Vegetarian starter kit.pdf

Vegetarian

inside:

recipes

Starter

tips

Kit

info

everything you need to know to adopt

a healthy and compassionate diet

the of how

vegetarian

i became

MFA’s Executive Director Nathan Runkle.

Chinese, Indian, Thai, and Middle Eastern dishes were

vegetarian. I now know that being a vegetarian is as

simple as choosing your dinner from a different section

of the menu and shopping in a different aisle of the

grocery store.

Dear Friend,

Though the animals were my initial reason for

eliminating meat, dairy and eggs from my diet, the health

beneﬁ ts of my

choice were soon

apparent. Coming

from a family

plagued with cancer

and heart disease,

which drastically cut

short the lives of

both my mother and

grandfather, I was

all too familiar with

the effect diet can

have on one’s health.

I became a vegetarian when I was 11 years old, after

picking up and taking to heart the content of a piece

of literature very similar to this Vegetarian Starter Kit you

hold in your hands today.

every time

we eat we

are making

a powerful

choice

Growing up on a small farm off the back country

roads of Saint Paris, Ohio, I was surrounded by

animals since the day I was born. Like most children,

I grew up with a natural afﬁ nity for animals, and over

time I developed strong bonds and friendships with

our family’s dogs and cats with whom we shared our

home.

However, it wasn’t until later in life that I made the

connection between my beloved dog, Sadie, for whom

I would do anything to protect her from abuse and

discomfort, and the nameless pigs, cows, and chickens

who were transformed from living, feeling individuals

to consumable corpses known to me only as breakfast,

lunch, and dinner. I came to understand that every time

I sat down to eat I was making a choice that would not

only affect my own health, but have a profound impact

on the lives of animals.

The fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains my diet

now revolved around made me feel healthier and gave

me more energy than ever before. My 57 year old father,

a born skeptic, soon took notice of the undeniable

improvements in my health and soon jumped on

the veggie bandwagon. He amazed his doctors, and

motorcycle pals, when he not only dropped nearly 100

points from his sky-high cholesterol level but also over

25 pounds from his waistline.

Like most people who adopt a vegetarian diet, at ﬁ rst I

was left wondering what and where to eat. Over time,

however, I found that there was a whole new world

of exciting, healthy, colorful, and ﬂ avorful foods to

enjoy. I ditched the typical routine of eating greasy

hamburgers and fatty fast-food and began to explore

the many delicious, cruelty-free vegan alternatives such

as grilled veggie burgers, tacos with veggie “sausage,”

frozen non-dairy “ice creams,” and sweet rice, almond,

and soy milks over morning cereal.

My experience with going vegetarian is not unique.

Thousands of people every day in the United States

are waking up to the positive effects that their switch

to an animal-free diet has on their health, the animals,

and our planet. I hope you ﬁ nd this Vegetarian Starter

Kit informative, motivating, empowering, and helpful in

your journey to making compassionate and healthy food

choices.

For the animals,

In addition to replacing my favorite animal-based foods

with plant-based alternatives, I began to explore meals

from different nationalities and found that many

Nathan Runkle

Executive Director

story

whatwho

of vegetarianism

veg ● e ● tar ● i ● an \ , ve-jə- ’ ter-ē-ən\ n

A vegetarian is an individual who chooses, for health, environmental, ethical, or religious reasons, to abstain

from the consumption of animal ﬂesh, including poultry and ﬁsh. A lacto-ovo vegetarian eats no ﬂesh, but

consumes dairy (lacto) and eggs (ovo). A vegan (pronounced VEE-gun) is an individual who chooses to

abstain from the consumption of all animal products. While vegetarians avoid ﬂesh foods, vegans also

avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, and other goods that cause suffering to animals.

12.4 million

approximate number of

vegetarians in the U.S.

From history’s brightest thinkers to world famous singers, actors, and Olympic athletes, vegetarians are

everywhere. Here are just a few well-known examples:

Paul McCartney

Carl Lewis

Erykah Badu

Pamela Anderson

Mary Shelley

Ed Templeton

Alicia Silverstone

Joaquin Phoenix

Prince

Woody Harrelson

James Cromwell

Chrissie Hynde

Natalie Portman

Morrissey

Thom Yorke

Peter Tosh

Toby Maguire

Henry David Thoreau

Russell Simmons

Leonardo da Vinci

Albert Einstein

Mahatma Gandhi

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Pythagoras

Moby

The Roots

Ziggy Marley

Common

Leo Tolstoy

Andre 3000

Cesar Chavez

Chris Martin

inside

4-13

farm to fridge

14-15

our earth

16-17

heart smart

18-19

the switch

20-29

in the kitchen

30-31

learn more

the

fridge

the transformation of animals into food

L ife on “Old MacDonald’s Farm” isn’t what it used to be. The green pastures and idyllic

barnyard scenes portrayed in children’s books have been replaced by windowless metal

sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other conﬁ nement systems integral to what is now

known as “factory farming.” Today the majority of farmed animals are conﬁ ned to the point that

they can barely move, denied veterinary care, mutilated without painkillers, and ﬁ nally, mercilessly

slaughtered.

