If it’s good enough for Gandhi, Confucius and Nikita...

"A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore, if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite."

~ Leo Tolstoy


As if I’m not already vulnerable enough to accusations of being holier-than-thou and prone to bouts of self-righteousness, I’ve finally decided to join Nikita and Anita on the vegetarian bandwagon.

Nikita’s been avoiding meat since last summer; Anita signed on a few weeks ago.

The clincher for me occurred last weekend when I watched “Temple Grandin,” the HBO movie starring an utterly amazing Claire Danes as the autistic and inspirational designer of more efficient cattle transportation systems for stockyards and slaughterhouses.

I was reminded of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser’s illuminating, compelling 2002 book that skewers America’s fast food industry and includes horrifying descriptions of conditions inside this country’s meatpacking plants. That alone is reason for me to take the leap – a leap which is shorter than ever, thanks to more vegetarian choices in stores and restaurants and access to vegetarian recipes and information on the net.

A quick Google search uncovered the following:

• Vegetarians live an average of seven years longer than meat eaters.

• Cardiovascular disease is the Number One killer in the United States; a diet laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat and diary is largely to blame.

• Replacing meat, chicken and fish with fruits and vegetables cuts food bills by an average of $4,000/year.

• According to the National Cancer Institute, women who eat meat every day are nearly four times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don't. And studies have found that a plant-based diet helps protect against prostate, colon and skin cancers.

• Vegetarians are slimmer on average than meat eaters, and when vegetarians diet, they – I guess I should start saying “we” – keep the weight off up to seven years longer.

• Giving up meat helps purge our bodies of toxins like pesticides, environmental pollutants and preservatives.

• It’s ethically the right thing to do: 22 million animals are slaughtered each day to support the American appetite for meat.

• Each year, factory farms in America produce, collectively, two billion tons of manure.

• More than 70 percent of all grain produced in the U.S. is currently fed to animals raised for slaughter, and it takes 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. If the grain were given directly to people, there'd be enough food to feed the entire planet.

• Using land for animal agriculture is inefficient. According to the journal Soil and Water, one acre of land could produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes or 30,000 pounds of carrots as compared to just 250 pounds of beef.

• The argument that you need to eat meat in order to get enough protein is specious. One hundred calories of steak has 5.4 grams of protein; 100 calories of broccoli has 11.2 grams. You can get enough protein from eating greens.

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly 95 percent of pesticide residue in our diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. Fish contain carcinogens like PCBs and DDT and heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, lead and cadmium that can’t be removed through cooking or freezing. Meat and dairy products are also laced with steroids and hormones.

• We spend between $60 billion and $120 billion each year treating the heart disease, cancer, obesity and food poisoning that are byproducts of a diet heavy on animal products.

• It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, but just 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat.

I find this information more than a little persuasive but I know it can fall on deaf ears. And the fact that some of the brightest and coolest people in history didn’t or don’t eat meat – people like Confucius, Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka, Nikola Tesla, Plato, Mahatma Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Leonardo Da Vinci, Tolstoy, Jane Goodall, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Natalie Portman and Pamela Anderson – won’t sway those who embrace the status quo, are afraid of change or think ridiculing wisdom somehow diminishes it.

I love bacon, chili dogs and cheeseburgers as much as the next guy. I enjoy grilling steaks, salmon and shish kebob on my big ol’ Char-Broil each summer and I’m not looking forward to giving that up. I know how important hunting is to my state’s economy and I respect the right of others to see things differently than I do. I’m not becoming an animal rights zealot or a purist who intends to stop wearing leather shoes or using shampoo that was tested on animals.

I’ve just decided to follow the example of my 12-year-old by eating better and having a little more respect for non-human animals.

So let the mocking and chiding begin.

Sources: PETA, Vegetarian Times, Soil and Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, vegsource.com.