Meat Eating -- What Should We Do?

Photo Credit: Richard Dunn The global population of farm animals is growing twice as fast as the human population, creating "the other population crisis." How big is this problem? About 10 times as many animals as there are people in the world are now raised for food each year. Controversy swirls around the subject of eating meat, with huge implications for human health, our environment, and animal welfare. We each make decisions about what we eat, day after day, for our entire lifetime. The cumulative consequences of our decisions are significant. The production of meat impacts the environment and animal welfare far more than the production of any other type of food does. Meat-eating habits also impact human health. Meat includes "white meat" from poultry (and not seafood, in this discussion) and "red meat" from beef, veal, pork, lamb, and other four-legged animals. "Processed meat" is white or red meat that has been salted, cured, fermented, or smoked. Globally, most meat is produced by factory farming. This involves confining large numbers of animals in cramped, often indoor, facilities. Farmers typically feed the animals grains and genetically modified corn and soy, which are grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers routinely dose their animals with artificial hormones and antibiotics to promote growth. The antibiotics additionally protect the animals from diseases that tend to thrive in the overcrowded and filthy conditions. The treatments with antibi...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news