Our future depends on US.

We, as a country, need to step up. Because, (I am not the first or only one to say this) we are screwing it up. We are ruining, destroying ourselves, and the world in which we live. But let's just start with ourselves, us: the problem. It is we. We are the problem.

We teach our children to love animals, then serve animals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We torture, beat, maim, and rape animals, then say it's okay by justifying that it is "up to code" and follows USDA standards. 

We say that milk gives us calcium that makes for strong bones, when the US has one of the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world. (The three next closest countries for highest rates of osteoporosis are also the three next countries that consume dairy in the largest quantities. Finland, Sweden, and England; don't worry, they're next. A time will come when they will be in the same position we are in now.)

We spend more money developing new ways to substitute chemicals for food than we do promoting healthy, plant-based food.

We justify hunting by saying that its okay, because when we hunt, we use every part of the animal. Guess who else uses every part of the animal? The animal.

We ask vegetarians and vegans, where do you get your protein, when 68% of America doesn't eat enough fruit and 72% doesn't eat enough vegetables, the answer is pretty clear. 

We say that we are carnivores, when we really have 99.9% of the same DNA as gorillas, who are herbivores. Our jaw was built to chew our food into a paste, mashing from side to side. Carnivorous animals can only move their jaws up and down. Oh yes, let's not forget that we have canine teeth that "were meant to rip flesh, tear meat". I'd like to see one person go and kill and cow or deer and rip it's flesh open with his/her teeth.

We have come up with so many ways to lose weight; liposuction, weight belts, televised contests, celebrity weight loss programs, and thousands of low-fat "miracle" diets that will help us lose weight. Here's an idea. Let's stop gaining weight. Simple, we don't need fancy programs; we need better diets.

We, as a country, are destroying ourselves. We are digging our own graves. We are digging our children's graves as well. For the first time in history, IN HISTORY, our children are expected to live a life span TEN YEARS less than ours. Our generation isn't declining. It's on the brink of extinction. And it's our own fault.

We kill innocent animals, and suddenly, we need a way to make our food better, more long lasting. So we created "food science". Two words, which before the 20th century, didn't belong in the same sentence. Just because science can improve nutrition by genetically engineering food, doesn't mean we have to, or should. And we definitely shouldn't rely on these "modified" foods. Why are we spending billions of dollars reinventing the wheel when we already have several that work? 

In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov "plays God", killing two women; one, because "she was a louse" and he was "doing the world a favor", the other, because "she was in the way". The character writes an article on Napoleonic figures, people who are extraordinary. He considers himself one of these people. He knows the world is unfair, and does what he feels is the right thing, the fair thing for everybody. We look at this character with disdain. He is a murderer. Murderer! How can he decide who should live and who should die? He didn't even rob her, he just buried the money? He will be punished. It is the just thing to do, crime is always followed by punishment. WE ARE PLAYING GOD. We are exactly like Raskolnikov; we pick and choose, let's love this animal, but kill and barbecue this one. This is the right thing to do, this is standard, this is how animals should be treated. We are not murderers, because we are human, we are the top species, we are at the top of the food chain. Guess what? The same principle that governs our country also governs nature. All men are equal. In nature, ALL ARE EQUAL. We are part of nature. So are animals. We are equal. Also, we are human, and what we have all heard many a time is that humans make mistakes. THIS IS A MISTAKE. A crime, even. Which, as  we should see fit as a just and fair following, should be punished. We should be punished for our sins. This has nothing to do with religion. We have sinned. (Sin, verb: to commit an act considered as a serious or regrettable fault or offense.)

More than 150 billion animals are killed each year for food. This is the number of animals killed worldwide by the meat, egg, and dairy industries. This is a minimum estimate. This number does NOT include the many millions of animals killed each year in vivisection laboratories. It does NOT include the millions of dogs and cats killed in animal shelters every year. It does NOT include the animals who died while held captive in the animal-slavery enterprises of circuses, rodeos, zoos, and marine parks. It does NOT include the animals killed while pressed into such blood sports as bullfighting, cockfighting, dogfighting, and bear baiting, nor do they include horses and greyhounds who were exterminated after they were no longer deemed suitable for racing. This number doesn't make sense. Can you name five equals that deserve to be killed? How about ten? Fifty? 100? 100 million? It isn't even fathomable. This number is more than 21 times the population OF THE WORLD. Each YEAR. What would happen if the roles were reversed? If animals killed humans for food? They would run out of food. That is like us taking every person on this planet, and slaughtering them, and after everyone is gone, the world empty, we would have murdered 21 times less the amount of people we should have in a year. And, because we think so highly of ourselves, we would repeat our mistake, year after year. We are killing machines. We have murdered so many, that we are now skilled at it. It is America’s chosen craft. We have made it into a business, a science, a way of living. We even have a name for it: animal agriculture. (Agri- or agro- meaning field, -culture meaning growning, tending or cultivating, as in cultivating the soil.) Last I checked, animals don’t grow out of the ground. They do not need to be cultivated like grains or vegetables. They are living, breathing, sentient beings. They feel emotion. They have developed languages between their species. They have graciously allowed us to share the earth with them, and we let them down, we disrespected them we killed them. Just because there are a lot of fish in the sea or cows in a pasture does not mean that we have the right to take their innocent lives.

We are equal, it is time for us to start acting like it. We should not support the killing of animals for food, pleasure, monetary benefit, or any other reason. If I murdered someone and said it was "standard", or "everyone does it" or "I did it because meat tastes good" or "it's just business, I am supporting millions of other Americans". I would be portrayed as a sick, disgusting criminal, worry of punishment. I would die in jail or on death row. That is us. That is what we, as a country, are looking forward to. If we want to be sick, disgusting, criminalistic murderers and rapists, punishers and the "hands of God", then that is what we will be. We are approaching the moment in time where all of this is going to matter greatly. It has already mattered, it has always mattered. But never on this scale.

Our world is ever-changing. There have been countless changes, good and bad. This change, to be blunt, is bad. It is KILLING us. Thousands of us, every day of every year. We are killing others only to end up killing ourselves? It is a long-term suicide. We are killing us and our children. If we continue, we will die out, we will end up fat, diseased, and living in a world we destroyed. We must change.

Our future depends on US.