Let’s begin to say, vegans get their unjust, ill-informed excuses for any reason to continue to support the war on animals and to make people feel better about their choices to continue to eat animals. The latest excuse: “Vegans Kill More Animals” because of crop deaths, and evidently it must be true because Ted Nugent the infamous hunter said it on KLPX the largest rock station in Tucson, and also on Joe Rogan, then by God it must be TRUE!
Ted Nugent said back in 2021, vegans kill more animals with their diet than meat eaters: “Don’t think for a minute that there’s a reduction in animal deaths because you have a tofu salad.” “Vegans are “responsible” for the most death possible” because millions of animals are killed every year to prepare land for growing crops, like corn, soybean, wheat and barley, the staples of a vegan diet.
He goes on to state, “If you wanna be responsible for the most death possible, become a vegan. Because behind that tractor and that plough and that disc, unless you hide and deny it, are crows and seagulls following that tractor growing your tofu because the plough and the disc dismember and mutilate EVERYTHING in those gazillion acres –every squirrel, every ground-nesting gopher, every ground-nesting bird, every snake, every turtle, every animal in that field that’s turned into tofu is SLAUGHTERED by the gazillion,” Nugent continues… (Let’s note with me being close to many organic crops living in Marin County an participating this is FAR from the truth.)
“My son’s a vegan, my buddy Michael Lutz (of) Brownsville Station, my co-producer, he’s a vegan for health considerations, for digestive considerations. That’s perfectly legitimate. I’m not knocking veganism. But don’t think for a minute that there’s a reduction in animal deaths because you have a tofu salad. Just the opposite takes places. And denial is a convenient lie. So all you vegans, just keep eating your vegan salad because I love when you dismember all those animals and crows and the seagulls pick up on them as they’re wriltinging in horror and being tortured so you can have a nice “blood-free” salad.”
I myself, happen to have a veganic organic garden, I put copper around the beds when I learned how to deter them without killing them. Gophers are deterred with strong wire mesh on bottoms of beds.
ANIMALS KILLED FOR MEAT EATERS
Let’s just really narrow it down, to live Vegan is a lifestyle that tries to the best of our ability to cause the least harm. It’s not just a diet but a lifestyle that includes not wearing animals, eating animals, participating in animals bred and held in captivity for entertainment, animals bred and raised for animal testing, it’s daunting the number of animals that we avoid causing harm to, here is a US animal counter of the number of animals we kill per year for food. https://animalclock.org and let’s not forget all the marine mammals killed for fish such as whales, turtles, dolphins and varieties of fish that are caught in fishing nets by accident; For every 1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill. Discard and bycatch in Shrimp Trawl Fisheries” FAO: Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. Scientists estimate as many as 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed every year by fishing vessels. 1
ANIMAL CROPS GROWN FOR LIVESTOCK
Did you know that the highest producers of soy crops of which 80% are grown in Brazil Amazon Rainforest are for livestock? It has over 29 million hectares of land available and used for farming soybean. In the 4 most recent growing seasons up to 2014-15, soybean production has been on steady rise.(USDA) Annual production quantities have ranged from 66.5 to 94.5 million metric tons. Earning $23 billion USD in 2013. Soybeans grown in Brazil have higher protein levels than those grown in other parts of the world. The country also produces a large quantity of non-GMO soybeans.
Livestock takes up to nearly 80% of global agricultural land, yet produces less than 20% of the world’s supply of calories. Our World Data
Growing feed crops for Livestock consumes 56% of water in the U.S. (Michael Jacobson, Six Arguments for a greener diet.
Animal Agriculture is the leading cause of Species Exctinction, Ocean dead zones, water pollution, and Habitat Destruction.
Animal Agriculture contributes to species extinction in many ways. In addition to the monumental habitat destruction caused by clearing forests (thereby killing and displacing millions of animals, killing over 65 million native vertebrates and 4 billion invertebrates, including jaguars, giant anteaters, deer, eagles, and macaws,) and converting land to grow feed crops and for animal grazing, predators and “competition” species are frequently targeted and hunted because of a perceived threat to livestock profits. (These include, coyotes, wolves., bears, foxes, otters, mountain lions.)
