Momentom residencies, retreats and events are vegetarian as we practice what we preach. These are some of the reasons why we practice vegetarianism…
It’s our way to shift shit.
Animal Agriculture is the leading cause of rainforest destruction, oceanic dead-zones, species extinction, top soil erosion, land desertification and a whole lot of other environmental chaos. We don’t like this story, so we don’t continue to feed it into existence.
We like it hot, but not sizzling.
The United Nations said in its 2006 report that livestock animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emission than the entire transportation combined, that’s all the cars and trucks in the world combined! For us, the single most important step we can take to reduce global warming is to adopt a vegetarian diet.
Our brothers and sisters are hungry.
Every 3.6 seconds a person dies from starvation. On average, 40% of global grain production is used to feed livestock, and in richer countries, 70%! We have enough food for 56 billion animals, while 800 million humans are starving… do the math.
Because we understand the illusion between the self and the other.
A vegetarian lifestyle awakens our spirit of compassion and guides us towards a kinder, gentler society in which we exercise a moral choice to protect animals—not exploit them. All animals are intelligent and sentient beings with the capacity to feel pain. If we wouldn’t want pain inflicted on us, then we don’t inflict pain on them.
Myth: humane slaughter.
There is no humane way of killing. Killing is killing and involuntary slaughter is both unnecessary and unfair.
Because we want to live longer and healthier.
A major study published in the British Medical Journal found that vegetarians outlive meat eaters by six years to 10 years! Meat diets have been proven to cause various cancers and illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes, obesity. The list is long. Plant foods on the other hand contain antioxidants and a variety of phytochemical that protect against disease.
We debunk the protein myth.
We train hard and we are vegetarian. Yes, it is possible. All proteins essentially come from plants. There are 11 amino acids in a protein all of which are indeed found in meat, but guess what, they can also be found in plants. Lentils, beans, vegetable, whole grains, nuts chia seeds, tofu and whole grains and other basic staple foods contain oodles of protein without the harmful effect and risk that animal products pose to the body. The average person who eats animal products eats about double the protein that their body needs, and there is medical evidence to show that eating too much protein can lead to serious health problems.
We love the ocean and the wilderness.
Oceans are being overfished, coral reefs are being destroyed and sensitive sea floors are getting raked with drag nets. Many species are threatened, including dolphins, seabirds and turtles that get snagged in the nets. Fish feel pain, they just lack vocal chords to express it. Same for land-mammals.
All living animals feel the same.
Animals on today’s factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats or pandas. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions or the pandas we want to cuddle.
We Harness energy.
When your body doesn’t have to work so hard to digest complex or unhealthy foods, you will have excess energy for other processes. Furthermore, plants carry oxygen through your blood so that everything can work more efficiently.
Plants do not feel pain.
Plants have no central nervous systems, nerve endings, or brains, meaning they cannot feel pain. But if you want to be responsible for the smallest number of plant deaths as possible, a vegan diet is still preferable to a meat-based one, since the vast majority of grains and legumes raised today are used as feed for cattle.
by Gabrielle Bonneville
