Animal Rights, Vegetarianism, and Veganism

• Is it right for humans to kill billions of animals? Is it right for humans to cause billions of animals to live lives of pain?
• Is animal testing ethical?
• Would you be willing to give up eating meat if you knew the planet’s future was at stake?
• Would you like to change institutions and society so it is easier to be vegetarian or vegan?
• Should we use the world’s agricultural capacity to produce meat for the American diet while hundreds of millions of people are starving?
• If you knew that millions of people easily get all their essential nutrients (protein etc.) from vegetarian/vegan diets, would that encourage you to switch?
• Have you ever tried being vegetarian for a month?

FACT: Farm animals eat over 70% of U.S. grain, and it takes 7 pounds of corn and soy to produce a pound of pork (Vegan Outreach pamphlet).

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Landfills
Landfills are a danger to both their neighbors and the entire world. Incinerator ash (high in heavy metals) is dumped in landfills. Not only that, but they also contain 250,000 tons of PCBs and continue to receive the waste from small-scale toxin producers who are unregulated. As rain and snow falls on them and mixes with toxins at the sites, landfills produce leachate which leaks into the ground water supply, contaminating wells and streams. Landfills are meant to be sealed for thirty years after they are full, however afterwards owners are not required to monitor them for leakage. ‘Sealed’ landfills often leak. According to EPA estimates, a 100-acre landfill in the northeastern United States can produce 57 million gallons of leachate every year. In 1986, NY State estimated that half of its landfills had contaminated the groundwater. Incinerators are even worse, because they produce dioxins (a deadly toxin that bioaccumulates, causing cancer and birth disorders), spread toxins all around the globe and leave a super-toxic ash that still must be dumped into landfills, making the leaching problem even more dangerous.