The widespread use of pesiticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers used in production of feed crops often interferes with the reproductive systems of animals and poisons waterways. The overexploitation of wild species through commercial fishing, bushmeat trade as well as animal agriculture’s impact on climate change, all contribute to global depletion of species and resources.
RAISING LIVESTOCK CAUSES SPECIES EXTINCTION
More than 175 threatened or endangered species are imperiled by livestock on federal lands, where livestock grazing is promoted and subsidized on 270 million acres of public lands in 11 western states. Livestock grazing –not including the large portion of agriculture devoted to cattle production and other forms of meat production — is among the greatest threats to imperiled species, affecting 14 percent of threatened or endangered animals and 33 percent of threatened and endangered plants.
In addition, at the behest of ranchers, a federal agency known as “Wildlife Services,” shoots, traps and poisons millions of animals every year, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, bears, otters, mountain lions, prairie dogs in National Forests to make more room for livestock. The program has contributed to the decline of gray wolves, Mexican wolves, black-footed ferrets, black-tailed prairie dogs and other imperiled species during the first half of the 1990s, and continues to impede their recovery today.
Wildlife habitat is converted to grazing areas, large scale feedlots and slaughterhouses, as well as cropland to feed livestock. Half the landmass of the lower 48 states is used raise and feed livestock. Grazing and factory farms destroy vegetation, damage soils, contaminate waterways with fecal waste and disrupt natural ecosytems processes resulting in less natural habitat for wildlife. Center for Biological Diversity
PESTICIDES USED IN ANIMAL CROPS
About 22 million pounds of atrazine — a known endocrine disruptor associated with hermaphroditism, sterility and other abnormalities in frogs — are applied to feed crops. Clothianadin, a pesticide known to be toxic to bees, is regularly applied to corn. In total 167 million pounds of pesticides are used to grow animal feed. Pesticide residues are found in meat and dairy products– even long banned pesticides like DDT. Residues from glyphosate, the most commonly used pesticide in the world, allowed in animal feed can be more than 100 times that allowed on grains consumed by humans. Source and studies: Center for Biological Diversity https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/takeextinctionoffyourplate/meat_and_wildlife.html
Please take the information and reach out to me on how to go vegan, it’s a lifestyle to save your health, the animals and the planet and it’s a lovely way to live!
STUDIES:
THE LEADING CAUSES OF RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION ARE LIVESTOCK AND FEEDCROPS
(Biodiversity and Food Choice: A Clarification, comfortablyunawared: Global depletion and Food Choice Responsibility June 2012 “Freshwater Depletion”; November 2014 “What is a Dead Zone”? National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “Livestock’s Longshadow Report”; Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations 2006 “Impact of habitat loss on species” WWF Global “How Eating Meat Hurts Wildlife and the Planet.” Take Extinction off Your Plate” A project of the Center for Biological Diversity David Welcome, et al.. “Quantifying Threats to Imperiled Species in the United States” Bioscience Vol. 48 Aug 1998
RAINFOREST AND FEEDCROPS: Butler, Rhett “Cattle Ranching Impact on the Rainforest, Monagabay.com July 2-12 (new) Viega, J.B. Et al, “Cattle Ranching in the Amazon Rainforest.” UN Food and Agriculture Organization “Soy Agriculture in the Amazon Basin” Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies: Global Forest Atlas (new)
136 MILLION RAINFOREST ACRES CLEARED FOR ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
Butler, Rhettr, “Amazon Destruction” Mongabay.com January 2017 Rhett, Butler Brazilian Beef Giante announces moratorium on Rainforest Beef” Mogabay August 2009
FISHING BYCATCH STUDIES
1 ) Amanda Keledian,et el, “Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries Oceania March 2014. 40-50 Million Sharks Killed in Fishing Lines and Net. “Shark Fin Trade Myths and Truths”; BYCATCH Shark Savers “Sharks at Risk” Animal Welfare Institute Dan Stone, 100 Million Sharks killed every Year, Study Show on Eve of International Conference on Shark Protection, National Geographic March 2013 Worm, Boris et, al “Global catches, eploitation rates and rebuilding options for sharks, Marine Policy 2013 194-204 (new)
