ed's website

Find below articles about animal rights and vegetarianism which have had deep resonance with me. I'd also recommend the book, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, where Gandhi talks extensively about the importance of vegetarianism.

Dr Janez Drnovsek, President of Slovenia, on being a vegan - Reprinted in Indymedia from the Liberation of Animals Magazine - 20/04/06 - Interview with Dr Janez Drnovsek on the ethics of a vegan diet and the foolishness of the EU in subsidising the meat industry; Christmas; "Tolstoy said "As long as there are slaughter houses there will be wars." If a person's conscience is highly developed they will not kill or be cruel to animals. You can not expect from such person to go to war and kill people for a profit; "Animals are transported in lorries many times without any water which is extremly cruel. It is not that people are bad they just don't think about it. When the final product is in front of them on the plate they don't think what was it before and how it got to this stage.

Factory Farming: The Global Mistake by Philip Lymbery in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security: The Impact of Globalisation - edited by Vandana Shiva and Gitanjali Bedi - In 10 pages it tells the dark side of the different aspects factory farming. Broiler chickens, battern hens, cock chicks, pigs, dairy cows, etc.

Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian - "A recent report by EarthSave International, based on the work of leading climate scientists, shows that adopting a vegetarian diet is far more effective at reducing global warming than is reducing emissions from cars or power plants."

Livestock a major threat to environment - FAO Newsroom - 29 Nov 06 - "According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation."

Livestock's Long Shadow - major report on impact of livestock on environment. - 8 Jan 07 - "Overall, livestock activities contribute to an estimated 18% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emmissions from five major sectors of greenhouse gas reporting:energy, industry, waste, landuse change and forestry (LULUCF) and agriculture."

Meat production 'beefs up emissions' - Ian Sample, science correspondent - Thursday July 19, 2007 - Guardian Unlimited - "Producing 1kg of beef results in more CO2 emissions than going for a three-hour drive while leaving all the lights on at home, scientists said today."

Humane meat? - Poorva Joshipura - The Guardian - January 9, 2008 - "What most writers and critics don't seem to understand, though, is that while factory farms and battery conditions are something to be hopping mad about and while we at PETA support all efforts to get rid of the worst abuses of farmed animals, the production of meat will always be inherently cruel. You can raise animals in better conditions, remove the drugs from their food and slap organic or free-range labels on their carcasses, but in the end, if you are eating meat, you're paying someone to kill animals - unnecessarily."; "But we should think twice about so-called "humane meat" and other such curious concepts. There is blood and gore in less-cruel meat, just as there is in the worst factory-farmed meat. As the three million vegetarians in the UK prove, we can enjoy a healthy, tasty and diverse variety of foods without contributing to such suffering."