Walk Away From Meat
By Jenny Moxham
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

Walk Away From Meat
By Jenny Moxham

As I walked along the street today
I thought it sad indeed,
That half the world is hungry
When there isn't any need.

We've food for all the world and more,
Enough for all to eat,
But this food is being wasted
Raising animals for meat.

Perhaps some folk don't realize;
As many others do
That eating meat's a wicked waste,
And so polluting too.

It's highly inefficient
To grow crops for stock to eat
For it takes 10 kilograms of food
To get back one in meat

Five hundred and forty million tonnes
Of soya, maize and wheat
Are fed each year to animals
For Westerners to eat.

And much of it's from nations
That aren't affluent or wealthy,
It's grown in countries where the folk
Are starving and unhealthy.

Do you realize how much water
Is required if you eat meat?
One hundred thousand litres
For each kilogram you eat!

So as well as wasting precious food
You're worsening the drought,
And six hundred litres of methane gas
Each day, a cow put's out.

So you're causing global warming
And you're causing acid rain.
You're destroying precious forests,
And eroding the terrain.

So next time you wander down the street
And feel the need to eat
Remember what it costs the Earth
And walk away from meat.

Written to send to my local newspaper in response to a poem regarding the
pleasures of meat-eating (which was a response to 'They'll never know a Spring'.