Every year approximately 26 billion cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and ﬁ sh, each a unique individual

capable of experiencing happiness, joy, loneliness, and frustration, are killed to satisfy America’s

a bird’s life

bred for pain

As more and more people are switching from beef to poultry, the number of

birds raised and killed for meat is sky-rocketing. More than 8 billion “broiler”

(meat-type) chickens and over 270 million turkeys are slaughtered each year in the

United States. 1 Overcrowded by the thousands into ammonia-laden sheds where

disease runs rampant, the birds often do not have enough space to even stretch

their wings. 2,3 Most will never see sunlight or breathe fresh air, except on their way

to the slaughterhouse.

Many birds are unable to stand due to leg

disorders induced by unnatural weight.

The birds are forced to breathe air from oxygen-deﬁ cient sheds, full of pathogenic

microbes, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulﬁ de, excretory ammonia fumes,

and lung-destroying dust and dander. The high ammonia levels cause painful skin

and respiratory problems for the birds. 4

“ If you grew as fast as a chicken, you would

weigh 349 pounds at age 2.

University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture report

Turkeys and chickens often suffer from

untreated open bloody sores and wounds.

Chickens have been genetically manipulated to grow much larger and more

quickly than their ancestors. According to a May 26, 1997 article in Feedstuffs , an

agribusiness journal, “...broilers now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are

not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in

congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses.”

‘broiler’ chickens

are slaughtered

when they are 45

days old; turkeys at

20 weeks.

Modern broiler chickens also experience crippling leg disorders and lameness,

as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy bodies.

Researchers have found that this lameness is so chronically painful that lame

chickens will repeatedly choose food that has painkillers added to it over regular

feed. 5 Another study found that 26% of broiler chickens are severely crippled and

90% cannot walk normally. 6

farm to

On modern factory farms, thousands of turkeys and chickens are crowded into ﬁlthy, ammonia-laden sheds.

Turkeys also suffer from unnatural breeding. According to another Feedstuffs article, “turkeys have been bred to grow faster

and heavier but their skeletons haven’t kept pace, which causes ‘cowboy legs’. Some turkeys have problems standing and

fall and are trampled on...” 7

Sick and injured birds who do not grow fast enough are sometimes violently killed on factory farms. An investigation in

Minnesota found a farm manager wringing the necks

of young birds and haphazardly bludgeoning the heads,

necks, and bodies of dozens of others with what he

called his “killing stick” and a pair of pliers. 8

Those who don’t die on the factory farm are shipped

to the slaughterhouse at just a fraction of their natural

lifespan. At the slaughterhouse, fully conscious chickens

and turkeys are shackled by their ankles upside-down

to a moving conveyor belt. The birds are then given

intensely painful electric shocks 9 , intended to immobilize

them and make it easier to slit their throats. 10 The shocks

are frequently not powerful enough to render them

unconscious. 11 After being shocked, the birds’ throats are

slashed, usually by a mechanical blade, and blood begins

rushing out of their bodies.

Inevitably, the blade misses some birds who then proceed

to the next station on the assembly line: the scalding

tank. According to USDA statistics, millions of birds

every year have their bodies submerged in scalding hot

water (about 143° F) while they are fully conscious. 12,13,14

Inside a chicken slaughterhouse (top and bottom left). Worker gathering

birds (center). Turkeys shackled by legs at slaughterhouse (right).

According to Virgil Butler, a former Tyson slaughterhouse worker, “When this happens, the chickens ﬂop, scream, kick,

and their eyeballs pop out of their heads. Then, they often come out the other end with broken bones and disﬁgured and

missing body parts because they’ve struggled so much in the tank.” Birds are not protected under the federal Animal

Welfare Act, nor the Humane Slaughter Act, according to the USDA.

Chickens are inquisitive animals, who, when in natural surroundings, enjoy dust-bathing, making nests,

roosting in trees, and searching for food. Like us, chickens form friendships and strong family ties. They

love their young and mourn the loss of loved ones. According to animal behaviorist, Dr. Chris Evans,

chickens are as smart as mammals, including some primates. He explains that chickens are

able to understand that recently hidden objects still exist, which is beyond the capacity

of small children. Furthermore, Dr. Joy Mench, professor and director of the Center

for Animal Welfare at the University of California at Davis explains, “Chickens show

sophisticated social behavior. They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens

and remember them. They have more than thirty types of vocalizations.”

Did You Know?

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