PETA Wants Higher Insurance Premiums For Meat Eaters

In a letter sent Monday to Bill Milnes Jr., president of Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Vermont, PETA's Executive Director Tracy Reiman urged Blue Cross to raise rates on meat eaters because -- she claims -- heart disease, diabetes and other leading killer diseases have been conclusively linked to the consumption of meat and other animal products.

"Given the latest news about the effects of E. coli on meat-eaters -- and the mountain of evidence linking meat consumption to some of our nation's deadliest diseases -- this change will benefit Blue Cross Blue Shield's bottom line while also helping to ensure that your policyholders don't flat line," Reiman wrote. Reiman went on to point to recent reports of an E. coli outbreak in Vermont. In October a Vermont slaughterhouse recalled a ton of ground beef after 10 cases of E. coli were traced to meat from Vermont Livestock Slaughter & Processing in Ferrisburg. The recall was voluntary.

Earlier in the month, three people were diagnosed with E. Coli in Orleans County. Health officials attributed those cases to raw milk as the source."As you might know, E. Coli grows in the intestines of many farmed animals. Slaughterhouses are filthy places, and when animals are eviscerated, feces often spray in every direction," Reiman wrote.

She goes on to claim that vegetarians are less prone to heart disease, certain types of cancer, diabetes and obesity. "By giving your policy holders a financial incentive to go vegetarian -- and penalizing those whose meat-based diets fuel our nation's worst health problems -- Blue Cross Blue Shield could save millions of dollars in the long run," Reiman writes.

But it doesn't appear that Blue Cross will be taking PETA's suggestion any time soon."Under Vermont law, we would not be allowed to vary rates based on the dietary and nutritional habits of various members," said Kevin Goddard, Blue Cross's vice president of external affairs. He did, however, say that Blue Cross is always looking to have the healthiest members possible, but "we have no information one way or the other if vegetarians are more healthy.

"In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk. "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child," a representative for Ben & Jerry's said at the time.

Source: www.wptz.com

Peta offering $1 Million for "test tube" chicken.

While I disagree with much of Peta's tactics and actions, I am with them on this one.

The details:

PETA is offering a $1 million prize to the contest participant able to make the first in vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012. The contestant must do both of the following:

• Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
• Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states.

Judging of taste and texture will be performed by a panel of 10 PETA judges, who will sample the in vitro chicken prepared using a fried "chicken" recipe from VegCooking.com. The in vitro chicken must get a score of at least 80 when evaluated in order to win the prize.

According to Peta.org, In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten.

I am a vegetarian. I am 27 and have not eaten chicken for nearly 4 years and all other meat since I was 12 or 13. I am not sure if I would eat this new meat but I am sure meat eaters would. This would help our world so much if someone could make this.

Some facts about the effects of eating meat on the environment:

• According to the Sierra Club, producing one pound of grain-fed beef requires about 16 pounds of wheat and - as staggering as it sounds - 2,500 gallons of water. Furthermore, millions of acres of forest have been cleared worldwide to make room for the large areas of land needed for cattle grazing. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been cleared to grow crops to feed animals raised for meat. An acre of trees disappears every eight seconds.
• Livestock is fed more than 80 percent of the corn and 95 percent of the oats grown by American farmers. The world' s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people - more than the entire human population on Earth. Link to Article
  
• A recent report prepared for the Senate Agricultural Committee concluded that animal waste is the largest contributor to pollution in 60 percent of the rivers and streams classified as " impaired" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The report states that food animals produce waste at a rate of roughly 68,000 pounds per second. Link to Article
• Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer estimates that a 10-percent reduction in U.S. meat consumption would free up enough grain to feed 60 million people. Some 40 percent of the world' s grain harvest is fed to livestock, while nearly a billion people go hungry each day. Link to Article
• According to CNN.com,90 percent of all large fishes have disappeared from the world's oceans in the past half century, the devastating result of industrial fishing.

Learn more:

Article-Why Eating Meat isn't Natural.

Summary of Article

• Human anatomy is much more similar to herbivores than carnivores.
• Meat consumption unquestionably promotes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and every other major degenerative disease -- the opposite of plant-based diets.
• Physical performance is superior on all-plant diets.
• Making one contrary point does not magically invalidate all the other evidence as soon as it's made.

YouTube Video from the Humane Society of the United States on Factory Farming.

Photos/Videos of Factory Farming from the Humane Farming Association

Environmental Impact of Factory Farming