Read The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet for Free Online Page A

said, “In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, [reducing meat consumption] clearly is the most attractive opportunity.” His specific recommendation? “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.” 27
    If everyone in America were to adopt a plant-based diet, we would reduce U.S. greenhouse gas production by 6 percent virtually overnight. Six percent may not sound like a lot, but when you remember that the United States creates 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, it’s a significant slice of the pie. And don’t forget that we’d be reducing heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and arthritis at the same time. That, in turn, reduces hospital visits, insurance nightmares, and dependency on pharmaceuticals. The price for all this? Well, I hate to break it to you, but here goes: You must eat really yummy food and feel young, vibrant, and happy for the rest of your life.
----
Superhero: Queenie the Cow
Queenie the cow escaped from a meat market in New York City. She ran from workers and evaded the NYPD for several blocks of lower Manhattan. When she was caught and threatened with a return to the slaughterhouse, hundreds of New Yorkers spoke up for her, and she was taken to a farm sanctuary where she thrives today. GO, QUEENIE!
----
    Factory farming creates toxic sludge: The meat industry has a nasty reputation for not containing its waste very well. Not only does the poo, fertilizers, and other sludge get into the soil, it can also leach into nearby rivers and water tables. We have strict laws about the disposal of human waste but none for the animal equivalent, and according to Worldwatch Institute, U.S. livestock produces 130 times more waste than people do! In fact, one farm in Utah with 500,000 pigs produces more fecal matter than the 1.5 million inhabitants of Manhattan. 28 All this toxic poo is doing real damage: With so many farms along the banks of the Mississippi, agricultural waste is leaching into the river at an alarming rate. There is so much excess nitrogen from fertilizer and excrement, in fact, that it has created what’s called “the Dead Zone” at the mouth of the river, in the Gulf of Mexico. This dead zone, which has no oxygen and therefore cannot sustain any life, was almost 8,000 square miles in size in 2008. 29 Whoa. Next time you tuck into a juicy steak, know that it is responsible for 17 times more water pollution than a bowl of noodles. 30
    Meat wastes water: Forty-two percent 31 of the fresh water available to us in the United States is used for agriculture. Some is used to grow grain for us, some for growing grain for animals, and some for hydrating and washing the animals. It takes 441 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef, and that’s according to what the Cattlemen’s Association says. Dr. Georg Borgstrom, who chairs the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University, thinks it’s more like 2,500 gallons. That’s not 2,500 gallons per cow—it’s per pound of beef. By comparison, it takes only 33 gallons of water to grow a pound of carrots. One 16-ounce steak uses the amount of water you need for 6 months of showers! Holy cow! 32
    Animals eat a lot of food: Did you know that more than 50 percent of the corn grown in the United States is eaten by animals? 33 Roughly 8 percent of corn grown is for human food use. 34 Sixty million acres of the United States are devoted to growing hay 35 primarily for livestock, while we use only 13 million acres to grow fruits and vegetables. 36 While 1.2 billion people do not have enough to eat every day, we’re bending over backward to make damn sure the 20 billion cows, pigs, and chickens are getting fatter and fatter by the minute.
    The meat industry is oil-hungry: It takes more than 11 times the energy to create animal protein than grain protein. 37 When you take