This article is in anticipation of Animal Welfare Sunday, in the Church of England, and is well worth a read:

“Our debt to the animal world’

Since it is available on-line, I’ll just post an excerpt, which supports my long-standing view about adding animal agriculture to the burden of Third World countries.

“…The world’s leading nutritional scientists warn that obesity, already of epidemic proportions, is about to overtake tobacco as the major cause of premature death in the Western world. World Health Organisation reports have previously shown that as we export our factory-farming systems into the Third World, so we export our Western heart disease and cancer and other diet related degenerative ailments.

“Only connect. If you do you will find that factory farming is one of the major causes of environmental pollution and degradation. In Third World countries it robs the hungry of much-needed calories rather than supplying them. Animals consume many more calories in the form of crops than they eventually produce in meat. To satisfy the huge demand for animal feed to fuel our European factory farms we import large quantities of crops grown in the poorest Third World countries. We scour and empty the seas. And so on and so on, producing an endless chain of ills.”

(There are humanitarian organizations that individuals and congregations can support that help people in other ways than promoting a meat-based diet with meat-based illnesses. See ‘A few cruelty-free international relief and development organizations’ for a few that I’ve found.)