1. Vegetarians help cool the Planet.

  Raising and feeding animals for slaughter overheat the planet and use up a lot of resources.  If you take into
consideration the methane from farting cattle, the gases released from their manure, the oil needed to take the carcasses to the market, the electricity needed
to keep the meat cool…  at the end of the day, animals are poor converters of food to flesh.  Switching to a more plant-based diet minimizes greenhouse gases,
which makes for a cooler planet, physically and figuratively.
2. Vegetarians consume less water.  It might seem like a weird thing to say, when I always stress the importance of drinking water and its benefit to your
health.  But hear me out…  Vegetarian author John Robbins calculated it takes 60, 108, 168 and 229 pounds of water to produce 1 pound of potatoes, wheat,
 corn and rice, respectively.   On the other hand, it takes approximately 15,000 pounds of water to produce one pound of beef.  Vegetarians consume less water
in the sense people are consuming all the water it took to produce that piece of meat.  No wonder there are so many vegetarians in California, huh??
3. Vegetarians reduce stress on the ozone layer.  If you’ve ever been close to a livestock farm, you know these are very, very smelly.  It’s said 2/3 of man-
made ammonia, a major contributor to acid rain, is produced by livestock.  Seventy percent of the agricultural crops are grown for livestock feed and these are
responsible for 37% of pesticide use in the US.  Even though pesticides and fertilizers are used in vegetable and fruit agriculture and there is a case to be built
around the importance of organic farming, reducing demand on animals for slaughter would greatly improve the air and ozone layer quality.
4. Vegetarians preserve ocean life.  Not only because vegans and most vegetarians do not consume seafood, but because vast quantities of excess nutrients
from animal waste, factory farms, sewage and nitrogen compounds from animal factory farming pollute sea water taking up all oxygen in the sea water near
the mouths of major rivers, to the point where little can live.  And these things do not get talked about on the news…  Certainly, oil spillage, like the one in the
Gulf of Mexico, is not the only cause of water pollution and threat to ocean life.
5. Vegetarians enjoy variety and promote biodiversity.   For decades, tropical rainforests, one of the most diverse and rich ecosystems on our planet,
have been destroyed to use for grazing cattle and growing soya for chicken feed.  The World Wildlife Fund calculates that about one third of the world’s diverse
eco-regions are threatened by the sheer quantity of animals being raised for humans to eat.   And also, people with a plant-based diet are more open to try new
foods, rethinking their dinner plate to see rice, pasta or quinoa as a main dish, not just as a side.
6. Vegetarians promote life and health.  According to The Vegetarian Society, a vegetarian saves the lives of approximately 11,000 animals in his lifetime. 
A vegetarian sees no difference in the life of a pig as the life of the family dog or cat.  And even though there are multiple factors involved in someone’s overall
health, it is highly documented that people on a plant-based diet have a lower risk of developing obesity, cancers, heart disease and other illnesses.