The inflammatory title of this essay is intended to attract attention to a presentation of facts that indicate that not only is meat (and dairy) killing innocent animals but that it is killing human beings and the earth itself. Many diets, such as gluten-free and paleo, etc. have been proposed which I find to be distractions from the fundamental issue, which is the way that the promotion of producing and consuming animals products has become an addictive dogma that is destroying both human health and committing terricide. Meat and dairy not only causes premature death (see the Loma Linda and China studies) but create more greenhouse gases than vehicle emissions and are polluting our soil, our rivers, and our oceans.
Nature.org reports: "Extremely heavy rains and melting snows washed massive amounts of nutrients--particularly nitrogen and phosphorus--from lawns, sewage treatment plants, farm land and other sources along the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. Once in the Gulf, these nutrients, which are required for plant and crop growth, trigger algae blooms that choke off oxygen in water and make it difficult, if not impossible, for marine life to survive."
These nutrients are produced from petroleum products and are in over 97% of meat produced in the US.
Susainabletable.org reports: "A big part of the answer is in the rapid and radical twentieth-century transformation of our food system from sustainably based, locally focused production, to a fossil-fuel addicted industrialized system. Agriculture has changed more in the past two generations than it did in the previous 12,000 years. Unfortunately for us, almost every single aspect of our modern industrial system creates greenhouse gas emissions."
Adding insult to injury, deforestation of vibrant tropical forests land to grow soy and corn feedstock wears out the soil of nutrients in 1 year, leaving depleted eroding soil behind. The process contributes 18% of global warming emissions, as the debris of logged forest skyrockets termite populations which, in a vicious cycle, produce even more methane.
For example:
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