Most people don't eat animals because we must in order to survive; we eat them because we want to. We are damaging the environment unnecessarily, subjecting animals to torture, and subjecting ourselves to greater risk of disease just to satisfy a desire, not a need.
First of all, it has been proven that meat is bad for the environment. Recent research shows that energy-intense United States factory farms have generated 1.4 billion tons of water waste per year, which pollutes American waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Also, animal agriculture consumes one-third of fossil fuels produced in the United States. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the production of one calorie of animal protein requires more than ten times the fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein. Such as, fossil fuels are used heavily in the production of herbicides, fertilizers, to power machinery on the farm, and for transport between the farm and the store. Moreover, livestock production is the number one cause of soil erosion in the United States. Without healthy topsoil, we can't grow the crops that are necessary to feed people. Many civilizations throughout history have collapsed for this reason. In the United States, it is estimated that we have lost one-third of our topsoil in the last two centuries.
Second, there is much animal cruelty that goes on around the world. For example, did you know that baby calves are kept in the dark to keep their meat pale, and are chained to a pole so they can't move, turn around or anything just so people can enjoy a piece of veal? Also, tens of thousands of wild and domesticated horses from the United States are cruelly slaughtered every year to be used for horse-meat in Europe and Asia. Since the last horse slaughter plants in the United States were closed in 2007, thousands of horses have been shipped to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. Furthermore, many chickens,...