Both of these have been shown to affect heart disease. A vegetarian has a twenty eight percent less chance of developing heart disease and a thirty nine percent less chance of getting certain forms of cancer. Another reason one would choose to become vegetarian is to help their surrounding environment. Some people would be surprised to know that seventy percent of that land dedicated to agriculture in the U.S. is used for either grazing of livestock or growing feed for animals. Water is another resource that is affected by vegetarians. A vegan uses only three hundred gallons of water a day for the production of their food while a person that consumes meat uses four thousand gallons of water in one day. Some people, but not all, become vegetarians because they have strong beliefs in animal rights. Dairy cows are forced to produce ten to twenty times the natural amount of milk they would need to suckle their calves, which can lead to painful infections. About eighty-five million pigs are raised on factory farms every year. Factory-farmed pigs are kept in crowded pens enclosed inside huge barns with contaminated air created by the waste collected on the floors. Ten billion chickens are raised for human consumption while another two hundred and fifty million hens are raised for egg laying. Many are kept in small cages with four or five other birds, and farmers remove a part of their beak when they start pecking at one another from being in such a confining space. Chickens raised for food may be genetically altered to grow larger than they naturally would, sometimes causing painful side effects. Male chicks produced by the egg-laying process are often thrown into plastic bags to slowly suffocate or tossed into a grinder to make animal feed. There are probably many other reasons a person might become a vegetarian, but it is obvious to see that there are some benefits to the environment and personal health from the vegetarian lifestyle.
