肉食文化

（一）肉食文化使森林消失

饲养庞大的牲畜群，需要庞大的地方让牠们立脚，又得生产充足的粮食来喂饱牠们，砍伐原始森林成了必要的措施。森林一片一片失踪后，土壤和养分逐渐被风雨刷掉，土地变得贫瘠，不堪耕作；地下水源也慢慢枯竭。失掉林荫和水源的地面，“温室效应”发作，温度缓缓上升，气候变热得叫人难耐，也让农作物难以生存。
天然美景渐渐从人的眼前远离，新鲜纯净的空气，变得稀有而珍贵，吸进的空气都可能变得污浊又有臭味，甚至有毒。帮助农夫清除害虫的候鸟们不再出现。农夫必须喷洒农药才能够收成。人人吃进的三餐，都变成带毒的食物。没有了森林的保护，可爱的动物们也失踪了。


（二）肉食文化使土地流失
当森林被砍除后，地下的水份不是被阳光蒸发了，就是流进河里、海里，大地变成一片光秃秃的，长年经受强风吹刮和大雨冲刷后，土地一片片地沉陷、崩塌、流走，被河川、湖泊、海洋、沙漠等吞没。居住空间变得越拥挤，农地变得越稀有。历史上无数的侵略战争，都是在这种情境下爆发的。


（三）肉食文化使水受污染
大型牲畜集养场，每天排放大量的牲畜粪尿到地下，渗进人类饮用的水源，把尿酸、尿素、病菌、毒素带进人的肚子。牲畜粪尿对地下水所造成的污染，高达人类排泄量的十倍以上。为了净化这些脏水，必须付出沉重的代价，来建设和维护净水设备及输送管路，大大提高了人类的生活成本。


（四）肉食文化破坏臭氧层
臭氧层是在地球高空用来阻挡阳光中强烈紫外线的保护气层。假设没有它，紫外线直射地球，动物皮肤将急速长癌，植物将急速枯死，一切生物即刻陷入毁灭的绝境。
在养殖牲畜的过程中，人类利用化学肥料加速农作物的成长，当这些肥料中的氮气蒸发后冲上大气层，和臭氧起化学反应，吃掉臭氧，使得臭氧层变淡、变薄，出现破洞，破洞越来越大，最后终将成为世界末日的可怕威胁之一。


（五）从经济的角度看肉食和素食
人类的食物本来是谷物加蔬果的，人却放着不吃，拿去喂牲畜，然后吃牲畜的肉。这一转折，等于用十六份的谷和黄豆，才能换得一份肉吃；其它的十五份全化成了牲畜的粪尿排泄掉了。
由于吃肉而不吃素，白白浪费了百分之九十蛋白质，百分之九十六热量，全部的纤维质及碳水化合物。
满足一个肉食者所需的土地，大约是满足奶蛋素食者所需土地的六点五倍，更是纯素食者需求的二十五倍之多。
供应肉食者食物所耗费的水量，是奶蛋素食者耗水的三点三倍，更达纯素食用水的十三倍之多。这些被浪费掉的水，除了给牲畜喝，又拿来灌溉农作物供牲畜吃，还有更多的水用来替牲畜冲洗身体、栏厩、排泄物。
人为了吃肉而多用了十二倍的水量，使得水力发电的供水不足，被迫另外寻求其它更昂贵、更复杂、更污染的发电方法，结果大大地提高了发电成本，也大大地提高了社会成本。

