The High Cost of Meat

Most people know these days that a plant-based diet is healthier than an animal-based one.
However, not many realize just how many deaths are caused by the human practice of eating other animals.
Below are some statistics of human deaths caused directly or indirectly from using animals for food.

Heart Disease

5.1 million deaths per year.
30% of all 17 million heart disease deaths per year could be prevented by a balanced vegan diet.

Cancer

2.45 million deaths per year.
35% of all 7 million cancer deaths per year could be prevented by a balanced vegan diet.

Starvation

13 million deaths per year. 870 million going hungry.
Global Starvation could be prevented by using resources to produce plant-based food instead of wasting them on inefficent production of meat for wealthy nations.
1.4 billion people could be fed every year by the grains and soybeans fed to cattle in the U.S. alone.

Food Poisoning

2.8 million deaths per year.
70% of all 4 million food poisoning deaths per year are caused by contaminated animal flesh.

Type 2 Diabetes

4 million deaths per year.
Almost all cases could be prevented by a balanced vegan diet.

Mad Cow

161 dead or infected but the actual total may be higher.
Caused due to feeding cows the ground-up corpses of their fellow cows.
No treatment available. 100% fatal.
4 million cows killed to halt spread of the disease.

Anthrax

Approximately 200 dead.
"Hoof and mouth disease" first infected humans from livestock animals farmed for food.

SARS

774 dead as of 2004. No treatment available.
Spread to humans from civet cats slaughtered and eaten by people in China.

Bird Flu

125 dead. Experts warn a severe outbreak could kill 50 million.
Human/Avian Influenza strain evolved due to bird farming for meat.

AIDS

25 million dead. 40 million infected. 3.1 million new deaths per year. 15,000 more infected daily.
Simian Immunodeficiency Virus evolved into HIV after people in Africa butchered and ate infected chimpanzees.

1918 Influenza Epidemic

50 to 100 million killed in less than a year.
The last time that a Human/Avian Influenza strain evolved due to bird farming for meat, it caused over three times as many deaths as World War I.

Every year, about 30.5 million human and 63 billion animal lives are extinguished due to the practice of eating meat.
That is so much unnecessary death. We can do better.


Update:
I got some requests for more information on HIV originating from people hunting and eating chimpanzees. Here are a few articles from CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC for those who don't want to dig through the comments.

Tags:

• Vegetarian
• Humanitarian