Dimensions of Vegan Diet

Every day 2 million animals are slaughtered, that’s 730 million animals a year.

These numbers not only illustrate the cruelty of a civilization. This enormous number of animals in industrial livestock farming must be fed before slaughter. 

The rainforests are burning. Instead of producing oxygen, Co2 is emitted into the atmosphere. Why is this happening? 

The fire-cleared areas in the rainforests are converted into arable land. By far the most important crop is the soybean. Eighty percent of the world’s soy comes from the Amazon basin. (2) The soybean is the main feed for animals in industrial livestock farming. These animals, in turn, are being eaten by civilized countries at an increasing rate. 

In other words, large parts of the rainforest are being burned down to satisfy the meat hunger of Western countries.

The excrement of such a large number of animals from industrial livestock farming causes additional problems and, according to different estimates, accounts for 25-40 percent of environmental pollution. And this figure refers only to the excreta. 

Plant food resources are also polluted. With 13 pounds of grain fed, only 1 pound of meat can be produced. The grain in the stomachs of farm animals, is no longer available to the starving people and peoples of this world.  While livestock are being fed and fattened at great expense, people are starving. With the same food that is fed to cattle, pigs and poultry, namely soy and grain, the hunger of this world could be satisfied. And with the same logistics, the transportation of this food could be transported to the starving people instead of to breeding farms.

By eliminating or even reducing the consumption of meat and milk,   

the resources of water, grain and farmland can be used to feed far more people more directly and better than by going through the stomachs of so-called farm animals. 

can contamination of our environment be mitigated. Alone the excrements of farm animals contributes according to different data, with 25% – 40% to the environmental pollution by faeces, methane gases and the enormous waste of water. 

Animals would be spared the cruel life, which goes along with the mass animal husbandry. 

Contrary to common assumptions, by eliminating or at least reducing meat and dairy consumption, we can grant far better health and rid ourselves of the diseases of affluent society, almost all of which are due to poor nutrition.

Vegan diet offers an integrative and comprehensive answer to some important problems of the time. 

• health problems
• hunger in this world       
• environmental protection  
• animal welfare

Vegan nutrition and environmental protection

The China Study:

The China Study is a scientific study first published in the USA in 2004 under the name “China Study”. It was authored by T. Collin Campbell PhD and Thomas M. Campbell and it is an international long-term nutritional study that is unique in its scope and over such a long period of time. It should be emphasized that this study was not commissioned by the food industry, which greatly reduces the possibility of manipulated and falsified results.

This study is a joint project 

• of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York State in the USA, 
• Oxford University in England, and 
• the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine (3) A total of 8000 significant associations between dietary factors and disease were uncovered.

In addition, during a period of 27 years, investigations and long-term studies were conducted or sponsored by the following institutes:

• National Institute of Health (NIH) in the U.S.
• American Cancer Society in the USA and the 
• American Institute for Cancer Research in the USA (4) In fact, these studies are the first and so far the only basic blind and double-blind study. A total of 750 references (5) were used for this study.  

Of particular note in this study is the correlation of so-called diseases of civilization, such as diabetes, and disease of the cardiovascular system, as well as the clogging of the corona vessels due to the ever-increasing consumption of animal proteins. 

The study shows that diseases of the cardiovascular system are directly and immediately related to the consumption of animal proteins. In fact, it was even proven that the deposits in the vessels can be reversed by vegan nutrition, i.e. that even a damaged organism can be healed by vegan nutrition. This applies also and above all to heavy and heaviest cardiovascular diseases. This is important to know. Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the Western civilized world. This makes it all the more important to realize how much we can influence our state of health with our diet.

In conclusion, this study concludes that all animal proteins, including those from dairy products, do immense damage to the human organism.

“There are virtually no nutrients in foods of animal origin that are not provided in a better form by plants (6).” 

Therefore, vegan diet is strongly recommended. 

Possible residues of drugs and pesticides in meat and dairy products.

Thyrostatic drugs: Debt gland medication given to pigs in fattening for rapid growth.

Painkillers: these are administered so that animals in fattening can endure their much too rapid growth without pain.

Growth hormones: banned in the EU, still used in the US Canada and Australia. These hormones remain in the meat. They are carcinogenic, can damage genetic material, hinder women’s menstrual cycles and impede fetal growth.

