Vegetarian Wisdom From The Hermit's Hut

THE VEGETARIAN WAY-THE WAY OF PEACE & RECONCILIATION WITH THE EARTH & ALL LIFE FORMS

MOST OF THE CANONIZED SAINTS OF THE CHURCH-EAST & WEST, WERE VEGETARIANS; AND ALL OF THE MONASTIC & RELIGIOUS ORDERS SINCE THE EARLY CHURCH MODEL HAVE MADE THIS A PART OF THEIR DAILY SPIRITUAL AND TEMPERAL LIFE OF PEACE, PRAYER,  BROTHERHOOD, SISTERHOOD, RELIGIOUS &  SOCIAL EQUALITY

  In the early part of the 2000's decade, the corporate press on TV and radio, reported on two different scientific studies into the vegetarian diet of monks in several monasteries world wide and their overall good health and life span etc; This scientifically based study found that the daily meatless vegetarian and vegan diet of the monks was far better than a meat or fish based diet ; And found that the monks lived longer and healthier than the lay population on the outside of the monastery walls.

 The vegetarian way is a great,ancient and healthy tradition which should be continued and promoted in all monasteries, convents, priories, abbeys, churches, homes, restraunts, free soup kitchens and free dinning halls including where the homeless, hungry and down trodden are taken care of; The vegetarian way is the proper  and humane way to treat your visitors and all homeless and hungry visitors to your kitchens, refectories, restraunts and dinning halls.

On the annual feast of St.Francis of Assisi, October 4, when the animals are blessed with holy water in many churches, including some Anglican and Luthern churches etc - bless them but don't eat them; That is what the Desert Fathers,  St. Francis and the early Franciscans would do.

MEAT PRODUCTION IS A LEADING CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING-MORE THAN TRANSPORTATION EMMITIONS

If you think those monstrous, gas-guzzling SUV's are the biggest threat to the environment and the main cause of global warming? Think again. An ever greater threat to our planet and God's marvelous creation is our collective appetite for chicken wings, burgers, and sausages.

How can our appetite for animals cause so much environmental damage?

According to a groundbreaking 2006 United Nations report titled LIVESTOCK'S LONG SHADOW, the tens of billions of farmed animals (and the energy used to raise, feed, transport, slaughter them, and refrigerate the meat) is one of the main contributers, if not the main contributer, to almost every major environmental problem we see today; climate change, deforestation, land degradation, water and air pollution, water shortage and loss of biodiversity.

CHEW ON THESE FACTS IN THE MONASTERY REFECTORY:

SOME BENEFITS OF A VEGETARIAN DIET:

A) Lower blood preasure

B) lower cholesterol levels

C) Reduces type 2 diabetes

D) Prevents stroke conditions

E) Reverses atherosclerosis

F) Reduces heart disease risk by 50%

G) Reduces heart surgery rish by 80%

H) Prevents many forms of cancer

I) Stronger immune system

J) Increases life expectancy by up to 15 years

K) Higher IQ

L) Conserves up to 70% clear water

M) Saves 80% of the cleared Amazonian rainforest from animal grazing

N) A GREAT SOLUTION for world hunger

O) Frees up to 3.4 billion hectares of land

P) Frees up to 760 million tons of grain every year (half the worlds grain supply)

Q) Consumes one third fossil fuels of those used for meat production

R) Reduces pollution from untreated animal waste

S) Maintains cleaner air

T) Saves 4.5 tons of emmissions per US household per year

U) Stops 80% of global warming (The same global warming that the right-wing nuts and anti-environmentalists like the Tea Party, GOP,  Coast To Coast nightly Radio show on ABC & Alex Jones etc all deny exists so that BIG OIL and Wall Street can get off the hook and walk free-free to make big bucks and destroy the environment and the rest of human civilization in their greedy process of hogging up the worlds shrinking natural resources for themselves and their parasitic economic profit system.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOME DISEASES RELATED TO MEAT CONSUMPTION / PRODUCTION

* Swine flu

* Blue tongue disease

* E.coli

* Salmonella

* Bird flu

* Mad cow disease

* Pig's disease (PMWS)

* Listeriosis

* Shellfish poisoning

* Pre-eclampsia

SOME OF THE COSTS OF EATING MEAT:

HEART DISEASE:
* Over 17 million lives lost globally each year
* Cost of cardiovascular disease is at least US one trillion a year.

CANCER:
* Over one million new colon cancer patients diagnosed each year
* More than 600,000 colon cancer-related mortalities annually.
* In the U.S. alone,colon cancer treatment costs about US$6.5 billion.
* Millions of people are newly diagnosed with other meat-related cancers every year.

