Plea for vegetarianism

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Why vegetarianism: go green. We human beings need food for our survival. We consume a variety of products as food. Those products can be broadly classified into two categories- vegetarian food and non vegetarian food. Vegetarian food involves products derived from plants. Non veg involves flesh of animals which we consume as food. Whatever I have written till now is known to each one of us . As the topic of article suggests, I will put my sincere efforts to make you realize and think about vegetarianism. Most of the world's population consume meat in some form or the other. In USA only around 5% population abstains from meat eating in any form. In Europe it is around 10%. Most number of vegetarians are found in India . This country with a population of 100 crore has 31% of vegetarians. This is mostly due to religious and cultural reasons. I am presenting these stats just make clear picture in readers mind about the scenario of our society in terms of meat eating. Now I will explain the theme of this article ,that is why vegetarianism. There can be many reasons cited for becoming a vegetarian. And we can find many advantages of a veg diet on Internet. But first I will explain why I choose to be vegetarian inspite of being a meat eater for 20 years of my life(I have given up meat eating at the age of 20). I used to enjoy the taste of meat very much. It used to be my favorite. But as I grew up and became much more conscious and logical it came to my mind that meat eating was a really cruel and inhumane act. I was able to realize the pain which animals have to undergo just for the sake of our taste for them. And there was not even a bit of religious or spiritual consideration in my mind when I took this decision. It was an independent decision not influenced by any religious text or any person. It was kind of self realization. I was deeply pained by the thought that I am giving so much pain to living creature for my selfish desires. So coming to the point that why we should all abandon meat eating,I would give justifications for it based on science ,economy, health,environment and morality and spirituality. Throughout the world this fact is well established that the amount of pollution caused by meat producing industry is much more than global warming caused by other industries including automobile industry. It expolits the resources of nature to a very large extent. From a study it is found that when compared to staples like potatoes, wheat, and rice, the impact of beef per calorie is very extreme, requiring 160 times more land and producing 11 times more greenhouse gases. The amount of resources used for feeding a chicken can be used to feed 10 people.So meat industry is the largest contributor of global warming and all talks of reducing global warming will go in vain unless we don't cut short our meat consumption. A report was realised in USA that "if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads". From economic point of view, a layman also knows this fact that veggie food is much more cheaper than meat. This is because scientifically animals are placed much higher in food chain and so to breed them it requires a much larger amount of input of resources. And so naturally meat will be costly. There are many real health advantages of being a vegetarian. Over recent years the impact of meat in our diets has been studied and researched. Some people will say that it is unnatural for humans to eat meat, others will say that it is a totally natural process. What is certain, however, is the modern meat-eaters diet includes a greater proportion of meat than that of our ancestors. This increase can cause health problems for a variety of reasons.Meat can be difficult to digest.The fats are unhealthy.Meat can contribute to high cholesterol levels.Some cancers such as bowel cancer are more prevalent in meat eaters.In contrast, a vegetarian diet is typically high in fiber and rich in vitamins and minerals, which is important to a healthy diet. If we consider animal welfare no animal is harmed in order to feed a vegetarian. As less people eat meat, there is a reduced requirement for the farming of livestock for meat. This means less need for intensive farming methods. As more people become vegetarian, farming and the meat production industry will change. From spiritual and moral point of view it is quite clear that most of the eastern religion supports vegetarian diet if not mandates it. Jains are strictly vegetarian. Hinduism regards vegetarian diet as pure and conducive for spiritual development. Buddhism also preaches non violence and non killing towards living creatures.Sikh guru Nanak was also in favour of vegetarian diet although he left diet as matter of people's personal discretion. From our own common sense we can imagine that killing creature is an immoral cruel act. We all ate part of this earth and in one sense we are same and if we harm others we are indirectly doing harm to ourselves only in the long run. And it gives a great amount of peace and happiness if we don't harm living creature including animals and humans Now I know there will be strong opposition from many non vegetartian to this article. One thing they would surely say in favour of meat eating is that science has proved that we have been eating meat ever since we came into existence. They would say that human species is designed to be omnivore. There is no denying the fact that our ancestors were non vegetarian. But there were many other things also whichbour ancestors believed and practiced. In ancient times women was treated inferior to men in aspects if life. Polygamy was common. The reason our ancestors have was that nature has created human in such a way that women has to be inferior to men. They are biologicallu and physically weak and they deserved to be exploited. But now humamans have realized this mistake our their ancestors and have rectified it by giving women equal statsu in society irrespective of their physical weakness. This has been a revoltuion in our social life. Likewise ancient humans believed in many other things like ghost and various other superstition. But this doesn't mean what our ancestors have done for centuries is correct . We are the most superior creature on this earth and we should use our heart and mind to think whether something is right or wrong irrespective of for how many years such a thing has been I practice. In a similar way if our ancestors were meat eaters that doesn't mean that we also follow their path blindly. All species on earth is continuously evolving including us. And I think human race has reached to such a stage in its evolution that it can clearly see the dark side of meat eating and can abandon it like we have abandoned many evil practices of past. This article is not forcing anyone to become a vegetarian. It only puts forward the reasons to be vegetarian. Its upto youbto decide because its your and your choice. But at the same time you should that your choice should not harm choice of living of other creatures.