环保看素食

若全人类饮食以肉类为主，现存石油可维持使用多久？
１３年

若全人类素食(不吃动物)，现存石油可维持使用多久？
２６０年

生产１磅小麦耗用多少水？
２５加仑生产

１磅 肉耗用多少水？
２５００加仑

生产１只普通大小的母牛消耗多少水？
足够浮起一只驱逐舰

要养活一位吃肉者所需的耕地可以养活多少完全素食者？
２０人

全球的暖化

●每生产1 公斤肉类，就会排放出36.4公斤的二氧化碳。相当于开车出门3小时。

●饲养和运输1公斤肉所需的能源，可以让一个100瓦的白炽灯泡连续亮3个星期。

●全球造成酸雨氨的排放几乎三分之二是来自牲畜。

●二氧化碳的排放量牲畜比汽车多18%

●一氧化二氮排放的65%来自牲畜，它的暖化能力是二氧化碳的296倍。

●甲烷排放的37%来自牲畜。甲烷的温室效应是二氧化碳的23倍。

●吃一块牛排对地球变暖的影响，相当于一辆小车行驶两英里的热量！

●家畜所造成的温室效应气体，包括运送、喂食、生产过程中所形成的温室气体，约占整体温室效应 气体的80％。

●人类在2005年吃掉的动物数量总计4242亿只，平均每天吃掉12亿只左右。如此庞大的数量会造成多少的温室效应！

Four Good Reasons Why You Should Go Vegetarian

1. Because eating meat is murder.
We know that hamburgers and chicken wings don't grow on trees. They come from animals we've sentenced to death long before they're even born.
Everyone who eats animal products is responsible for the abuse and deaths of beings with lives and personalities of their own—beings who did not choose to be carved up and put on the dinner table.

2. Because eating meat is torture.
Forget about green pastures, fresh air, and sunshine. Animals raised for food are separated from their mothers shortly after birth and spend their brief, miserable lives crammed together by the thousands in factory farms, sometimes unable to move or to take a single step in any direction.

Chickens raised for their flesh are bred to grow so big so fast that their legs collapse beneath them. (How big and how fast, you ask? Well, if human babies were forced to grow at the same rate, they would go from 7 pounds to 1,500 pounds within 11 weeks.) As a result, chickens suffer painful joint and bone conditions and heart attacks. Unable to move, some die of thirst just steps away from their drinking water.

Because animals raised for food are so stressed and fearful, factory farmers think that the only way to prevent them from fighting is through systematic mutilation. Chickens' sensitive beaks are cut off with a hot blade, and pigs' teeth and tails are cut off—all without the use of painkillers. On the killing floor, many animals are still conscious when they are skinned and cut into pieces.

And let's not forget about fish. Whether they're hooked through the mouth, dragged out of the ocean in nets, or "harvested" from fish farms, fish and other marine animals feel pain and don't deserve to die.

3. Because eating meat is suicide.
It's not just the saturated fat and cholesterol. For one thing, humans simply were not designed to eat animal products even in their most natural, unprocessed form. And because of modern farming methods, each mouthful of meat, eggs, and dairy products can come with the following:

Antibiotics and steroids: Animals in factory farms are given these drugs to prevent outbreaks of disease in the crowded, unsanitary conditions in which they live and to make them grow faster.

Feces: Intestines of dead animals can and do get punctured when the carcasses are "cleaned," thus contaminating the flesh with excrement. (In the case of ground beef, feces from one animal get mixed in with almost every other animal's.) The grain that animals are fed has excrement, other dead animals, expired dog and cat food, and leftover restaurant food mixed in as "fillers."

Pus, blood, and scabs: Up to three times a day, cows used for their milk have electric milking machines hooked up to their massively swollen udders, resulting in cuts and infections—"souvenirs" of which end up in the milk.

Toxins: Fish absorb and ingest whatever is in the water in which they live, and they pass it on to us when we eat them. So no matter how clean the water that we drink is, we'd still be getting mercury, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and other toxins whenever we eat fish.

Pathogens: Many kinds of bacteria are harmless and even beneficial. For example, only bacteria can synthesize vitamin B12. But some strains of bacteria cause dangerous and even fatal diseases. E. coli 0157:H7 poisoning is known as "the hamburger disease," campylobacter bacteria can be found in chickens and turkeys, and salmonella outbreaks have been related to almost every food of animal origin, especially eggs.

For one thing, raising animals for food depletes our oxygen supply. In Central America, two-thirds of the rain forests have been cleared to make way for cattle ranches. At the same time, the world's livestock account for 15 to 25 percent of overall global methane emissions—and methane is 24 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

In the United States, nearly half of the country's water, more than one-third of its raw materials and fossil fuels, 80 percent of its agricultural land, and 70 percent of its grain are used to raise animals for food—who, in turn, produce a whopping 87,000 pounds of manure every single second! This waste, which is 130 times the excrement of the entire human population, leaks into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources.

4. Because eating meat just isn't fair.
The suffering of humans and the suffering of other animals are interconnected. By alleviating the suffering of other animals, we also help alleviate human suffering.

