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- "REALITIES 1989," Excerpts from Diet For A New America by John Robbins -
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republished with permission of EarthSave.org
The following facts, excerpted from John Robbins' Pulitzer Prize nominated book, Diet For A New America, speak for themselves.
Can you hear?
- Human population of the United States: 243,000,000
- Number of human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1,300,000,000
- Sacred food of Native Americans: corn
- Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by human beings: 20%
- Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80%
- Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95
- Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90%
- Percentage of carbohydrate wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 99%
- Percentage of dietary fiber wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 100%
- Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 20,000
- Pounds of beef that can be produced on 1 acre of land: 165
- Percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce beef: 56%
- Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16
- Pounds of protein fed to chickens to produce 1 pound of protein as chicken flesh: 5
- Pounds of protein fed to hogs to produce 1 pound of protein as hog flesh: 7.5
- How frequently a child dies of starvation: every 2 seconds
- Number of children who starve to death every day: 40,000
- Number of people who will starve to death this year: 60,000,000
- Number of people who could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by just 10%: 60,000,000
- Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed 1 person consuming meat-based diet: 20
• • •
- Historic cause of demise of many great civilizations: topsoil depletion
- Percentage of original U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75%
- Amount of U.S. cropland lost each year to soil erosion: 4,000,000 acres (the size of Connecticut - each year)
- Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly associated with livestock raising: 85%
- Number of acres of U.S. forest which have been cleared to create cropland to produce a meat-centered diet: 260,000,000
- How often an acre of U.S. trees disappears: every 8 seconds
- Amount of trees spared per year by each individual who switches to a pure vegetarian diet: 1 acre
- A driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests: American meat habit
- Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests and related habitats: 1000 species per year
• • •
- User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the United States: livestock production
- Quantity of water used in the production of the average cow sufficient to: float a destroyer
- Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons
- Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500 gallons
- Cost of common hamburger meat if water used by the meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. taxpayers: $35/pound
- Current cost for 1 pound of protein from wheat: $1.50
- Current cost for 1 pound of protein from beefsteak: $15.40
- Cost for 1 pound of protein from beefsteak if U.S. taxpayers ceased subsidizing meat industry's use of water: $89
- Length of time world's petroleum reserves would last if all human beings ate meat-center diet: 13 years
- Length of time world's petroleum reserves would last if all human beings ate vegetarian diet: 260 years
- Principal reason for U.S. military intervention in Persian Gulf: dependence on foreign oil
- Barrels of oil imported daily by U.S.: 6,800,000
- Percentage of energy return (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of most energy efficient farming of meat: 34.5%
- Percentage of energy return (as food energy per fossil energy expended) of least energy efficient plant food: 328%
- Percentage of raw materials consumed in U.S. for all purposes presently consumed to produce current meat-centered diet: 33%
- percentage of raw materials consumed in U.S. for all purposes needed to produce fully vegetarian diet: 2%
• • •
- Production of excrement by total U.S. human population: 12,000 pounds/sec
- Production of excrement by U.S. livestock; 250,000 pounds/sec
- Sewage systems in U.S. cities: common
- Sewage systems in U.S. feedlots: nil
- Amount of waste produced annually by U.S. livestock in confinement operations which is not recycled: 1 billion tons
- Relative concentration of feedlot wastes compared to raw domestic sewage: ten to several hundred times more highly concentrated
- Where feedlot waste often ends up: in our water
• • •
- Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
- Number of U.S. medical schools with a required course in nutrition: 30
- Training in nutrition received during 4 years of medical school by average u.S. physician: 2.5 hours
- How frequently a heart attack strikes in U.S.: every 25 seconds
- How frequently a heart attack kills in U.S.: every 45 seconds
- Most common cause of death in U.S.: heart attack
- Risk of death from heart attack by average American man: 50%
