Looking At The Beef In The Vegetarian Argument

TreeHugger comes down hard on factory farming, supports Meatless Mondays, and keeps questioning how meat can or should be part of a system of sustainable agriculture. Recently, TreeHugger founder Graham Hill asked himself why he still ate meat. And the answer? Vegetarianism seemed a binary, either-or, for-us-or-against us type of argument. But the benefits of less meat seemed clear. Here are the facts as Hill collected them - we invite you to refute the sources.

1. Eating a hamburger a day could increase a person’s risk of dying by a third from cancer, heart disease, stroke and the list goes on.

This conclusion comes from the Meat Intake and Mortality study, a prospective (meaning in real time) study that looked at data from over half a million people in a ten-year period between 1995 and 2005. Men eating more than 4.8 ounces of red meat a day had a 30% increased risk of mortality over ten years compared to men eating just .7 ounces; women that ate 4.6 ounces had a 36% increased risk compared to women who ate just .6 ounces. Here’s a good summary of the study...what do you think?  Read Article

By April Streeter