Did you know...?
Articles from Tell Youth The Truth

Did you know...?

It takes 23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes.
It takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.

One acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes.
One acre of land can produce 165 pounds of beef.

It takes 1 pound of grain to make 1 pound of bread.
It takes 20 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef.

75% of the grain sent to third world nations goes to livestock production.
The U.S. cattle industry produces 158 million tons of waste per year.

Livestock production is the #1 cause of water pollution in the U.S.
22 million acres of land have become unusable due to desertification.

85% of the topsoil loss in the U.S. is the result of livestock production.
In the U.S., 33% of ALL raw material consumption is used solely in the production of meat, egg, and dairy products.

The countries with the diets highest in animal products are also the countries with the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc.
50% of men who eat meat regularly die of heart disease.

80% of USDA chicken inspectors no longer eat chicken.
U.S. tuna fisherman are permitted to kill over 20,000 dolphins every year.

2 million sharks die in driftnets in the north pacific every year.
In the past 20 years approximately 1 million species have disappeared from the world's tropical forests.

From 1960-1985 over 40% of the central American rainforests were destroyed to create grazing land for cattle.
The united states imports over 100,000 tons of beef from central America each year.

Only 1 in 10 baby chimpanzees survive the trip form the jungle to the zoo.
1 billion animals are killed each year in experiments.

17 million animals are trapped in the U.S. each year for fur. Many traps are so painful that animals chew through their own limbs to escape.

For every fur animal trapped, two other animals (dogs, cats, deer, etc.) are trapped and killed.
In 1997 450,000 minks died on fur farms from heat exhaustion.

1 ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and enough energy to heat the average home for 6 months.
Enough wood and paper is thrown away each year in America to heat 1 billion houses for a year.

Six times more jobs are created by recycling as opposed to landfill operations.
Out of every $10 that Americans spend on food, $1 pays for packaging.

65% of garbage in the U.S. is packaging.
50% of all trash thrown away could be recycled into new products.

500 new dumps are built each year in the united states.
Over 1 billion trees are used to make disposable diapers every year.

Americans throw away 20 billion disposable diapers each year.
Americans dump the equivalent of 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year.

Over 700,000 tons of hazardous waste is produced in the U.S. every day.
Americans throw away 10 million cigarette lighters every week.

Nearly 500,000 people die of cigarette related diseases in the U.S. each year.
Smoking-related diseases cost the United States more than $150 billion a year. 

Pesticides that are banned in the U.S. (such as DDT) are regularly sold to third world countries.
90% of all food borne pesticides are found in meat and dairy products.

90% of nursing mothers who were meat eaters had DDT in their breast milk.  10% of nursing mothers who were vegetarian had DDT in their breast milk.
In 1945, before widespread pesticide use, U.S. corn growers lost 3% of their crops to insects. In 1994, they lost over 12%.

74 different kinds of pesticides have been found in drinking water.
Over 100 chemical contaminants have been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers in the U.S. of the 34 chemicals most widely used on lawns, 25% are widely believed to cause birth defects, genetic mutation, and cancer.

Americans spend 6 billion dollars on their lawns each year.
As of 1995, 25% of U.S. nuclear reactors would not be able to contain a core breach meltdown.

A 1985 study predicted a 45% chance of core breach meltdown in the U.S. before 2005.
In 1992, 430,000 people in the world died from cancers resulting from nuclear testing radiation.

More money is spent in the U.S. on nuclear weaponry in one year than was spent on housing from 1980-1992.
To date cleaning up storage facilities for nuclear debris has cost taxpayers 200 billion dollars.

In 1989 the U.S. military used 200 billion barrels of oil, enough to keep all American public transit systems running for 22 years.
1 ton of toxic waste is produced by the U.S. every minute.

Editor's Note:

Special thanks to singer/songwriter, musician, and activist, Moby for organizing this collection of information. This list, which is titled, "Facts that I've Collected," is published in the insert of his 1995 album, "Everything is Wrong."
Although this information was published in 1995, it is highly likely that a staggering majority of this data is still accurate.  Recognizing as of 2007, that little (if any in most cases) has been done to alleviate these issues.. the likely difference in these statistics is that it is worse, and will continue to worsen until significant changes occur.

If you're dubious of any of the information listed above, we encourage you to do some fact finding for yourself.  Let us know what you've discovered through your investigations!

We do not have answers to each and every complicated, social and economic problem.  For the most part... here is perhaps some of the best answers to effectively tackle these issues:

1. Go Vegan (Stop eating animal flesh, animal secretions - also known as 'Dairy', and stop wearing animal skin and fur trim.)

2. Don't support animal cruelty (i.e.. entertainment, sport, lab testing.)

3. Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

4. Don't smoke (obviously).

5. Share your information with with others - Tell everyone the truth! 

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