- Risk of death from heart attack by average American vegetarian man: 15%
- Risk of death from heart attack by average American purely vegetarian man: 4%
- Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 10%: 9%
- Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 50%: 45%
- Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 100%: 90%
- Rise in blood cholesterol from consuming 1 egg per day: 12%
- Rise in heart attack risk from 12% rise in blood cholesterol (consuming 1 egg per day): 24%
- Meat, dairy and egg industries claim there is no reason to be concerned about your blood cholesterol as long as it is: "normal"
- Your risk of dying a disease caused by clogged arteries if your blood cholesterol is "normal": over 50%
- Your risk of dying of a disease caused by clogged arteries if you do not consume saturated fat and cholesterol: 5%
- Leading sources of saturated fat and cholesterol in American diets: meat, dairy products, and eggs
- Hollywood celebrity paid by the Meat Board to tout beef as "Real food for real people": James Garner
- Medical event experience by james Garner in April, 1988: quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery (Garner also had a stroke in 2008)
• • •
- World populations with high meat intakes who do not have correspondingly high rates of colon cancer: none
- World populations with low meat intakes who do not have corresponding low rates of colon cancer: none
- Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to women who eat meat less than once a week; 4 times higher
- Egg Board's advertising slogan: The Incredible Edible Egg™
- Photographs often accompanying the Egg Board's slogan: young women in bathing suits, emphasizing the shape of their breasts
- Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat eggs daily compared to women who eat eggs less than once a week: 3 times higher
- Milk Producer's original ad campaign slogan: Everyone Needs Milk™
- What the Federal Trade Commission called the Everyone Needs Milk™ slogan: "false, misleading and deceptive"
- Milk Producer's revised campaign slogan: Milk Has Something For Everybody™
- Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat butter and cheese 3 or more times a week compared to women who eat these foods less than once a week: 3 times higher
- Part of female chicken's body that produces eggs: ovaries
- Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week compared to women who eat eggs less than once a week: 3 times higher
- Foods males in the U.S. are conditioned to think of as "manly": animal products
- Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meats, cheese, eggs and milk daily compared to men who eat these foods sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times higher
• • •
- The Meat Board tells us: "Today's meats are low in fat."
- The Meat Board shows us: A serving of beef they claim has "only 300 calories."
- The Meat Board doesn't tell us: the serving of beef they show us is only 3 ounces (half the size of an average serving of beef) and it has been surgically defatted with a scalpel.
- The dairy industry tells us: "Whole milk is 3.5% fat.
- The dairy industry doesn't tell us: that 3.5% figure is based on weight and most of the weight in milk is water.
- The dairy industry doesn't want us to know: the amount of calories as fat in whole milk is 50%.
- Oscar Mayer tells us: it is a "myth" that hot dogs are fatty.
- Oscar Mayer demonstrates their point favorably comparing the fattiness of hot dogs to such low fat bastions as: margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing and cream cheese.
- The Dairy Council tells us: Milk is natures' most perfect food.
- The Dairy Council doesn't tell us: milk is nature's most perfect food for a baby calf, who has four stomach,s will double its weight in 47 days, and is destined to weigh 300 pounds within a year.
- The Dairy Council tells children: to grow up big and strong, drink lots of milk.
- The Dairy council occasionally tells children: the enzyme necessary for digestion of milk is lactase.
- The Dairy Council never tells children: 20% of caucasian children and 80% of black children have no lactase in their intestines.
- The meat, dairy and egg industries tell us: animal products constitute 2 of the "Basic 4" food groups.
- The meat, dairy and egg industries don't tell us: there were originally 12 official basic food groups, before these industries applied enormous political pressure on behalf of their products.
- The meat, dairy, and egg industries tell us: we are well-fed only with animal products.
- The meat, dairy, and egg industries don't tell us: the diseases which are commonly prevented, consistently improved, and sometimes cured by a low-fat vegetarian diet include: strokes, heart disease, osteoporosis, kidney stones, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, stomach cancer, endometrial cancer, diabetes, hypoglycemia, kidney disease, peptic ulcers, constipation, hemorrhoids, hiatal hernias, diverticulosis, obesity, gallstones, hypertension, irritable colon syndrome, asthma, salmonellosis, and trichinosis.
