A Beautiful Moment in Time

You Are What What You Eat Eats Too

While it may be true that the vegan has the blood of mice on his or her bread, it doesn't gain us any ethical ground to retire the endeavor of conscientious eating altogether and go ahead and just eat the cow, chicken, or pig. In many cases, doing just that would lead to deaths of both cow and numerous field mice, if it is mice we are concerned with. 

It's easy to forget that we don't just consume an animal, we also consume all the resources that were required to bring the animal into being and render it a food product. The range of these estimates vary wildly, but even taken from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, it requires 435 gallons of water and 3lbs of grain to produce one pound of beef (they don't say anything about how many mice must die, but I'm sure some do when harvesting the cattle-feed). The more common estimate is 2,500 gallons of water and 13 lbs of grain. 

This is not a very efficient way to get food calories, or to use a limited fresh water supply.

"36 percent of the calories produced by the world’s crops are being used for animal feed … and only 12 percent of those calories ultimately contribute to the human diet"