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According to the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA), New York, this should be a wake-up call to the importance of shifting away from animal-based diets as the consumption of beef and other animal products is a major factor behind an epidemic of heart disease, several forms of cancer, diabetes, obesity and other diseases. The meat industry claims that the mistreatment of animals at the California slaughterhouse is an exception, but they ignore that about 10 billion animals in the United States are living in horrible conditions every minute on factory farms, prior to slaughter.

The production of more than 50 billion animals worldwide annually for slaughter is contributing significantly to global warming and other environmental threats that imperil all of humanity. As reported in the 2006 UN Food and Agricultural Organization report "Livestock's Long Shadow," animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (18% in CO2 equivalents) than all of the cars, trucks, planes and other forms of transportation worldwide combined (13.5%).

Because the issues are so urgent and are not being sufficiently addressed, the JVNA has produced a one-hour documentary A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values To Help Heal The World. It can be viewed completely at www.ASacredDuty.com. JVNA urges rabbis and the Jewish leadership to break their silence on the many moral issues related to meat consumption. JVNA also challenges Jewish religious leaders to a respectful debate on, "Should Jews Be Vegetarians?"