Suzy Banyon rambles...

To get things straight, I am not against eating meat. I am against the over consumption of meat and the irresponsible way we are farming meat: it is damaging to our health as well as to the environment which will bite us all in the near future. And what does one really posses other than your health and your home? Don't bite the hand that feeds you, we forget what we've been given won't last if we don't care to preserve it.

If you don't believe me read on:

The meat industry contributes more to global warming than all the SUV's, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. source

One pound of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV for 40 miles. source

While seven football fields worth of land that help recycle air is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals. source

And to clear things up, by eating meat you aren't doing the environment a "favor" by getting rid of them.. you're putting up the demand to breed more of them.

Global warming is putting us in a drought, in the near future we will need to ration for water. source

It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat, whereas one pound of wheat only requres 25 gallons. source

You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year. source

More than half the water used in the US goes to "growing" our meat. source

It takes 16 pounds of grain to feed one pound of meat. source

Half of what we require to feed these animals in the US alone could feed 1.4 billion people. We could virtually end world hunger if we simply cut down on our meat addiction. source

The leading killer in America is heart disease. Heart disease is caused by over consumption of meat, surprise. source

Over consumption of meat also causes diabetes, cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, alzheimer's, asthma, and strokes. All leading killers in America thanks to all the steroids and antibiotics we load our meat with. source



I did not stop eating meat because I wanted to sit on a farm surrounded by bunnies nibbling on tofu. I stopped because I am demanding good clean meat and a future for the place we all live in.

And I personally refuse to eat meat until this changes. I never force it onto anyone else, I never claim it makes me better than anyone else. It is simply what I believe in.

However I would like to point out we are no longer cavemen. Eating something because it "tastes good" is so primitive. If we really believed that than we could live off of Big Macs with no health complications right? What you put in your mouth is fuel for your body. If you could get the best possible kind to keep your vehicle running better for longer, wouldn't you? I dare you to research what is in your meat. Ignorance is an industry's greatest tool.

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." -Albert Einstein

So next time someone feels like it's funny to make a nasty comment, maybe you want to remember it's not just about "animal cruelty" it affects you just as much as me just as much as the animal.

On Peta: I support Peta. I don't care if you have anything to talk down on Peta. There are a lot of things that I also don't agree with that Peta supports. So what? There will always be something in everything you don't like. Peta has done so much for the things I believe in, I couldn't care less what you have to complain about.

The way I see it: I reason by the belief that no good can come from evil. It's funny how infatuated we humans are with ourselves. We believe that the only lives and thoughts that count are our own. We think we own the planet and can do with it what we please. The realty is that humans are merely less than .1% of all the species that have walked this earth and humans are the only species that knowingly and willingly destroy what we've been privileged with. There is a whole universe out there that is vastly lifeless and empty. Our planet just happened to have water along with all the other puzzle pieces needed to form life, and luckily a complete atmosphere to retain it in. By a miracle, a lightning storm sparked life. And we were able to evolve and survive only by the fortune that Jupiter's size and distance could repel anything would have otherwise destroyed us. Earth just happened to be just perfectly distant from the sun to support life. Its axis perfectly aligned to give us steady habitable seasons. If that wasn't a miracle enough, all of us reading this were born into humans. Gifted with movement, breath, and free thought into considerably privileged lives. I doubt anyone that has a live journal need worry about clean water, food, shelter, and human rights to survive. And considering all of this, what angers me the most is how selfish we all are. It was so likely that none of us should even be alive let alone gifted with complex minds that we should abuse our power by destroying our planet and our bodies. Might never made right. We need to value and take care of what we've been favored with. We live in such a beautiful place but we leave such ugly footprints. Look past yourself, I dare you to have compassion.


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