Everyone who has the ability to adopt a vegan diet should do so.

I also thank him or her for getting the formalities out of the way and doing such a thorough job. Definitions are fine, burden of proof is accepted. So let's begin. As stated in the resolution, I am affirming that anyone who has the ability to adopt a vegan diet should do so. Obviously, this means that I do not think less-developed countries struggling with disease and poverty should focus on adopting a vegan diet, even though most LDCs consume very few meat products. In this case, I'm talking about developed nations, because those are the nations that do have the ability to do so. As I stated initially, I advocate veganism for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. Con voiced an objection to taking a moral stance on this issue, but I maintain my ethical opposition to non-vegan diets. I do not believe in objective morality, and I agree with con in that this should not turn into a debate about morality. But I also did leave this debate fairly open-ended on purpose, because I think the moral stance on veganism should also be argued here. Therefore, I will still make the case for the moral consequences of veganism, and con may address it in any way he sees fit. Ethical: My primary concern with this issue is one of ethics. The obvious objection here is the treatment of animals in factory farms. In these farms, which have been established in almost every developed nation, animals are systematically raped, tortured, mutilated, and violently and painfully executed for the sole purpose of satisfying our selfish desires. (After all, most people concede that the treatment of animals in these farms is awful, but they want to continue to enjoy cheeseburgers, bacon, etc. ) Animals are packed into tight, crowded warehouses without sunlight or fresh air. The conditions are so bad that they often attack and kill each other. Many animals develop painful sores or contract diseases, none of which are treated. Cows are typically de-horned and de-tailed without anesthetics, and chicken are likewise de-beaked. Female cows are repeatedly raped until they are no longer fertile, at which point they are killed for fast-food meat. These atrocities are commonplace in factory farms. Why do we allow this to happen? Again, many people take the simple stance of enjoyment; it's their life, they like meat, why shouldn't they be able to enjoy it? Well, when the enjoyment of one infringes upon the enjoyment of others, it becomes a problem. This is, of course, why we condemn rape and other similar actions. One cannot use the argument that he enjoys sex and should therefore be allowed to have it when it infringes upon another's right to choose who and when she has sex with. The rebuttal here may be that animals do not have the cognitive faculties to "choose" things like that, or to "object" the way we do. Perhaps, but it is an empirically proven fact that animals (especially mammalian animals like cows and pigs) feel pain in essentially the same capacity as humans; additionally, cows and pigs have been shown to feel fear, anxiety, and other emotions that many people assume animals are not capable of. Why, then, is it seen as acceptable to torture and kill them? Why do animal abuse laws exist to protect our pets but not to protect cows from having their throats ripped out? All this being said, I am realistic. I understand that humans used to need to hunt and kill animals for survival (even though our ancestors were primarily fruit and vegetable eaters). I do not take issue with that, because we were doing what we had to do to sustain ourselves and our species. But the fact is that such actions are no longer necessary. This question might come off as loaded, but I will pose it anyway: if you would not be okay with someone torturing and violently killing your dog or cat, why are you okay with it being done to other animals? I'm not saying animals should have the same rights as human beings, but I do think that, as sentient beings who can feel pain and experience suffering, they should at least have the right not to be tortured, raped, and killed for prophet and enjoyment. In the U. S. alone, 90,000 cows and calves are slaughtered every day; 14,000 chickens are slaughtered every minute; and over 10 billion 'food animals' are slaughtered every year. This is not necessary. It is death on a genocidal level. Environmental: Adopting a vegan diet has a direct, positive impact on the environment. Factory farming is an environmental nightmare. In addition to the carbon footprint left from the shipping of animals and supplies across the country, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. (Compare this to the 25 gallons needed to produce a pound of wheat. ) Here are a few other environmental statistics, all taken from organicconsumers. org (I typically don't just copy and paste, but it would be pointless to try to paraphrase all of this): (1) The USDA reports that animals in the US meat industry produce 61 million tons of waste each year, which is 130 times the volume of human waste - or five tons for every US citizen. (2) North Carolina's 7,000,000 factory-raised hogs create four times as much waste - stored in reeking, open cesspools - as the state's 6.5 million people. The Delmarva Peninsula's 600 million chickens produce 400,000 tons of manure a year. (3) According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. (4) Pfiesteria, a microscopic organism that feeds off the phosphorus and nitrogen found in manure, is a lethal toxin harmful to both humans and fish. In 1991 alone, 1,000,000,000,000 (one billion) fish were killed by pfiesteria in the Neuse River in North Carolina. (5) Since 1995, an additional one billion fish have been killed from manure runoff in estuaries and coastal areas in North Carolina, and the Maryland and Virginia tributaries leading into the Chesapeake Bay. These deaths can be directly related to the 10 million hogs currently being raised in North Carolina and the 620 million chickens on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. (6) The pollution from animal waste causes respiratory problems, skin infections, nausea, depression and even death for people who live near factory farms. Livestock waste has been linked to six miscarriages in women living near a hog factory in Indiana. (7) In Virginia, state guidelines indicate that a safe level of fecal coliform bacteria is 200 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. In 1997, some streams had levels as high as 424,000 per 100 milliliters. And keep in mind that most of those statistics were confined to only one state in one country. You can imagine the world-wide effect this is having. Health: Adopting a vegan diet is healthy. All meat (beef, pork, poultry, and seafood) has been linked to cancer, high blood pressure, heart problems, strokes, and other health issues. Milk (and all its derivatives) has been linked to breast cancer in women and stomach and prostrate cancer in men. And this is only "healthy" meat; it is to say nothing of all the thousands of diseases that are reported annually from tainted meat. It is also to say nothing of the twenty-million pounds of antibiotics that are given to animals that are created antibiotic-resistant infections in humans as a result. In addition to antibiotics, many animals are fed Prozac and other prescription drugs, as well as hormones to sustain growth, none of which are healthy for human consumption. I'd like to say more on this issue, but I'm running out of space. I'll end with one last statistics: 5000 deaths and 76 million cases of food-borne illness occur annually. Sources: . http://www.organicconsumers.org... . http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org... . http://www.youtube.com...