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With President Obama's push to reform health care gobbling up reams of newsprint lately, we decided that the time was ripe to put forth our modest proposal for lowering health care costs: raise insurance premiums for meat-eaters.

Now, before you Hardee's fans reach for your defibrillators, hear me out. Insurance companies charge you higher rates for other risky behaviors, such as smoking and skydiving, so why not charge you for chowing down on burgers and brats? After all, a Chili's Big Mouth Bites meal (which includes four "mini" bacon cheeseburgers) packs a whopping 2,350 calories! That's more calories than most people should eat in an entire day.

PETA has written to the top two medical insurance providers suggesting that they stick it to raise rates for meat-eaters while simultaneously lowering rates for vegetarians. In our letter, we point out that compared to meat-eaters, vegetarians are less prone to a myriad of ailments—including heart disease. (Heart disease, for those who are taking notes, is America's number-one killer disease.)

But hey, why wait for your insurance company to start charging you extra for those Buffalo wings and Philly cheese steaks? You can start doing your part to slash health care costs today by ordering a free copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit."

Posted by Alisa Mullins

It’s well known that chicken fat may kill you by clogging your arteries, but did you know that it may also crash your car?

Earlier this week chicken fat that leaked from a waste truck onto the roadway caused at least four accidents and made a smelly mess in PETA’s home state of Virginia. One injured person was even taken to a hospital.

According to news reports a truck hauling waste chicken grease from a Perdue Farms plant left a valve open, and the fat leaked onto U.S. Route 13 from the plant to the Maryland state line.

According to one Virginia State Police Sergeant, the gunk caused a "really funky" odor. No kidding.

The moral of the story is that if you eat meat you’re causing car accidents—and even sending some people to the hospital. Make America’s highways safe by ordering an emergency Free Vegetarian Starter Kit now.

- Joel

You may have heard about the latest “solution” to the world’s energy crisis and global warming. This one is perhaps the most absurd idea yet, coming to us courtesy of the well-known environmental stewards of the meat industry.

Last week, oil company ConocoPhillips and the largest meat producer in the world, Tyson Foods, announced that they will soon begin producing diesel fuel from the fat of pigs, chickens and cows. While on the surface this may not sound completely insane, given that the fuel will be made from rendered animal remains currently used in nonvegan soaps, cosmetics and pet food, the reality is that this whole idea has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with lining the pockets of Tyson and ConocoPhillips execs.

Let’s be real here. The meat industry does not care about the environment. Period. In fact, it is one of the absolute worst corporate environmental offenders on the planet. Take for instance the recent U.N. reports pointing out that animals raised for food generate more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks combined, and that (according to a recent University of Chicago study), switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Prius.

No matter what kind of crazy PR spin the meat industry tries to put on it, at the end of the day what it comes down to is that the answer to global warming isn’t to fill up SUVs with the remains of tortured animals. The most effective thing anyone can do to help the environment is to go vegetarian, and until we accept that fact, all the plastic bottle recycling, Prius driving, and tree-planting are barely making a dent in the problem.

I don’t want to come off all gloom and doom here, quite the opposite really. When you consider that we all have the opportunity to “vote the environment” at mealtimes three times a day, it’s actually pretty exciting. If you’re looking for resources to help make the transition to vegetarianism, you can check out our vegetarian starter kit and start saving the planet, one bite at a time. It beats the hell out of pig fat biodiesel.