Antibiotics: “The controversial use of antibiotics in animal fattening has a greater extent than assumed, according to estimates by the German Ministry of Agriculture. “Previously, estimates assumed that about 780 tons of antibiotics were administered in livestock farming nationwide each year,” a ministry spokesman said in Berlin. “We assume that the actual amount used is even higher.” The background is an ongoing first-time record of exactly how many veterinary medicines are placed on the market. The new figures should also show in which regions antibiotics are used particularly intensively.” (7) 

Coccidiostats: a special antibiotic designed to rapidly build muscle in fattening animals. Now banned in Germany. If these substances get into the human body through food, this causes: permanent fatigue, depression and cardiovascular problems.

Glucocorticoids: are steroid hormones from the adrenal cortex. These are given mainly to chickens to strengthen the heart. In Germany, the administration of this drug is strictly controlled.  But even small doses in the human body cause cardiovascular problems, bone loss, weight gain, diabetes and stomach ulcers.

Psychotropic drugs and sedatives are administered to mother sows. In Germany and the EU, this treatment is banned. The result for humans is fatigue and listlessness.” (8)

It is self-explanatory that meat consumers are at the end of the food chain and therefore ingest all the toxins that are found both in the form of fertilizers and pesticides in the fed plants and in all those substances that enter the body tissues of farm animals with various diseases and medical treatments of farm animals.  Large parts of these substances are not excreted, but remain in the body tissues of the animals that are offered to humans as food. 

A word about dairy products

Many people think of milk as a healthy and natural food. In most minds there is still the image of the happy cow living on a small farm and being part of the farming family and milk from just such cows would somehow end up in our refrigerators.

In the book by Ruediger Dalke “Peacefood”, a different picture is drawn of how the milk that comes to the table in the West and to buy in the supermarket. The image of an idyllic farm and milk from a cow living there is not longer true.

The milk from thousands of cows is mixed together. To make butter and cheese, all the fat is first removed from the milk. In order to add fat to it, often enough cheap fat is taken and illegally sometimes the fat of pigs. In other words, milk from industrial animal husbandry can no longer be understood as a vegetarian food. (9) Rather it is actually and also in the transferred sense a huge mess, which has nothing to do with healthy nutrition.

This information is confirmed by the (German) Federal Center for Nutrition (10). However, the information of the German Federal Center for Nutrition the hygiene and the sterility of the milk is the main issue, which, however, basically does not change anything about the individual processing steps.

Furthermore, there are no known examples from nature that prove that living beings regularly consume the milk of another species.

Even more bad news for vegetarians is that the dairy industry is also quite bloody, and involves a lot of suffering for the animals.  A cow, like any other mammal, can only produce milk when it gives birth to a calf, which in the case of dairy cows is usually removed from its mother immediately after birth. The milk, which was intended by nature for the calf, is now misappropriated and serves as food for humans. Many calves are doomed to die. Sooner or later it makes its way to the slaughterhouse, often no older than five days after birth. This tender age also ensures that its back muscles are offered as a tender delicacy for sale in the refrigerated shelves. 

Motherhood is important also for animals. Because also in the animal kingdom motherhood is connected with birth and creation and/or motherhood makes creation and the continuance of a kind only possible. Who does not respect motherhood literally saws at the branch on which he sits. Humans are children of nature. Just as parasites kill the host at some point, that is how humans do it too if we do not remember mother nature, where we come from.

It does not matter at all whether we experience nature as something supersensible, regard it as divine or not. Nature has its laws, and man is better off sticking to the laws of nature. 

The dairy industry, as it exists today, is an incredible abuse of the animal but also an abuse of motherhood in general. To every hunt belong closed seasons, in which wild life can recover and the offspring has time to grow up. Indigenous peoples do not kill pregnant and dams with young, if possible. Killing mother animals or just born offspring is considered a disgrace everywhere in the world. 

Only in the so-called western/civilized countries, it is seen differently. We have developed a culture of food, which has the daily abuse and the daily mistreatment of animals as a foundation of your culture. This has little to do with civilization, because the principles, and this includes motherhood even in animals, of life are not respected.

