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My eyes followed her until they settled on the nursery pen where I first saw 70426’s emotional separation from her last calf, 21562. It was a cynical reminder that this cycle of life, death, pain, and profit would continue, not just on this factory farm, but on thousands across the nation.

My experiences indicate that, despite the industry’s claims, there is little for the modern dairy cow to be “happy” about. These gentle, intelligent creatures are overdriven from the day they are born, and abandoned as soon as they begin to wear out. If the industry thought these practices were defensible, they would not be so committed to concealing the truth.

These are not isolated incidents. I know you want to believe that they are, but they aren’t. Every time an investigator goes undercover, these sorts of routine horrors and abuses come to light. Every time.

Hard as it is to face, when we know the truth of what’s going on, we can choose freely and wisely what to eat. Some will say, “But what about ‘humanely raised’ meat?” or “Aren’t the ranchers who grow organic, grass-fed beef and poultry and pork doing things differently?” Yes, a little. For that tiny percentage of “humanely raised” animals—the “lucky ones” who are given room to turn around, lie down, or stretch their wings—life may indeed be a tad bit better, but it is far from “good.” Even the animals who are raised on smaller farms (minuscule number though that is) are ultimately sent—often by a long and harrowing truck drive in all kinds of severe weather—to the very same horrid slaughterhouses that kill their factory-farmed kin.

I recently saw a video shot by a University of Texas film student called Free Range? The student, Neel Parekh, was allowed to shoot openly on a free-range farm. You see their chickens being slaughtered in a manner identical to that of factory-farmed chickens, and they are clearly still conscious when they are immersed—necks sliced open and blood pouring out—in scalding hot water for feather removal. Anyone who is thinking about “humane meat”: please do an online search for, and watch, this young man’s video.

And remember this: the vast majority—more than 95 percent—of animals people eat are raised in factory farms and not on the old-fashioned family farms of memory.

When you eat a plant-based diet, you make a powerful promise to yourself: you say no to causing needless suffering; you say no to hurting animals.

PROMISE 9:

You Will Be Following the Wisdom of the Great Spiritual Traditions

Did you know?

Saint Francis of Assisi ate a largely vegetarian diet and John Wesley (founder of the Methodist Church) was a strict vegetarian.

The diet God ordains in Eden is strictly vegetarian (Genesis 1:29–30). A long line of Jewish and Christian commentators have taught that granting permission to eat meat is portrayed in the Bible as a concession to human weakness.

In Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, vegetarianism is a part of daily life.

Indian traditions teach that vegetarian diets modify the chemistry and hormonal balance of our bodies, promoting calm, focus, and increased energy.

The Prophet Muhammad had compassion for dogs and preached compassion for all animals.

Today in the U.S., kosher and halal meats are not slaughtered any more humanely than any other meats.

Many spiritual practices view vegetarianism as a basic prerequisite, opening human possibilities that are closed to those who cannot curb the desire for flesh.

When I began considering my diet as a way to practice my spiritual beliefs, I came up against so much inner turmoil. How could eating meat, dairy, and eggs be wrong when so many people do it daily and with gusto? If long-standing faith traditions hold that eating animals is acceptable, who was I to question those traditions?

And yet, especially after watching behind-the-scenes video of what happens to animals as they become our food, I remained troubled, on a spiritual level, at the thought of eating them. If