The destruction of tropical rainforests at the rate of 50 acres every minute is not only destroying fruit-producing tropical ecosystems which are dependent on recycled moisture from their own aspirations, but it is also a direct cause of topsoil loss and stream siltation.

The loss of vegetation, including species still unknown, results not only in local desertification but changes rainfall patterns causing desertification in areas far away. E.g. Loss of rainforest in South America contributes to the expansion of desert in Africa. The burning of cut trees also contributes to acid rain which affects distant cities as well as indigenous people and wild animals.

Destruction of these forests is at least partly to blame for the decline in North American migratory bird populations. We are currently losing 1,000 wild animal species a year and unknown numbers of plants and insects.

The acceleration of rainforest destruction is primarily due to the demand for low cost beef to supply North Americans with hamburgers.

World hunger gets worse in proportion to human population growth. It is ironic that 90% of American agricultural resources are devoted to raising livestock for the production of meat and dairy products. While less fortunate people starve, we feed nourishing grains and legumes to animals instead of eating them ourselves. About 90% of the protein and 96% of the calories fed to beef cattle, for instance, are lost.

Over half the water consumed in the United States is used for raising animals for slaughter. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat. This use of water is so great that it reduces rivers to trickles and limits the amount of water available for hydropower and non-animal agriculture. It has also contributed to the depletion of undergound aquifers to the the extent of causing land subsidence.

The meat industry now accounts for three times more harmful organic pollution than all other industries combined. Manure used to be recycled beneficially by microbes in the soil, but modern factory farm systems produce manure by the ton all in one place. It is a major source of stream pollution, using up oxygen and harming aquatic animals. The increased nitrate levels it causes in drinking water can cause brain damage in infants. There is also the problem of odor and air pollution.

And what about the pollution of your body? Every time you eat meat, you also eat traces of the antibiotics and pesticides that the animal was exposed to while living. Intensive "factory farm" conditions necessitate the routine use of both. Subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics produce faster growth and inhibit disease organisms that thrive in the unhealthy, crowed conditions.

Epidemiological studies have determined that the consumption of animal fats is a major factor in causing stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. We have learned that excessive consumption of protein strains the kidneys and leaches calcium out of the bones. Contrary to popular belief, most human bodies have evolved to function better on a vegetarian diet.

If animals could speak our language, they would tell us how chickens, pigs, and veal calves are confined in cages and stalls so small that they cannot stretch a wing or turn around; how they are subjected to painful de-beaking, castration, de-horning, tail-docking; how they are injected with hormones to promote unnatural growth and milk production; forced to breathe air heavily polluted with their own excretions, and to lie down on harsh concrete floors; how some of them have been artificially bred to produce meat fast - like chickens whose legs are not strong enough to bear their weight and pigs whose pelvises snap under their excessive weight.

Veal calves are taken from their mothers at birth or when a few days old and tethered in 22-inch stalls in dark sheds without bedding and fed a deficient diet to produce anemic white flesh.

All this so humans can indulge in a diet destructive to their health and the environment.