Kumarpal and Hemchandracharya Diwakar Chitrakatha 041

Author(s): Nityanandsuri, Chidanandmuni, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Mahavir Seva Trust Mumbai

Page 35

101 Reasons WHY I'M A Vegetarian
contd..........
56. An animal at the top of the food chain will accumulate in its own flesh and fat most of all the toxic substances of its prey, its prey's prey, and so on. Due to the excessive use of pesticides, insecticides and petrochemical fertilizers on cropland, the injection of hormones and antibiotics into farm animals, and the abundance of PCB's and mercury in our oceans, there is toxicity in the flesh of all animals people eat. Today, more than ever, it is wise to eat "low on the food chain," with plant food being the lowest and safest.
57. A diet without meat can help prevent diabetes, relieve the symptoms of diabetes and can even end the need for insulin treatments. 58. Detection of salmonella is not required of meat packers by the USDA. There is not a single plant in the country that inspects for it. CBS's "60 Minutes" found half of the chickens they randomly bought at a super-market contaminated with salmonellosis.
59. Jim Mason and Peter Singer write in their book Animal Factories, "Instead of hired hands, the factory farmer employs pumps, fans, switches, slatted or wire floors, and automatic feeding and watering hardware." Managers, as with any other capital intensive system, will be concerned with the "cost of input and volume of output...[T]he difference is that in animal factories the product is a living creature."
60. The digestive system of the natural carnivore is designed for flesh. The human system is designed for plant food digestion. From the inadequate amount of acidity in human saliva, bile in the human liver and acid in the human stomach, to the relatively small size of the human kidneys, it is clear that the natural diet for humans is vegetarian.
61. What happens to the male calf born of a dairy cow? He is taken immediately after birth to
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a veal factory and locked up by his head in a stall to prevent him from turning around for his entire life. He is fed a special diet without iron or roughage. He is injected with antibiotics to keep him alive and hormones to make him grow. He is kept in darkness except for feeding time. The result? A nearly full-grown animal with flesh as tender and milky white as a newborn's. The beauty of the system from the standpoint of the veal industry is that today's veal still fetches the premium price it always did when such precious flesh came only from a baby calf. 62. Agricultural engineers have compared the
energy costs of producing poultry, pork and other meats with the energy costs of producing a number of plant foods. It was found that even the least efficient plant food was nearly 10 times as efficient in returning food energy as the most energy efficient animal food.
63. Unlike natural carnivores who can eat
excessive quantities of saturated fat without developing clogged arteries, humans, as well as herbivores, invariably develop atherosclerosis with saturated fat in their
diets.
64. Unorganized groups of immigrant laborers of
different ethnic origin, are generally pitted against each other by modern meat packing plants. The plants also make conditions so intolerable and dangerous that even immigrant laborers leave the industry. The high turnover serves to insulate companies from union organizing. It also serves to minimize meat inspection, the job done more and more by meat packer employees, and less and less. by USDA inspectors.
65. Food originating from animal sources, including milk, unlike most vegetarian foods, makes the blood acidic. When this happens,