DIABETES:
* 246 million people affected worldwide
* An estimated US $174 billion spent each year on treatment,

OBESITY:
* Worldwide 1.6 billion adults are overweight with 400 million more who are obese
* Costs US$93 billion each year for medical expenses in the US alone.
* At least 2.6 million people die annually from problems related to being overweight or obese.

ENVIRONMENTAL:
* Uses up to 70% of clear water
* Pollutes most of the water bodies
* Deforests the lungs of the Earth
* Uses up to 43% of the worlds cereal in order to feed the livestock daily
* Uses up to 85% of the world's soy supply
* Causes world hunger and wars (Most of the bomb makers, war mongers & baby breeders are also meat eaters-BIG time!)
* 80% cause of global warming

SOME OF THE COSTS OF MILK CONSUMPTION:

* Breast, prostrate and testicular cancer from hormones present in milk

* Listeria and Crohn's disease

* Hormones and saturated fat lead to osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes and heart disease

* Linked to higher incidences of multiple sclerosis

* Classified as a major allergen

* Lactose intolerance


VEGETARIAN WISDOM FROM THE HERMIT'S HUT , CONTINUED:

1) The livestock sector now occupies 30% of the land surface of the planet, much of the land used to be  forest or rainforests that were clear-cut.

2) Animal farming is responsible for 65% of human-caused nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas 296 times more powerful than CO2'

3) Animal farming is responsible for 37% of human -caused methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than CO2'

4) In total, animal farming , including on Church and monastery properts, accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing the entire global transportation sector, which accounts for 13.5% of total emissions.

HOW DOES EATING ANIMALS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING? There are a number of factors. Here are a few:

A) MANURE: The tens of billions of farmed animals of the world produce massive amounts of manure, which emit greenhouse gasses such as nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide

B) DEFORESTATION: Forests are being destroyed to grow grain and soy to feed chickens, pigs and cows or to create grazing land for cattle. When the trees are killed, the CO2 they store is released into our environment.

C) COW BURPS: Ruminant animals such as cows and sheep, emit huge quantities of methane via burping and flatulence.

D) BURNING FOSSIL FUELS: The meat industry uses fossil fuels to heat and cool the buildings that house animals, to produce crops to feed the animals, and to transport, process and refrigerate meat. Cornell ecologist David Pimentel estimates that creating animal protein demands about eight times as much fossil fuel as creating a comparable amount of plant protein.

E) SYNTHETC FERTILIZER: The majority of corn and soy grown in the U.S.is fed to farmed animals. Fossil fuels are used to create the synthetic fertiliizers that are used to grow the crops, and ths process emits a tremendous amount of CO2. The fertilizers themselves release the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Global warming could have devestating long-term consequences. As the National Resources Defense Council notes, if we don't do something soon to halt its progress, "Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal areas. Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often. Disease-carrying mosquitoes will expand their range. And species will be pushed to extnction."

Many of these changes have already begun; think (of) Hurricane Katrina, the 2003 European heat wave that klled 52,000 people, and Australia's epic seven-year and counting drought.

Which prevents more global warming?
(  ) Driving a prius
( * ) Adopting a vegetarian diet

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

LUCKILY, ALL OF US CAN HELP FIX THIS PROBLEM BY CHANGING OUR DIET.

According to a 2006 study done by researchers at the University of Chicago, an American can reduce more greenhouse gas emissions by becoming vegan than by switching to a hybrid car.

A) So bke, walk, and take public transportation. use compact fluroescent light bulbs and energy efficient appliances. But, please don't neglect the need to eliminate animal products from your diet.

B) Visit your local monastery, convent, a restraunt or a free soup kitchen and ask them, if they haven't done so already, to transition to the organc vegan and vegetarian way, the way of PEACE and reconcilliation with all humanity the Earth and all life forms.

"The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributers to the MOST SERIOUS environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."   - The United Nations

This is ongoing Vegetarian Wisdom From The Hermit's Corner & Monastery Garments

Peace be with you!


TO BE CONTINUED VERY SOON........




__________________________________________________________
Please review complete information at http://www.monasterygarments.com/
Call: (415) 412-6685 from 7am - Midnight, Pacific Time
Email: monk.monastery@yahoo.com

Printed Color Catalog: Please send $5 check or money order (US currency only) payable to:
Paul Bernardino
P.O. Box 475-333 | San Francisco, California 94147-5333 U.S.A.