• • •
- Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by meat: 55%
- Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by dairy products: 23%
- Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by vegetables: 6%
- Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by fruits: 4%
- Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by grains: 1%
- Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99%
- Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8%
- Relative pesticide contamination in breast milk of meat-eating mothers compared to pesticide contamination in breast milk of vegetarian mothers; 35 times as high
- Percentage of male college students sterile in 1950: .5%
- Percentage of male college students sterile in 1978: 25%
- Sperm count of average American male compared to 30 years ago: down 30%
- Principle reason for sterility and sperm count reduction of U.S. males: chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides (including dioxin, DDT, etc.)
- Percentage of hydrocarbon pesticide residues in American diet attributable to meats, dairy products, fish and eggs: 94%
- The Meat Board tells us not to be concerned about the dioxins and other pesticides in today's beef because: the quantities are so small
- The Meat Board doesn't want us to know: how potent dioxin and other pesticides are
- The Meat Board particularly doesn't want us to know: a mere ounce of dioxin could kill 10 million people
- The USDA tells us: our meat is inspected
- The USDA doesn't tell us: less than 1 out of every quarter million slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
- The dye used for may years by the USDA to stamp meats "Choice," "Prime," or "U.S. No. 1 USDA": Violet dye No. 1
- Current status of violet Dye No. 1: banned as proven carcinogen
- Wingspan of average Leghorn chicken: 26 inches
- Space average Leghorn chicken is given in egg factory cages: 6 inches
- Number of 700-plus pound pigs confined to a space the size of a twin bed in a typical factory farm: 3
- Reason today's veal is so tender: calves are never allowed to take a single step
- Reason today's veal is whitish-pink: calves are force-fed on an anemia producing diet
- McDonald's brags: "60 Billion Sold"
- McDonald's doesn't brag about: 50 million butchered
- McDonald's clown, Ronald McDonald, tells children: hamburgers grow in hamburger patches and love to be eaten.
- McDonald's clown, Ronald McDonald, doesn't tell children: hamburgers are ground up cows who've had their throats slit by machetes or their brains bashed in by sledgehammers.
- Original actor to play Ronald McDonald: Jeff Juliano
- Diet now followed by jeff Juliano: vegetarian
- Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 500,000
- Occupation with the highest turnover rate in the U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
- Occupation with the highest employee rate of injury in the U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
- Cost to render an animal unconscious prior to slaughter with captive bolt pistol so that process is done humanely: 1 penny
- Reason given by the meat industry for not utilizing a captive bolt pistol: too expensive
• • •
- Percentage of total antibiotics used in the U.S. fed routinely to livestock: 55%
- Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
- Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1988: 91
- Reason: Breading of antibiotic resistant bacteria in factory farms due to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock
- Effectiveness of all "wonder-drug" antibiotics: declining rapidly
- Reason: Breeding of antibiotic resistant bacteria in factory farms due to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock
- Response by the entire European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
- Response by the American meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support
• • •
- Only man to win the Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)
- Food choices of Dave Scott: vegetarian
- World record holder for 24 triathlon (swim 4.8 miles, cycle 185 miles, run 525 miles): Sixto Linares
- Food choices of Sixto Linares: strict vegetarian
- Athlete who most totally dominated the Olympic sport in track and field history: Edwin Moses (undefeated in 8 years, 400 meter hurdles)
- Food choices of Edwin Moses: vegetarian
- Other notable vegetarian athletes:
Stan Price (World record-bench press)
Robert Sweetgall (World's premier ultra-distance walker)
Paavo Nurmi (20 World's records in distance running, 9 Olympic medals)
Bill Pickering (World record - swimming the English Channel)
Murray Rose (World records - 400 and 1500 meter freestyles)
Andreas Cahling (Winner - Mr. International Body-Building Championships)
Roy Hilligan (Winner - Mr. America Body-Building Championships)
Pierro Verot (World's record for downhill endurance skiing)
Estelle Gray and Cheryl Marek (World's record for cross-country tandem cycling)
James and Johnathon deDonato (World's record for distance butterfly stroke swimming)
Ridgely Abele (Winner of 8 national championships in Karate, including the U.S. Karate Association World championships)
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