The Ivy Hill Kitchen

PERSONAL HEALTH: Humans evolved as herbivores. Physiologically, we are not equipped to eat and digest meat, and to do so is unhealthy for us. The first clue is our appendix, a vestige of an earlier digestive system that is still capable of peristalsis. Once used for processing plant materials, it becomes infected with greater frequency in meat-eating populations. Also, carnivores have jagged teeth (look at the teeth of your pet dog). We have cutting teeth for severing stems and grinding teeth for processing grain. Even more telling is the fact that we are so vulnerable to meat-borne diseases that do not affect carnivorous animals in the wild. And, it is well-known that animal products in the diet contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, and calcium depletion associated with osteoporosis. Vegetarians are at lower risk for diabetes and cancer, due to high fiber in their diet.

An organic diet prevents the direct ingestion of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Also, these interventions permit the survival of weak or unhealthy crops that would otherwise succumb to natural selection processes. By eating artificially maintained produce, we may unwittingly be selecting from less nourishing fruit and vegetable stocks. By maintaining an organic diet, we control our chemical intake and provide robust building materials to replenish our physical bodies.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN: The widespread practice of animal husbandry fouls our land surfaces, our rivers and streams, and the air that we breathe. Concentrated quantities of excrement, gases, and bacteria overwhelm the ability of the local ecosystem to restore balance. Also, the earth resources required to support an individual on grain-fed animals are very much greater than the resources required to support an individual on plant materials. Populations living on meat-based diets are using the land resources of our planet most inefficiently. The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers further contributes to the pollution of our planet.
 

ANIMAL WELFARE: The animals raised commercially for food are sentient creatures that endure lives of torture and unspeakable misery, until they die in terrifying and painful butchery. No caring person would endorse the inhumane practices of our food industry, if the business interests involved did not keep the facts of their operation well hidden from public view. By adopting a vegetarian diet, we withdraw financial support from the wide-spread animal cruelty practiced by the "factory farms".