Published Letters and Op-Eds from COK’s Writers Group

In support of vegetarianism

Villanovan
March 19, 2009

Re: "Dining Services celebrates National Nutrition Month," March 12, 2009
 
It's wonderful that dining services is celebrating National Nutrition Month by offering more vegetarian options!  The American Dietetic Association recognizes that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, blood pressure, diabetes, and various cancers as well obesity.

Choosing vegetarian foods not only helps protect our health, but it also protects animals. Each year in the U.S., more than 10 billion birds, pigs, and cows are killed for us to eat.

Most of these animals are forced to spend their lives on factory farms, where they're crammed inside cages, stalls, or pens, and are deprived of almost everything natural to them. With virtually no laws to protect them, these animals are routinely treated like mere meat-, milk-, and egg-producing machines. If similar abuses were inflicted upon the dogs and cats with whom we share our homes, it would lead to criminal prosecution.

Thankfully, healthier and more humane foods are increasingly available in cafeterias, restaurants, and store everywhere, making it easier than even to make our next meal a vegetarian one.


Erica Meier
Executive Director Compassion Over Killing