This deplorable state of affairs cannot be compared with those peasant traditions in which the cow was a part of the family and the household. The cow was respected, it was fed and in return it gave its milk for the children and for the production of butter. Here the cow was part of the same energy field in which the family members and the entire household resided. This is also where the teaching of Ayur Veda is located. This nutritional doctrine was created at a time when peasant society was common. This image is completely different, it is balanced and beneficial to all and is therefore healthy.

Vegan diet and environmental protection

What does vegan nutrition have to do with environmental protection? 

The connection between nutrition and the environment is immediate and elementary. This becomes clear on closer inspection.

Humans have always changed the environment through their diet. Farming and animal husbandry have shaped the landscapes in which humans live for thousands of years. Humans shape their environment by the way they live. The larger the human community was, the larger areas were cultivated, made arable or used for livestock. Currently, seven billion people live on planet Earth, which has a massive and far-reaching effect on the environment, on the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom. In recent decades, agriculture and animal husbandry have mutated into an industry. As behind all industries and all corporations, there are also economic interests that try to exert their influence in the media and in politics. 

Through advertising, the consumer is still led to believe in the happy living cow. For example, a cow or a pig smiles happily at us from livestock transporters, even if it is a transport to the slaughterhouse. And although actually everyone knows that the image of the happy cow or the happy pig has not been correct for decades, it still somehow calms doubts and consciences. 

Many people wonder if and how they could participate in solving the problems of mankind. Many would even be happy and relieved if they knew how this could be done in a simple way.

The book “Diet for a smal Planet” is probably the first book to describe a direct connection between nutrition and its impact on the environment. Everyone has to eat and decides every day and at every meal again what one eats and consumes. Thus everyone  has a considerable influence. Purchasing behavior and dietary habits are an economic factor that should not be underestimated. How and what we eat has a direct influence on our health, but also on politics, environmental protection and animal welfare. (11) 

In most industrialized nations, meat consumption has remained relatively constant at a high level for decades. While almost 60 kilograms per person will be eaten in Germany in 2019, the figure in the USA and Australia is more than 100 kilograms. For some years, demand has been falling slightly in some industrialized countries due to increasing concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. (12) 

Intensive meat production is not only distressing for the animals and pollutes the environment, but at the same time gobbles up huge amounts of raw materials that we import as feed from countries in the global South. (13)   

For this reason, humans have a great responsibility in how they harness nature to feed themselves. This has a more far-reaching and elementary impact on the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom and therefore four ourselves than humans are usually aware of.

Germany, for example, was once a primarily forested landscape, whereas today it is primarily agricultural. 

The entire Midwest of the United States, the great prairies, was transformed into the breadbasket of the world in the short period of 100 years. Crops and livestock not only contribute to the change of the environment, they also have a remarkably large share in the environmental pollution as it exists today. 

This is especially true for industrial livestock production. The contribution of industrial livestock to pollution in air, water and soil is up to 40%.  In various statistics, these figures vary, but are usually adjusted upward.

In his book “Vegetarian Life”, Armin Risi, with Ronald Zürrer, proves that our planet could easily feed all of the 7- 8 billion people living on it. In fact, the planet is capable of feeding far more people. But the planet is not able to feed 7 – 8 billion meat consumers. (14) 

The extent of the current meat consumption led us to the present ecological catastrophe. At this point, unfortunately, a short enumeration of all those environmental destructions must suffice, which has a direct connection with meat consumption and/or the nutrition of the meat producer to do. 

• Clearing

“The rainforests of Amazonia and Southeast Asia are being cleared to make room for cattle farms and for the cultivation of animal feed, on which European agriculture urgently depends.” (15) “For a single hamburger, four to five square meters of rainforest must be converted into pasture or farmland.” (16)  

• Overfertilization

“In 2004, the livestock population in Germany includes about 15.7 million cattle, 23.7 million pigs and 2.5, million sheep. For decades, this unnaturally high number of pigs and cattle has produced vast amounts of manure, millions of liters, are dumped annually on the fields, not to fertilize the fields, but to ‘dispose’ of the manure.” (17)

