By contrast, vegetarianism has great potential as an investment. Vegetarianism is a great investment in ourselves, in our health, since animal-centered diets have been directly linked to heart disease, several forms of cancer, strokes, and other degenerative illnesses. Vegetarianism is a great investment in a cleaner, more sustainable world, because modern intensive animal agriculture is a significant contributor to soil erosion and depletion, air and water pollution, widespread use of pesticides and other chemicals, the destruction of tropical rain forests and other habitats, and global warming. Vegetarianism is a great investment in a more peaceful, less violent world, because animal-centered diets, by wasting valuable resources, help to perpetuate the widespread hunger and poverty that eventually lead to instability and war. Vegetarianism is a great investment in a more humane world, because animals are raised for food today under cruel conditions, in crowded, confined cells, where they are denied fresh air, exercise, and any fulfillment of their basic needs.
Vegetarianism is also a great investment in the kind of world where investments flourish.
Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about. One of the most important of these fundamental changes necessary to avoid this very bleak future that would also involve devastating consequences for the economy is a shift to vegetarian diets. Some of the negative effects of animal-based diets are already being felt.