Click the flag for Italian version.

Vegetarian

Click the flag for English version.

Presentation:

Salve a tutti, Hello to everybody, my name is Salvatore but my friends call me Sal.  As you will be able to see while going through these pages, I am not an English nature speaker.  Therefore, I apologise for any slight mistake I could have made.  However, I do believe my Italian is much better than my English.  So, if you would like to learn a bit of Italian languages, go to Basic Italian Language .  and I hope you will enjoy learning my mother tongue.

However, having to create a web Site in Italian and English, I thought, to put in one of my old task of an English project, (talk about vegetarian).  So, I hope it could be useful and interesting for you read these informations.

WHAT  IS  A  VEGETARIAN ?
WHY  DO  PEOPLE  BECOME  VEGETARIANS ?

There are many reasons for people becoming vegetarian, but the 3 main ones are:
Vegetarianism is healthy, cruelty free and environmentally friendly.

To have a healthier lifestile
To prevent animal cruelty and slaughtered
To conserve the environment

The true cost of meat:

OBJECTIONS:

Nutritional deficiencies and what else do we eat?
Is it okey to kill plants?

Back

What is a Vegetarian?

Many vegetarians people often hear questions like:  "why are you a vegetarians?   Do you eat some kind of meat?  Do you eat chicken?  Do you eat fish?   Do you drink milk?  What about eggs or cheese?"  Maybe, the easiest answer is  I'm a vegetarian because I care.

Vegetarian's People take care about their own health, protecting the rainforests, preventing the suffering of innocent creatures, preventing world hunger, reducing energy consumption, the air we breathe and the water that flows in rivers and so on.

Anyway, vegetarian is a person that saves animals and protects the environment by not eating meat, poultry, fish, or any other slaughter house product (such as animal fat).

A valid scientific hypothesis states that 2 million years ago, the human race only ate fruit and over time they became hunters and carnivorous.  In fact, the English writer (D. Morris) asserted that we were vegetarians ans became carnivorous.

Vegetarian Population in Great Britain:

3.6 million	7%	vegetarians in UK.
4.6 million		people eat no red meat.
------------
8.2 million	16%	vegetarian or eat no red meat.
1.1 million		people eat no poultry.
2.6 million	16%	people eat no fish.
0.5 million		young people between the ages of 11 and 18
		1 in 5 of this age group eat no red meat.
		young women between the ages of 16 and 24
		make up a large group of non meat eaters.
1 in 8		abstain from the products of the slaughter house.
1 in 9	11%	students are vegetarian.
	7%	students avoid meat.
1 in 6	18%	students eat no meat.
* * *		This figure is double the previous year.
		More and more people are going vegetarian everyday.
		An estimated of about 28,000 every week.

It used to be that more people in the "upper classes" were veggie, but there are now around twice as many vegetarians in the "middle" and "working classes".

Back

Why do people become Vegetarians?

  1)   To have a healthier lifestile.

Many people are vegetarian because they feel it is healthier.

Vegetarians are generally slimmer, they eat more fibre and have lower cholesterol levels than the general population.  They have lower rates of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, bowel disorders, cancers, gall stones, diabetes and other disease.  They have 30% less chance of suffering from heart disease and 40% less chance of contracting cancer of the bowel.  There are also plenty of diseases you can catch direct from animal products.  In fact, 95% of food poisoning cases are related to animal products.  Meat can contain up to 14 times more pesticides than vegetable foods.  1 in 20 pigs contains traces of sulphadimine, a substance strongly suspected of causing cancer.  Almost all meat contains endorphin, a substance that takes effect on the nervous system which can induce aggressiveness.  So, you can see that wanting to be healthier could be a good reason to became vegetarian.

They have lower rates of	obesity.
"       "       "	coronary heart disease.
"       "       "	high blood pressure.
"       "       "	bowel disorders.
"       "       "	cancers.
"       "       "	gall stones.
"       "       "	diabetes.
"       "       "	30% less chance of suffering from heart disease.
"       "       "	40% less chance of contracting cancer of the bowel.

Meat eating is not only cruel, it is also unhealthy and unnecessary.

