friends are. Darin never argues with me, and always likes to eat vegan food with me. He looks me in the eye and tells me I am right about EVERYTHING, and that he has no arguments at all. And then he honestly admits that he is just "too lazy to change." I despise that type of apathy, but at least he is being honest about why he still eats flesh, instead of using trite lies and excuses like "God says it's okay" or "it's healthy." Just so you know, some vegans allow others to eat meat in front of them. I choose not to. My table is always veg. I, for the record, do not condemn fellow vegans who want to let others eat flesh in front of them because they want to show them how good vegan food truly is, and make them (subliminally) feel guilty about their flesh sandwich. This will be your decision.

I do not have a magical remedy for making friends, strangers or family listen. But if you ALWAYS speak the truth, know your facts, and let your passion come out, people WILL listen. Please do NOT hide your passion, or your emotions. Passion and emotion get a bad rap, but that's only because people respond to both, so the unethical people in our society are always trying to mock people for being passionate and emotional. Remember, Susan B. Anthony, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, and many, many others, were ALL passionate and emotional about the causes they embraced.

A website called VegFamily.com might offer some help with friends and family. Let me also offer this advice: Don't drive yourself insane with people who refuse to listen. Try and try and give it your best, and give them a chance to comprehend everything, but if you see NO progress at all, then STOP banging your head against the wall with those people, and MOVE ON to someone else. I guarantee that OTHERS are thirsting for knowledge, insight, and enlightenment. Your job is to find those people, and inform them. I stopped talking about veganism with my sister and my dad YEARS before they switched because they NEVER listened (or they apparently weren't listening), and then one day it made sense to them. So don't think your words can't make a difference even many years later. Plant the seed, then hope it grows.

As Gandhi once said, "Even if you are only one person, the TRUTH is still the truth." The strongest people stand alone. And no matter how many others you convert, you HAVE made a difference by going vegetarian/vegan. You might want to memorize a few quotes (on the Other Animal Rights Issues page) from prominent vegans/vegetarians, and use these quotes to introduce your new conversations.

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The Garden of Vegan

Veganism can resurrect Eden and create heaven on Earth. We can have a place where humans view animals in awe and animals view humans with a curious aloofness. It's time to reconnect to the natural world for the sake of the animals, the environment and humanity. Protecting the weak is the first step to enlightenment and being truly civilized. Without animal liberation, as author Milan Kundera explains, there can be no peace on Earth: "Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test which lies deeply buried from view, consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."

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