Angående vegetarism

“Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have since an early age abjured the use of meat.”

Leonardo Da Vinci

En av många faktorer som attraherade mig till vaisnaiva-filosofin (Krishna-medvetande) var den konsekvent medlidsamma attityden gentemot andra levande varelser. En vaisnava äter inte kött, fisk eller ägg.

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I Krishna-medvetande finns inget av den högfärd som placerar människan på en piedestal, som vore vi de enda levande varelserna som förtjänar barmhärtighet och medlidande; något som vi däremot gärna förnekar djuren.

Det är svårt att förstå de som kallar sig religiösa och predikar godhet och kärlek till nästan, samtidigt som de skickar djuren till slakthuset. Man försöker döva samvetet med att säga att djuren skall slaktas på ett "värdigt" sätt. Jag begriper då inte vad som skulle kunna vara ett "värdigt" sätt att ta andras liv.

Någon värdig död syns inte till i denna ögonvittnesskildring från ett svenskt slakteri. Det är ingen rolig läsning, men kanske ändå nödvändig för alla dem som helst stoppar huvudet i sanden i den här frågan:

http://www.jensholm.se/gammal/?artikelarkiv&tidning=3&artikel=42

Inget djur kommer levande härifrån

ur Djurens Rätt, 5/02

Lite andra aspekter på vegetarism:

http://www.dandavats.com/?p=3840
ANATOMY
Let us compare some of the physiological features of flesh eaters, planteaters & human beings:

Features of flesh eaters

- Intestinal tract only 3 times bodylength, so rapidly decaying meat can pass out of body quickly.

- Small salivary glands in the mouth( not needed to predigest grains and fruits )

- Acid saliva; no enzyme ptyalin top redigest grains

- No flat back molar teeth to grind food

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Features of Plant eaters

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- Intestinal tract 10-12 times bodylength, fruits do not decay as rapidly, so can pass more slowly through body.

- Well developed salivary glands,needed to predigest grains & fruits

- Alkaline saliva; much ptyalin to predigest grains

- Flat back molar teeth to grind food

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Features of human beings

- Intestinal tract 12 times bodylength

- Well developed salivary glandsneeded to predigest grains & fruits

- Alkaline saliva; much ptyalin to predigest grains.

- Flat back molar teeth to grind food.

HEALTH
Due to their unnatural diet meat-eating human beings are far more susceptible to diseases and disorders as compared to their vegetarian counterparts. Comprehensive investigations by groups such as the National Academy of Sciences have linked meat eating to cancer, and the Journal of American Medicine reports: “90-97% of heart disease could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.”

ENVIRONMENT
Meat eating also has hazardous effects on the environment, such as forest destruction, agricultural inefficiency, soil erosion and desertification, airpollution, water depletion and water pollution.

WORLD HUNGER
Consider the following data. One thousand acres of Soyabeans yield 1124 pound of usable protein. One thousand acres of rice yield 938 pound of usable protein. One thousand acres of corn yield 1009 pound of usable protein. One thousand acres of wheat yield 1043 pound of usable protein. Now consider: this one thousand acres of Soyabeans, corn, rice or wheat, when fed to a steer, will yield only about 125 pounds of usable protein.
These and other findings point to a disturbing conclusion: meat eating is directly related to world hunger.

A few statistics are as follows -
If all the Soyabeans and grains fed yearly to U. S. livestock were set aside for human consumption, it would feed 1.3 billion people.
It takes 16 pounds of grains and Soyabeans to produce 1 pound of beef. Therefore about 20 vegetarians can be fed on the land that it takes to feed 1 meat eater.

Feeding the average meat eater requires about 4,200 gallons of water per day, versus 1,200 gallons per day for lacto-vegetarian diet.
While it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat.

Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer has estimated that reducing meat production by just 10 percent would release enough grain to feed 60 million people.
In summary, millions will continue to die of thirst or starvation, while a privileged few consume vast amounts of proteins wasting land and water in the process. Ironically, this same meat is their own bodys’ worst enemy.

“When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity.”
George Bernard Shaw