1. Helping animals also helps the global poor

While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of millions of tonnes of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, and a complex one, but not as pressing as the issue that meat-eating is.

2. Eating meat supports cruelty to animals

The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates and other confined spaces.

These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

3. Eating meat is bad for the environment

A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."

For example, eating meat causes almost 40 per cent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world combined.

The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

4. Avoid bird flu

The World Health Organisation says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the disease. Other problems with factory farming – from foot-and-mouth to SARS – can be avoided with a general shift to a vegetarian diet.

5. If you wouldn't eat a dog, you shouldn't eat a chicken

Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals who are able to solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control and worry about the future. Chickens are smarter than cats and dogs and even do some things that have not yet been seen in mammals other than primates.

Dr Chris Evans, who studies animal behaviour and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I'm talking about monkeys."

6. Heart disease and cancer are big killers

Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including the United States’ three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer and strokes.

Dr T Colin Campbell is one of the world's foremost epidemiological scientists and the director of what The New York Times called "the most comprehensive large study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease". Dr Campbell's best-selling book, The China Study, is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about cancer. To summarise it, Dr Campbell states, "No chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein".

7. Fitting into that tiny bikini

Vegetarianism is also the ultimate weight-loss diet, since vegetarians are one-third as likely to be obese as meat-eaters, and vegans are about one-tenth as likely to be obese.

Of course, there are overweight vegans, just as there are skinny meat-eaters. But on average, vegans are 10 to 20 per cent lighter than meat-eaters.

8. Global peace

Leo Tolstoy claimed that "vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism". His point? For people who wish to sow the seeds of peace, we should be eating as peaceful a diet as possible. Eating meat supports killing animals, for no reason other than humans acquired taste for animals' flesh. Great humanitarians from Tolstoy to Mahatma Gandhi have argued that a vegetarian diet is the only one for people who want to make the world a kinder place.

9. The joy of veggies

As the growing range of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants shows, veggies rock. People report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a centre-of-the-plate meat item to grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables that they didn't even know existed.

10. Sir Paul McCartney says so...

"If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty."

1. 帮助动物的同事也帮助全世界的穷人

用数百万吨的粮食制造生物燃料，在道德上我们有充分、正当的理由感到愤慨。可为了让人们能吃上肉，喂养农场牲畜所需的粮食却是制造生物燃料的七倍之多。拿粮食来“喂养”汽车，这是个道德问题吗？是，而且是很复杂的道德问题，但远没有吃肉这个问题更紧迫。

2. 吃肉就要残忍地对待动物

几年前那绿油油的牧场、俭朴舒适的牲口圈都已成了遥远的记忆。今天的工厂化农场里，大批牲畜挤在没有窗户、污秽不堪的牲口棚、铁丝笼、妊娠板条箱等地方，不能自由活动。

动物不再繁衍后代，不再扎根土壤，不再搭建巢穴，不再做任何对它们来说既自然又重要的事情。除了装运上车送去屠宰的时刻，他们甚至不能再感受阳光照在背上的温暖，呼吸不到新鲜的空气。

3. 吃肉对环境有害

最近一篇名为《牲畜的巨大阴影》的联合国报告说，“无论是地方还是全球范围内，”吃肉都是“导致最严重的环境问题的一个重要原因。”

比如，由于吃肉所释放的温室气体，比全球所有汽车、卡车、飞机所释放的总量还要多约百分之四十。

报告指出，“解决土地退化、气候变化、空气污染、水资源短缺与污染、物种减少等问题，应该将重点放在”肉类工业上。

4. 避免禽流感

世界卫生组织称，如果禽流感病毒发生变异，食用没有熟透的鸡肉或鸡蛋、食用与感染禽流感的肉或蛋在同一块案板上切过的食品、甚至接触感染的蛋壳，都有可能感染禽流感。人们普遍改吃素食，工厂化农场经营所带来的(从口蹄疫到非典等)其他问题也都可以避免。

5. 不吃狗肉，也就不该吃鸡肉

最近的研究表明，鸡这种动物很聪明，能够解决复杂的问题，还表现出了自我控制能力和对未来的担心。它们比猫狗更聪明，甚至还会做些只有灵长类动物才会做的事情，人们从未见过哺乳动物能够做那样的事情。

澳大利亚麦考瑞大学研究动物行为和动物交流的克里斯·埃文斯博士说：“有时在会上我会玩一个小把戏，在对鸡只字不提的情况下列出这些特征，人们都以为我说的是猴子呢。”

6. 心脏病和癌症是最大杀手

健康的素食有利于一生的健康，可以预防各种疾病，其中包括美国三大杀手：心脏病、癌症、中风。

T·科林·坎贝尔博士是世界一流的流行病学家，是《纽约时报》所称的“对饮食结构与致病风险之间的关系所做的有史以来最复杂的大型研究项目”的主管。坎贝尔博士的《中国研究》这本畅销书是任何关注癌症的人必读的一本书。坎贝尔博士总结说：“动物蛋白比任何一种化学致癌物都更容易引发癌症。”

7. 让你穿上紧身比基尼

素食主义还是减肥的最终解决办法，因为与素食者发胖的几率只是肉食者的三分之一，而严格的素食主义者发胖的几率仅为肉食者的十分之一。

当然，正像有些肉食者瘦的皮包骨头一样，有些严格的素食主义者也比较胖。但平均来讲，严格的素食主义者比肉食者轻百分之十到二十。

8. 全球和平

列夫·托尔斯泰曾说过，“素食主义是人道主义的核心内容。”这是他的观点吗？为了希望播下和平种子的人们，我们应该尽可能食用“和平的”食物。吃肉就要屠杀动物，而其原因仅仅是人类要品尝动物的肉。从托尔斯泰到圣雄甘地这些伟大的人道主义者都曾指出，吃素是想让世界更加友爱的人们唯一的选择。

9. 素食者的乐趣

五花八门的素食食谱和素食餐馆都告诉我们，吃素其乐无穷。人们说，开始吃素后，食物种类大大增多了，不再只盯着盘子里的肉食，而是吃些谷类、豆类、水果、还有他们以前根本不知道的蔬菜等等。

10. 保罗·麦卡特尼爵士如是说……

“若要拯救这个星球，只需不再吃肉。这是你所能做的唯一的、也是最重要的事。想到这儿，会让你大吃一惊。吃素，既有利于保护生态系统，又有利于防止饥荒和残酷事件的发生。”