• Water waste and water pollution

“Humanity needs water for all types of agricultural production.” According to current figures of the UNESCO organization IHE (2008), 700 liters of water are needed m producing 1 kg of apples, 900 liters for 1 kg of potatoes, 1300 liters for a kg of cereals / bread, but 3000 liters for 1 kg of eggs, 4800 liters for 1 kg of pork and 15 500 liters for 1 kg of beef (fattening, cleaning of stables, slaughterhouse). This means that 4000 liters (about 1000 gallon) of water are needed to produce a 250 g steak. (18)  

Here only the most important points are named. But against this background, the reader can certainly easily deduce further consequences of industrial livestock farming, such as poisoning of the soil and food that grows on it, the microorganisms in the soil die off, erosion is the result, biodiversity is destroyed, water pollution on an unimaginable scale, which due to overfertilization enters the rivers and oceans and causes fish kills there. Methane gas is a by-product of digestion and the sheer number of livestock excreting this gas contributes to more than 18% of greenhouse gases on average.

Vegan food and the hunger in this world

The diagram below is called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

It was developed by the US-American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). It describes human needs and motivations (in a hierarchical structure) and attempts to explain them (19).

 Hierarchy of needs by Maslow (19)  (Wikipedia)

As can be seen from this pyramid, the physiological needs of humans are the most important needs that must be met. These physiological needs include the air we breathe, the water we drink, food, clothing and shelter.

Only after these needs are secured do other needs gain importance. These include the need for security, and later, social needs.

Or to put it another way, if a child, a teenager or even an adult is plagued by hunger and thirst, and has no one to take care of them, and these fundamental needs cannot be secured for the near future either, they will hardly have the need to want to go to school.

If we compare today’s living conditions of about, 7.3 billion people with this pyramid of needs, cruel facts become clear.

According to the report of the UN Development Program UNDP “Human Development Report 2014” (20), 1.5 billion people live in so-called multidimensional poverty, of which 800 million are exceedingly threatened. There is a lack of food, clean water, shelter, health care and ultimately education. Additional threats arise from natural disasters and climate change.

Leading Social Philosophers:

There are two leading social philosophers who have addressed this discrepancy

• Thomas Pogge
• Peter Singer

Thomas Pogge: Basic needs are not secured at:
830 million people or more are undernourished
1100 million people have no clean drinking water
2000 million people have insufficient access to medical care
2000 million people do not have adequate shelter
2600 million people have no sanitation facilities
796 million adults are illiterate

250 million children between the ages of 14-15 work outside the home. (21) “People of non-white color, women and children are massively overrepresented among the world’s poor and thus suffer the most staggering effects of poverty. Children under the age of five account for nearly 60% or 10.6 million of poverty-related deaths (Unicef 2005 blurb). The disproportionate number of women has also been documented. (UNPD 2003, UNRISF 2005, Social Watch 2005 (22). In other words, half of the world’s human population suffers lack of the most basic needs. This also means that at least one third of people die prematurely from one or more of the causes listed above. (23)  

Peter Singer and The Ethic of what we eat:

The consumption of animal products, especially the consumption of meat increases hunger in this world. The animal rights organization PETA gives the following facts and figures in its trial subscription:

• “For one animal calorie, 12 plant calories are fed to the animal”.
• “For one calorie from a chicken egg, 4 plant calories are fed to the chicken”.
• “For one calorie from milk or milk product, 7 plant calories are fed to the cow”. (24)

In view of the hunger in this world, such figures leave one speechless.  Furthermore, the reader should always keep in mind that for the production of such quantities of food, also the necessary burdens for the environment accompany, such as the consumption of water, the disposal of feces, etc..This load would be naturally around 40% smaller, would be omitted the grain production for cattle fodder. (25)

One possible example:

Somewhere in the Amazon basin or elsewhere on earth, a few hectares of rainforest are cleared. As is it well known, this destroys a piece of the lungs of this earth. With it also the basis of life of many different animal species, which in most cases have no other refuge to find and no other habitat and thus face extinction. The clearing of one hectare of rainforest simultaneously destroys the livelihood of the people who live there. Instead of the rainforest, soy is now being cultivated, which is not available to the people there.

Even if they are starving and have no other sources of food, the soy harvest is shipped to the rich industrial nations and serves here as food for industrially kept farm animals.

Vegan nutrition and animal welfare

Unimaginable atrocities and unimaginable torturous keeping conditions must suffer farm animals, only to please the palate of man. To torture animals or to allow this is contemptuous of life. 

