I love meat. Something you wouldn't expect from a vegetarian right? However, I chose not to eat meat because of the inhumanely way they are raised, abused and slaughters way before they even had the chance to live. The average lifespan of a cow is supposed to be about 20 years. Most are slaughtered. We have disrupted nature in our quest for gluttony.

Turkeys are bred to be so fat that they cannot even reproduce normally and it all must be done through artificial insemination. Imagine a life too fat to move around, no sex ever, and slaughtered by the time you hit puberty so that a person can throw you out because "they ate too much and are full."

Can't relate? Nah you don't have to, so why should we force turkeys to do it? Just remember that the meat you don't want once lived, breathed, and died so you could have proper nutrients. it was bred to die so you can live and I think people should have more respect for it.

A lot of people may say "that's how life works" but it's not. Many people used to use all of an animal and they would never throw out food. Were so caught up in our social media and the disgrace of politics around us that we forget about the planet and our impact on it. We live in a micro-society, focused on the current times.

No matter how you view animals, they deserve a healthy life just as much as we do. They were here first.
I am not asking you to throw down your turkey and swear off meat forever, I am looking for some compassion and respect when deciding how much to put on your plate.

American society today is so wasteful. We throw out about 40 million tons of food a year. That's 80 million pounds, which is like 6,667 Asian elephants. That's a lot of food wasted that could easily be composted and left out of our landfills, which are already trying to decompose refrigerators and plastic bottles.

Even if you don't care about a 'stupid' animal, let's not forget that there are people in this country, maybe even neighbors who can't afford to get food let alone waste it. Humans are animals too. While we're being thankful for what we have there are others that can't even put a dinner on their table to gather around. While we throw out food there are people who would gladly eat the leftover stuff you decided to take and then throw out.

So please when you're enjoying time with family, try and remember to limit your portions or save as much food as possible and try to compost any scraps, if possible. IF we all take small actions in our lives we can make a big difference in the future of this planet and society.