Ahimsa is not Religion It is way of Life

Author(s): Clare Rosenfield, Linda Segall
Publisher: Clare Rosenfield and Linda Segall

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The choice of a vegetarian diet is an expression of a sincere consideration for the ecology of the planet as well. It suggests a more equitable means to produce, share, and distribute food among all nations. The growing of plants produces more food per person on less land. It takes seven acres of grazing land and ten pounds of vegetable protein to end up with one pound of meat, whereas only one acre of land can harvest four hundred fifty pounds of soy protein.
Millions of acres of land throughout the world could be brought under the plough and tilled while the practice of breeding animals diminishes. Then, soil erosion due to overgrazing can be halted, and high-quality foods such as corn, wheat, rye, and soybeans which are forced fed to cows and pigs in an effort to fatten them quickly could be used directly to feed starving people.
Even the amount of water needed to produce one pound of meat is at least twenty times and sometimes one hundred times as much as is needed to produce one pound of wheat or rice. Slaughtering animals requires hundreds of millions of gallons of water everyday. The wastes in these places, estimated at about two billion tons a year, mostly end up in waterways, polluting and killing thousands of fish, and creating a human health problem.*
The Jain practice of Aparigraha or non-hoarding is part of the way of Reverence for All Life. It encourages
*The information on ecology and health hazards was gleaned from Vegetarianism A Way of Life, by Dudley Giehl, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1979.
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