The impact of vegan diets on animal welfare is profound and is the most effective method in animal welfare to ensure the protection of wildlife and farm animals. It is the most effective method, for the conservation of species and biodiversity. It is further the most effective method to prevent and prohibit the suffering of so-called farm animals. 

Even though domesticated animals became livestock for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways, ensuring the survival of previous generations, there is no rational reason to reduce livestock to an industrial commodity. Animals are our fellow creatures and important to humanity, not only in their immediate utility. As fellow creatures they have their own right to exist, which should be respected by all people. 

• To regard animals as raw material is a sign of the increasing brutalization of mankind. All this has nothing to do with civilization and culture in the true sense of the word.

• Keeping animals as livestock is an acceptable state of affairs in itself, as long as man gives something back to the animal for its performance, such as milk and wool.

• An unacceptable condition is the exploitation of animals, combined with a deep disregard and the nature and needs of animals and the individual animal. This is already commonplace in today’s world and begins with pet keeping, horse keeping, etc.

• An inconceivable increase of this condition is the industrial farm animal husbandry, in which animals are considered from the outset as “raw material””. They are born into a life, which means from the beginning a never-ending crescendo of agony and pain and an equal death. Such treatment of entire animal populations reflects an attitude that is frightening to the highest degree and can change at any time and affect humans themselves.

• Many know photo documentations of slaughterhouses, animal transports and agony keeping of farm animals. Unfortunately, these are no exception, but only the tip of the iceberg. Most of it remains hidden.

Conclusion:

Our earth is able to feed eight billion people and more. Eight billion meat eaters, however, overtax the earth’s resources.

Many humans ask themselves whether and how they can participate in the solution of the problems, which the world.

Everybody must eat and this also means that every human being decides every day anew what he buys, consumes and eats. Thus, he can bring in himself each day anew and exercise substantial influence on economics, politics, animal protection and the environmental protection. Certainly, it may be difficult to overcome old eating habits. But the good news is that they are “just” habits, even bad and unhealthy habits. In this case, changing one habit can simultaneously realize many good goals: 

As has often been the case in human history, the signs of the times have changed, improvement and adaptation to new circumstances are needed. It may be a challenge to change eating habits. But challenges we have overcome many times in human history. We have changed from a hunter-gatherer culture, to cattle-herding nomads, to a farming sedentary culture. With the change in food intake, the body has also adapted, for example, developing new enzymes to digest starchy foods such as grains.

Mankind is once again on the threshold of a new development to enable the survival of future generations. 

Bibliography:

Statistika, Mathias Brandt 23.06.2020
National Geographic, 13. Febr.2020
The China Study: von T Colin Campbell , Thomas M Campbell, page 6
Die China Studie: von T Colin Campbell   Thomas M Campbell, page 6
Die China Studie: von T Colin Campbell , Thomas M Campbell, page 2
Die China Studie: von T Colin Campbell , Thomas M Campbell, page 246
Peace Food,  Ruediger Dahlke  | 5. August 2020, page 39)
Milch: Verarbeitung- BZfE.
Diet for a smal planet, Frances Moore Lappé | 12. Mai 1985
Fleischatlas 2021, 6. Januar 2021von Lisa Tostado
Fleischatlas 2013, May 22, 2013 · Barbara Unmüßig
Vegetarische Leben, Armin Risi, Ronald Zürrer, page 49
Vegetarische Leben, Armin Risi, Ronald Zürrer, page 49, „Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Mai 2005, S. 100)
Vegetarische Leben, Armin Risi, Ronald Zürrer, page 51
Vegetarische Leben, Armin Risi, Ronald Zürrer, page 51 -52
Vegetarische Leben, Armin Risi, Ronald Zürrer, page 53
Wikipedia
Bericht über die menschliche Entwicklung, Uno-Entwicklungsprogram UNDP 2014
Thomas Pogge, Weltarmut und Ethik, page 98-99
Thomas Pogge, Weltarmut und Ethik, page 98-99
Thomas Pogge, Global Justice: What are our Responsibilities? by Thomas Pogge, aus einem Vortrag der University of Scranton, PA, USA, 2013 by Thomas Pogge) PETA probeabo
Peter Singer, The Ethic of what we eat

Contact:

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