Back

  2)   To prevent animal cruelty and slaughtered.

It has been calculated that during the lifetime of an average vegetarian, almost 1000 animals are saved from suffering.

Another reason to be vegetarian is to prevent animal cruelty and slaughter. Most young people become vegetarian because they object to the slaughter of animals for food, and want to stop the suffering of animals in factory farms.

Animal cruelty during meat production has recently been highlighted in the news with demonstration against live transportation of animal abroad.  This is just one of the many aspects of cruelty in meat production.

Most animals killed for meat spend their brief and miserable lives trapped in hideous, artificial conditions, unable to see daylight or to breathe fresh air.

A calf is taken from it's mother within 24 hours of birth.  It is then put in a slatted wooden crate which is less than 2 feet wide.  They remain in these until they are slaughtered at about 14 weeks old.  Every year 570 million chickens are slaughtered in the UK.  They are kept in large, windowless sheds with lights on for up 23 hours a day to encourage them to eat and put on weight fast.  Each hen has less floor space to move around on than an A4 sized sheet of paper.

The pig is an intelligent and sociable animal, at least as intelligent as a dog.  They are kept in a degrading, squalid prison.  400.000 scows in Britain spend they entire 4 months pregnancy in a metal barred stall, with barely inches to move.

We wouldn't treat a dog or a cat like this.

If you need to know more informations about the cruelty of these innocent animal farm, here there is a link which shows you videos about the cruelty slaughter house.  GoVeg.com.   PS   Some of these videos are very cruelty and terrifying.

Back

  3)   To conserve the environment.

Finally, if the health and the animal cruelty reasons are not enough, the third reason is to conserve the environment.  Millions of trees are destroyed to provide cropland for meat production.  We can say that meat production is eating the rain forests.   In Central America alone, 90% of the forest has been cleared primarily for cattle ranching.  For every burger eaten, half a tonne of vegetation is lost.

  *   The true cost of meat:

We must also consider the disturbing fact that we are feeding animals instead of people.   Animals consume vast quantities of food.  US livestock consume almost twice as much grain as is eaten by the entire American population.  But while we go to huge lengths to feed cattle, people in the developing world starve in their millions.   If Americans would reduce meat consumption by just 10%, enough grain would be saved to feed the 60,000,000 people who die of hunger each year.  It's a damn shame that people in third-world countries are going hungry while their land is being used to feed meat to rich people in other countries.  The EU is the largest buyer of animal feed in the world, and 60% comes from the third world.  On average, 5 Lb. of grain is used by animals to give 1 lb. of meat for the consumer.  If the same amount was available for human consumption, then the world would have enough to feed double the current world population.

Back

Objections:

  1)   Nutritional deficiencies and what else do we eat?

Some people say that not eating meat produces nutritional deficiencies, but it has been proved that the vegetarian diet contains all the necessary nutritional factors.   Most American vegetarians eat 50% more protein than they need.  Lack of protein, iron and vitamin are usually people's main concern.  Beans, peas, nuts and pulses are very rich in protein.  Iron is found in wholemeal bread, free range eggs and green vegetables to name just a few.  Vitamin C, which is found in fresh fruit and vegetables, helps the body to absorb iron.  Even B12 the so called "animal vitamin" is found in dairy products and yeast extract spread.

  2)   Is it okey to kill plants?

I have outlined 3 main reasons why people are vegetarian:  to have a healthier lifestyle, to prevent animal cruelty and slaughter and to conserve the environment, but there are some objections such as:  Do we have any nutritional deficiencies?   What else do we eat?  Another common objection is:  Why is it okey to kill plants?  The point is we have to look for an organic source of food.   It is better to chose a form of life less developed and we can imagine that plants do not suffer because they have no central nervous system.

In conclusion, vegetarianism is an individual choice.  I have discussed the main reasons and the objections, but the real motivation for me to be vegetarian is because I don't want to cause suffering and death to other life.

LOVE   animals   . . .   DON'T   eat   them. LOVE   animals   . . .   DON'T   eat   them. LOVE   animals   . . .   DON'T   eat   them.

Back