Health Cost

Worldwide

Heart Disease: 1 trillion (US $/year)

Diabetes: 174 billion (US $/year)

United States

Colon Caner: 6.5 billion (US $/year)

Obesity: 93 billion (US $/year)

Total: 120-150 billion (US $/year)

RESOURCES:
United States Leads World Meat Stampede
(World Watch Institute)
Report Targets Costs Of Factory Farming
(Washington Post)
Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America(PDF)

Mad Cow Diease

• Heart Disease

• Diabetes

• Obesity

• Colon Cancer

• Blue Tongue Disease

• E Coli

• Salmonella

• Bird Flu

• Mad Cow Disease

• Pig’s Disease (PMWS)

• Listeriosis (most deadly, and on the rise)

• Shellfsh Poisoning

• Pre-eclampsia (complications in pregnancy)

• Most viruses have zoonotic origin

and more…

RESOURCES:
Various Shellfish-Associated Toxins
(US Food and Drug Administration)
Farming: Notifiable diseases
Zoonoses: Diseases
(Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs)
Meat, Pre-eclamsia, Campylobacter
(Wikipedia)
Listeria poisoning almost double
(Independent)

1 can of tuna fish a week raises your mercury levels 30% above
what is considered to be safe.

Eating fish means ingesting toxins such as mercury, lead, arsenic, PCBs, DDT, dioxins, and many other chemicals.

Contaminants in fish can lead to brain damage, memory loss, personality change, heart problems, spontaneous abortion, and damage to a developing fetus.

RESOURCES:
Top Three Reasons Not to Eat Fish 
(PeTA TV)
Fish to Avoid During Childbearing Years
(Care2)
Rich folks eating fish feed on mercury too
'Healthy diet' clearly isn't
(San Francisco Chronicle)

Water Pollution

1.3 billion tons of animal waste produced in the U.S.

Pollution strength up to 160 times greater than raw municipal waste.

Animal wastes contribute to large oceanic “dead zones,” which extended to nearly 7,903 sq. miles in the Gulf of Mexico during Summer of 2007.

In the U.S. alone, livestock is responsible for:

• 55% of erosion and sediment
• 37% of pesticide use
• 50% of antibiotic use
• 33% of nitrogen and phosphorus in freshwater

RESOURCES:
America's Animal Factories
How States Fail to Prevent Pollution from Livestock Wast
(Natural Resources Defense Council)
NOAA and Louisiana Scientists Predict
Largest Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone” on Record This Summer
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Livestock’s Long Shadow(executive summary, p.xxii)
(UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2007)

Starvation

Every 2.3 seconds, a child dies from malnutrition.

The 760 million tonnes of grain fed to animals could cover the global food shortage 14 times.

1 hectare of land produces:

• potatoes to support 22 people
• rice to support 19 people
• lamb to support 2 people
• beef to support 1 person

Malnutrition costs US$ 20-30 billion a year globally.

RESOURCES:
UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children, 2006
Lester R. Brown, Outgrowing the Earth, chap. 3, W.W. Norton & Co., 2005
WHO/FAO, Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic disease.
(Report of the Joint WHO/FAO expert consultation, 26 April 2002)
http://www.muslimahwritersalliance.com/projects/mwa_hunger_awareness_newsletter_06.pdf
http://www.globalissues.org/article/7/causes-of-hunger-are-related-to-poverty
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/0/5/0/p100501_index.html

Obese

The average American eats more then 2,400 animals in a lifetime.

(2,287 chickens, 92 turkeys, 31 pigs, and 12 steers & calves)

Conversion inefficiency of meat production:

16 pounds of grain used to produce 1 pound of beef.

RESOURCES:
Ingrid Newkirk
An Interview With Kids Can Save the Animals
(VegetarianTeen.com)
Food Revolution, John Robbins, 2001.(p.293)

Healthy Diet

• Lower blood pressure
• Lower cholesterol levels
• Reduce type 2 diabetes
• Prevent stroke conditions
• Reverse atherosclerosis
• Reduce heart disease risk - 50%
• Reduce heart surgery risk - 80%
• Prevent many forms of cancer
• Stronger immune system
• Increase life expectancy up to 15 years
• Higher IQ

RESOURCES:
Vegetarian Diets
(American Dietetic Association)
Preventive Medicine Research Institute
There Is a Cure for Diabetes The Tree of Life 21 Day Program
(DiabetesDietFood.net)
High IQ link to being vegetarian
(BBC News)