Edifying Facts

• Human population of United States: 275,000,000
  
  
• Number of human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1,300,000,000
  
  
• Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
  
  
• Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16
  
  
• Number of children who starve to death every day: 40,000
  
  
• Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on land needed to feed 1 meat-eating person: 20
  
  
• Number of people who will starve to death this year: 60,000,000
  
  
• Number of people who could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 60,000,000
  
  
• User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the United States: Livestock production
  
  
• Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons
  
  
• Cost of hamburger if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by U.S. Taxpayers: $35/pound
  
  
• Numberof U.S. medical schools: 125
  
  
• Number of U.S. medical schools with a required course in nutrition: 30
  
  
• Training in nutrition received by average U.S. physician during 4 years of medical school: 2.5 hours
  
  
• How frequently a heart attack strikes in U.S.: every 25 seconds
  
  
• How frequently a heart attack kills in U.S.: every 45 seconds
  
  
• Most common cause of death in U.S.: Heart attack
  
  
• Risk of death from heart attack by average American man: 50%
  
  
• Risk of death from heart attack by average American pure vegetarian man: 4%
  
  
• Amount you reduce heart attack risk by reducing consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs 50%: 45%
• Amount you reduce heart attack risk by reducing consumption of meat, dairy products nd eggs 100%: 90%
  
  
• Rise in blood cholesterol from consuming 1 egg per day: 12%
  
  
• Rise in heart attack risk from 12% rise in blood cholesterol: 24%
  
  
• Hollywood celebrity paid by Meat Board to tout beef as “Real food for real people”: James Garner
  
  
• Medical event experienced by James Garner in April 1988: Quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery
  
  
• Pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by meat: 55%
  
  
• Pesticide residues in the U.S. diet supplied by dairy products: 23%
  
  
• Pesticide residues in U.S. diet supplied by vegetables, fruits, and grains: 11%
  
  
• Percentage of U.S. mother’s milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99%
  
  
• Percentage of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide residues in American diet attributable to meats, dairy products, fish and eggs: 94%
  
  
• Percentage of total antibiotics used in U.S. fed routinely to livestock: 55
  
  
• Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
  
  
• Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1988: 91

Response by European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: Ban

Response by American meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: Full and complete support

Facts excerpted from Diet for a New America (1987). ©1987 by John Robbins, Stillpoint Publishing, Walpole, NH $10.95