HUMAN HEALTH: 70 percent of U.S. deaths are related to diet, particularly the over consumption of beef and saturated animal fats. Red meat is directly linked to heart disease, strokes, and cancer of the colon and breast.

WORLD HUNGER: At a time when nearly 1,000,000,000 (one billion) people suffer from chronic hunger, more than one-third of all the grain grown in the world is fed to cattle and other livestock. That's enough to give every child, woman and man a meal a day.

ANIMAL SUFFERING: Each and every day, 100,000 cattle are slaughtered in the U.S. Thousands more are slaughtered in Canada and Mexico. Their deaths are cruel and horrible - shocked with electric prods, beaten and kicked, shot with a stun-gun, hung by their feet, their throats cut.

WAR AGAINST LIFE: As more land is turned over to cattle raising, wild animals are being exterminated. Millions of wild creatures, from coyotes to mountain lions and birds, are killed every year by the government as a "public service" to livestock interests.

DESTROYING THE RAIN FORESTS : Cattle ranching is a primary cause of rain forest destruction in Central and South America. Since 1960, more than 25 percent of the forests of Central America have been cleared to crate pasture land for grazing cattle. While some fast food chains claim they no longer use Central American beef, for every quarter pound of hamburger still being exported from this region, 55 square feet of rain forest is destroyed.

POLLUTING & DEPLETING OUR WATER: Cattle produce a billion tons of organic waste each year. Waste from livestock, and the pesticides and fertilizers used to grow feed, are the number one non-point source of water pollution in North America. Moreover, almost half the water used in the U.S. each year goes to grow feed and provide drinking water for cattle and other livestock. It takes 29 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes; 139 gallons to produce a pound of bread; but 2,454 gallons to produce a pound of beef.

CREATING DESERTS: Cattle are major contributors to soil loss and destruction. As much as 85 percent of U.S. western range land, nearly 685,000,000 acres, is being degraded by the overgrazing of livestock. North America has already lost a third of its topsoil; more than 80 percent of this erosion is directly attributed to grazing and unsustainable methods of producing feed crops for cattle and other livestock.

GLOBAL WARMING: Cattle are a major source of greenhouse gases. Tens of millions of tons of methane are released into the atmosphere by the world's 1.3 billion cattle. In addition, hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 are released by burning forests to create cow pastures.

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS: Children, as well as adults, have a basic right to know the true facts about nutrition, health, and the social and environmental consequences of what they buy and consume. McDonald's and other fast food giants have long targeted children with an advertising message that is both one-sided and misleading.

FARMER & WORKER'S RIGHTS: People everywhere have a basic right to decent wages, humane working conditions, and a livable environment. Millions of food service workers in North America make only the minimum wage. The people who work in the beef and food service industry often work under unhealthy and unsafe conditions. Slaughterhouse workers have one of the highest rates of accidents on the job of any occupation.

Bargain Burger? Not for the Earth, the Animals and Your Health: A 69 cent hamburger or even a $2 burger may seem like a bargain. But is it? What's the real cost of eating too much beef, the real cost of 85 billion hamburgers? An epidemic of high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, colon and breast cancer and food poisoning, grain fed to cows instead of millions of starving people, water pollution, topsoil erosion and rain forest destruction, millions of tons of methane released (a greenhouse gas), trillions of gallons of water used to grow livestock feed, tens of millions of cows brutally slaughtered!

Happy Meals? Not for The People who live on the land, work the fields and produce your hamburger:

Family farmers going broke and native people thrown off their land by the cattle barons, underpaid farm workers and ranch hands, workers in dangerous and unhealthy slaughterhouses, millions of minimum-wage food service workers! How much of that $1 or $2 you just spent goes to these hard-working people?


Is There an Alternative? YES!

• REDUCE your beef consumption;
• REPLACE the beef in your diet with organic vegetables, grains and fruits;
• REFORM the current system of ranching and farming. Buy family farm products which are organically and humanely raised;
• EDUCATE yourself, your friends and your community about these issues;
• TELEPHONE or VISIT the manager of your local restaurants. Ask them to put more vegetarian and vegan meals on the menu;
• JOIN the Vegetarians of Alberta!