PETA's Top 10 Reasons to Give Up Meat This World Vegetarian Day, 1 October

Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up lumpy lentil stews and dull-as-dishwater veggie dahls. Veggie faux meats such as bacon and sausages - along with an ever-expanding variety of fresh fruit and veggies - mean the vegetarian diet has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Day coming up on 1 October, here without further ado are PETA's Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Meat:

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor

The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people - more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, more than 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished. By feeding grain currently funnelled to farmed animals to starving people instead, everyone would have enough to eat. Care about global poverty? Time to ditch animal products.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals

Green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes are not the reality for more than 95% of animals raised for food. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed into filthy wire cages, gestation crates and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, forage for food or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

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