Since 1985 on the first day of Spring (in the Northern Hemisphere), the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM) has held grassroots educational events promoting the benefits of vegetarianism. These festivals of vegetarian cuisine and compassionate living are called "Meatout Days." This year, in light of the recent USDA recall of 143 million pounds of beef, the largest action of its kind in history, thousands of concerned citizens around the world hosted informative, educational Meatout Day events, encouraging their friends and neighbors to switch to a vegetarian diet for the sake of humanity’s health and that of the planet. Twenty-five countries around the world including all 50 U.S. states participated in the 2008 event.

Dr. Alex Hershaft

FARM’s founder, Dr. Alex Hershaft presented the following reasons for getting the meat out of your life: “The most compelling reason of course is one’s own health. A number of studies in the past three decades have shown that meat consumption has been linked conclusively with increased incidence of chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. The next most important reason is what we’re doing to our planet, global warming for example. Meat production is accountable for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and animal agriculture is also devastating wildlife habitats, our water supplies and the air we breathe. And then the reason that motivates many of our activists, including myself, is the terrible cruelty that is being committed toward animals raised for food in today’s factory farms and slaughterhouses.”

Coverage of Meatout Day was broadcast on Supreme Master Television with international correspondents interviewing participants from around the world, including Korea, Brazil, Bulgaria, Formosa, Jordan, Costa Rica, the USA and many other nations. During the Meatout celebrations, thousands of people had the chance to discover how tasty vegetarian food can be and to discuss the importance of our daily diet as it affects us and our planet. One of the participants, Dirk Twine of the Imani Holistic Health Institute, Georgia, USA, had this to say: “It’s been said that the amount of food that we feed our animals in America would literally feed our world. So if we just give up eating meat, and move the food supply, we are feeding to countries where people are starving, we can help the world tremendously.”

Mr. Howard Lyman

Howard Lyman, a fourth generation rancher known for his book Mad Cowboy, encouraged people to stop eating meat for good on Meatout Day. Years ago, Mr. Lyman went from raising cattle and operating a feed lot to becoming a vegan activist, a move he credits with saving his life. He is now internationally renowned as a speaker and author, who travels the world advocating the switch to a vegan diet. He recently spoke with Supreme Master Television about Meatout Day, saying, “I celebrate the Great American Meatout because I believe it saved my life. I celebrate it because I would like other people to look at it and say, ‘I can take my future into my own hands and maybe I can live longer, I can live healthier, and Lord knows, it’s better for the planet and better for the animals.’”

In London, UK, Camden Councilor Alexis Rowell, a member of the country’s Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee, also urges people to adopt a vegetarian diet. In a telephone interview with Supreme Master Television, Councilor Rowell said, “Let’s cut down on meat and dairy because that has a huge health and a huge environmental benefit. The world’s climate change scientists without exception now say that we’re going to find it very difficult to prevent runaway climate change if we don’t act in the next few years.”

Now that more people are aware of the livestock industry’s contributions to both disease and climate change, studies are showing that vegetarianism is a growing trend. Mathematics professor Dr. Richard H. Schwartz, President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, is calculating the factors related to global survival and recently spoke with Supreme Master Television. During his interview he summarized the reasons for switching to a plant-based diet, saying that people concerned with the efficient use of our resources should switch to vegetarianism because animal-based diets consume far more resources. The professor added that wars and violence in the world are also due to our wasteful diet and inefficient use of resources, concluding, “That’s why I’ve come out with this idea that the slogan of the peace movement and the slogan of the vegetarian movement are one and the same.”

The reasons for switching to a meat-free diet are thus numerous and compelling, and during the worldwide Meatout celebrations many people said that changing to a vegetarian diet was much healthier and more beneficial for the environment and our animal friends. Let’s hope this trend toward vegetarianism grows exponentially and that people around the world adopt the compassionate, healthy, Earth-saving vegetarian lifestyle as quickly as possible.

To view the special coverage of Meatout Day as broadcast on Supreme Master Television, click on the following link: http://video.Godsdirectcontact.net/magazine/NEWS549-554.asf

To view the interviews held with notable vegetarians and other individuals discussing Meatout Day on Supreme Master Television, please visit the following link: http://video.Godsdirectcontact.net/magazine/VEG557j.php

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