Animal Liberation Team Promotes Veganism

By: Stevie Anne Stewart and Jacob Roskelley

Human health, environmental concern and consideration of animal rights and welfare are reasons why everyone should consider a vegan diet, said Jennifer Moss-Holmes, president of the USU Student Animal Liberation Team.

Moss-Holmes laid out the benefits of being both a vegetarian and a vegan to several groups of students last week. She broke the topic into five categories: human health, the environment, human rights, animal welfare and animal rights.

"Veganism is without a doubt the best choice for both health and the environment," said Moss-Holmes.

Moss-Holmes said veganism is defined as not utilizing any animal products. Vegans neither wear nor eat any form of animal products, she said. Health should be a concern for those who consume animal products, Moss-Holmes said. She said the cholesterol level of the average meat-eater is 210, whereas vegetarians have an average cholesterol level of 161 and vegans have an average level of 132. Doctors recommend a cholesterol level below 150, Moss-Holmes said.

"Meat, dairy and eggs are making us sick. Animal products are making us fat and lethargic. If you don't get hit by a bus or die of cancer, your arteries close off and you die, " Moss-Holmes said. "If people were being run down by trucks at the same rate, something would be done."

Moss-Holmes said many vegetarians still eat fish, chicken and eggs. She said people should consider eating more plant-based foods and less animal-based foods. Many people think that they need fish to get essential fatty acids in their diets, but these fatty acids can be found in vegan food sources as well, Moss-Holmes said. Grocery stores are being stocked with contaminated and spoiled fish and the antibiotics in these food sources are exposing people to unsafe levels of chemicals, Moss-Holmes said.

Besides humans, there is no animal that drinks the mammary secretions of other animals and there is no other animal that drinks milk after infancy, Moss-Holmes said. Dairy products lead to obesity, heart disease, lethargy and an array of other problems, she said.

"You can be an obese vegan or a skinny meat-eater," she said, "but on average, vegans are 20 percent lighter."

Speaking about human health, Moss-Holmes said animal protein can cause cancer "even at usual levels of consumption." She said to help prevent cancer, people need to eat more plant-based rather than animal-based foods.

Moss-Holmes said the environmental effects of consuming animal products should also be of concern to people. The greenhouse effect from fossil fuels needed for transportation of animals as well as the damage that livestock do to soil are destroying the ecosystem, she said. There is an 85 percent loss of topsoil due to growing livestock animals for food, Moss-Holmes said. She said the animal waste drains into the ground and contaminates water sources.

Moss-Holmes said, "This makes about as much sense as running water through a sewer system and then drinking it."

The gas-guzzling trucks that are used to transport animals are polluting the world, Moss-Holmes said. She said in terms of pollution, a meat eater is equivalent to an 18-wheeler, a vegetarian to a small car and a vegan to a bike or walking. Moss-Holmes said each year 60 million people die from starvation. It is more resource-intensive to raise animals for food than to raise plants for food, she said. The world's people would be more easily fed if there were not so many meat eaters, Moss-Holmes said. It takes one-sixth of an acre to feed one vegan, one-half of an acre to feel a vegetarian an 3.3 acres to feed one meat-eater, Moss-Holmes said.

"If veganism were no better for the planet or human health, it would still be the only sure-fire way to avoid cruelty to animals," Moss-Homes said. "A true environmentalist can't eat meat, dairy or eggs."

Moss-Holmes said 500 animals are killed per hour in the United States. She said, If people are eating meat, they are supporting cruelty to animals. Animals have feelings just like people do, she said. Due to changes in genetics, chickens today grow to slaughter weight in less than two months, as opposed to more than three months a century ago, Moss-Holmes said. The bodies of chickens are growing much too fast for their legs and brains to keep up, she said. It is unfair for them to live in discomfort, Moss-Holmes said. Animals are being pumped full of antibiotics and chemicals to make them grow faster, she said.

People need to grow the understanding that she believes animals feel pain like people do, Moss-Holmes said. Humans have a "species bias," Moss-Holmes said. Certain things aren't human, so they get treated horribly, she said.

Moss-Holmes quoted author Alice Walker who said, "Animals were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women were made for men."

Moss-Holmes said 100 years ago, there were no child abuse laws and the right to vote was not guaranteed to all humans. One hundred years from now, humans will look back and hopefully something will have changed, she said.

"I try not to support things I oppose," Moss-Holmes said. "Solutions will require the time and devotion of people who care."

Moss-Holmes, a junior in the art department at USU, said it is easier than ever to be a vegan and people should do all they can to make the world a better place. She said she has been a vegetarian for five or six years and a vegan for almost a year. She said she doesn't have any trouble finding food to fit the vegan diet in Logan.

View the article as it appeared in the Utah Statesman.