For example, around 840 million people go hungry every single day of their lives. Cattle worldwide consume enough calories to feed 8.7 billion people. Crops that could be used to feed the hungry are instead being used to fatten animals raised for food. Instead of growing grain, feeding it to animals, killing the animals, and then eating their flesh, why not just grow crops for human consumption? Simply put, the more meat you eat, the fewer people you feed. You can feed 20 vegetarians on the amount of land needed to feed one person on a meat-based diet. And speaking of land, big corporations buy land at rock-bottom prices and use them to grow food that only richer societies can afford. The farmers, who could've grown their own food if they didn't have to devote their land to raising animals, end up hungry and poor.

史怀哲

史怀哲，德国著名医学家，神学家，哲学家和人道主义者。
以下是他的一些语录。

［除非你能够拥抱并接纳所有生物，而不只是将爱心局限与人类而已，不然你不算是真正有怜悯之心。］

［有思考能力的人一定会反对所有的残酷行径，无论这项行径是否深植传统，只要我们有选择的机会，就应该避免造成其他动物受苦受害。］

［除非人类能够将爱心延伸到所有的生物上，否则人类将永远无法找到和平。］

［我的生命对我来说充满意义，我身边的这些生命一定也有相当重要的意义。如果我要别人尊重我的生命，那么我也必须尊重其他的生命。道德观在西方世界一直就仅限与人类之间，这是非常狭义的。我们应该有无界限的道德观，包括对动物也一样。］

儒家。佛教。

［孟子。梁惠王］曰

君子之于禽兽也，见其生，不忍见其死；闻其声，不忍食其肉，是以君子远庖厨也。



［梵纲经］云

若佛子一切肉不得食，断大慈悲佛种子，一切众生见而舍去，是故一切菩萨不得食一切众生肉，食肉得无量罪。


［大乘楞枷经］

众生自无量劫以来，流转于六道轮徊，生生死死，轮转不息，曾经都是父母兄弟，男女眷属，乃至朋友亲戚，如何忍心取食而之。

人体结构适合素食

其实人体结构适合素食。

人体构造与草食动物和食果类动物相似，而和肉食动物相去甚远。

肉食动物有非常短的消化系统。肉类在体内腐化的很快，其腐烂后形成的毒素会侵入血液。肉食动物经过长期的进化，形成较短的消化系统，约为身体长度的3倍，以利于腐败的肉食及其产生的毒素能迅速的排出体外。另外，肉食动物的胃中也含有比较高浓度的盐酸，用以消化肉食中的纤维组织，酸度比素素食动物强越20倍。肉食动物为了捕杀猎物，有着尖利的爪，强而有力的颚以及尖锐的门齿和犬齿用来刺穿和撕裂坚韧的皮肉。肉食动物没有平坦的臼齿。

草食动物因为吃的都是一些粗糙的食物，所以唾液中含有唾液淀粉酶的消化液来消化含有淀粉类的食物。那些粗糙的食物需要细细嚼碎，所以需要平坦的臼齿。草食动物没有爪子，牙齿也不尖利。肉食动物喝水是用舔的而草食动物是用嘴吸。草食动物因为吃的植物类食物不会很快腐烂，所以可以慢慢的由肠道充分消化吸收，小肠比肉食动物长得多，约为身体长度的10倍。

食果类动物像类人猿，主要靠吃水果和坚果维生。他们有平坦的臼齿用来嚼碎食物；他们的唾液是碱性的，同草食动物一样有唾液淀粉酶。他们的肠道曲折环绕，长度约为身体长度的12倍，适合慢慢的消化水果和蔬菜。

人类的生理特征与食果类动物几乎完全相同，与草食动物十分相似，与肉食动物则相差甚远。人类的消化系统，牙齿构造，以及身体机能等与肉食动物完全不同。与类人猿一样，人类的肠道曲折环绕，长度约为身体长度的12倍。人类像所有素食动物一样，喝水用吸的；人类的牙齿和颚的构造都是为素食而设计；人类的唾液是碱性的，含有唾液淀粉酶。

因此，从生理结构来看，人类不是食肉动物。人类根本不具备吃肉的本能。大多数人需要靠第三者替我们杀死动物来获得肉食，若自己亲手杀生会觉得很恶心或不舒服。肉食动物一般吃生肉，而人类则要用烹煮。烧烤等方法弄熟之后才吃。烹调过程中还要加上各种调味料来掩饰肉的原味。

将人里里外外的生理构造与其他动物相较之下就知道，水果和多汁的蔬菜才是大自然赐予人类的食物。