God Does Not Eat Meat - Slaughterhouses Exit Strategy
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Author Arthur Poletti
May 2007

Slaughterhouses: An Exit Strategy for the Meat Industry

Years of news stories around the globe revealing catastrophic disasters related to meat consumption and threats of major epidemics that may be caused by diseases like Mad Cow, E.coli, and the H5N1 virus or bird flu, have convinced millions of people that consuming any of God’s creatures is unhealthy and, in some cases, life threatening.

It’s become increasingly obvious that eating animals promotes and supports the worst kind of cruelty, is morally wrong and is extremely unhealthy.

Current consumer awareness has created a dilemma for the meat industry. It’s estimated that as many as 6 to 8 percent of US citizens are currently vegetarians. This figure could easily stretch to 9 to 10 percent by the end of 2006.

There are approximately 300 million people in the United States today. This means that there may be at least 27 to 30 million vegetarians in the US by the year 2008.

In addition, many meat eaters are now encountering more and more vegetarian options and meat alternatives at their local supermarkets, so it’s also likely that a large number of those who are currently on the fence could be convinced to make the healthier and morally correct change soon.

Recommendations that would benefit everyone concerned.

Fast food and meat industry giants should seize the moment. Now is the time for meat industry executives to come to the realization that the consumption of animal products is on its way out – no matter how much they’d like to believe otherwise.

Lawsuits and videotapes of animal cruelty, animal-born disease, and the premature death of billions of animals and humans is continually prompting - and promoting - the eventual demise of animal consumption.

Recently it was revealed by several reliable sources that the livestock is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Read why at:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/05/the-warming-globe-and-us/ 

Meat industry leaders would be wise to seize the moment and to announce a plan to promote and host Vegetarian Food Trade Shows.

These trade shows would ideally be weekend events held in large metropolitan cities throughout the US. Guests would include cattle farmers, factory farm executives, and fast food chain executives.

Others in attendance would include chefs of vegetarian restaurants, health food chain executives, expert dieticians and nutritionists, animal rights activists, religious leaders, politicians, corporate executives, celebrities and the news media.

The first objective of these trade shows would be to provide those in attendance the opportunity to sample a wide variety of vegetarian foods. The fare provided would highlight how delicious and innovative meatless alternatives really are.

The second objective would be to provide informative presentations made by health food experts and animal activists, using films and presentations clearly outlining current factory farm abuses, and contrasting these presentations with facts about the health benefits gained from eating vegetarian foods.

The third objective would be for former cattle ranchers to provide informative and detailed presentations explaining how they got out of the cattle business and are now successfully farming vegetables, fruits and grains.

Their first-hand knowledge and experience explaining procedures and techniques used to transition from cattle farming to produce farming could ultimately enable the entire meat industry in the United States to gradually, and then perhaps more rapidly, convert from meat production farming to the production of vegetarian products.

Seizing the moment:

In my opinion, it will not be animal activists, health food or religious leaders who will get the credit for the eventual, inevitable transition to vegetarian farming worldwide. Rather, it will be meat industry executives themselves, seeking to profit from the current US transition to vegetarianism, who will initiate this change. And this could set the stage for other countries to follow suit.

Therefore, as odd as it may seem, meat industry executives themselves actually possess the power to dramatically change the society we live in to a much healthier, kinder, and safer place – if only they would realize this.

The old saying “timing is everything” has never been more appropriate. With all of the misery, violence, and death in the world today, what better time for meat industry executives to wake up and promote kindness and better health for potential customers who are, more and more, growing to expect these very things from their neighborhood supermarkets, such as Whole Foods Markets, which now sponsors an Animal Compassion Foundation.

Interestingly, if the meat industry remains unmoved by allegations and evidence of animal cruelty, and unwilling to react to media reports citing the many health benefits of opting for a vegetarian diet, they will continue to lose larger and larger shares of the consumer market.

The meat industry even now faces the possibility of one day soon being overtaken by the rapidly emerging vegetarian food industry. You can be sure that the complete changeover replacing all unhealthy animal products with vegetarian food options is coming and will continue to happen whether or not the meat industry is prepared for it.

Our present goal should be to discreetly and constructively do everything possible to communicate with and convince meat industry executives that there is everything to gain and little to lose by making the changeover to a vegetarian product base.

For the sake of all animals.

Arthur Poletti
Western Springs, Illinois
Author of the book: God Does Not Eat Meat
Read for free online at: http://www.all-creatures.org/book/gdnem.html 

"But for the sake of some little mouthful of meat, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy."
~Plutarch, Greek Writer


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