We Americans celebrate lots of things on July 4 Independence Day — whatever it might mean for each of us. Family. Friends. Summer. And hot dogs. Yes, Americans celebrate hot dogs.

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans consume 155 million hot dogs each July 4: That’s enough to stretch from LA to D.C. more than five times. And the iconic Coney Island hot-dog eating contest celebrates its 98th year this Thursday, with 12 men and women competing in hopes of winning the title of hot dog-eating champion. These are but two examples of our love affair with a cylindrical tube of by-products known as hot dogs.

This post is an invitation to reconsider your Fourth of July menu. Here are five reasons to celebrate your independence from a diet that promotes environmental devastation, obesity, disease, and animal suffering.

Reason 1: You love America. July 4 is a day not only to celebrate our good fortune to be American, but also to consider our individual responsibility for America’s well-being. As confusing as it was before I began to educate myself, I now understand that the very best way I can care for my country, truly, is to refrain from eating animal products.

I used to love burgers as much as the next person. But the truth is that animal agriculture is destroying America — our air, our water, our topsoil, our biodiversity. And as the leading cause of global warming, it is destroying entire communities, and costing human lives. (Think of the devastation caused by Irene, Lee, and Sandy.)

Here are just two of thousands of ways that our beautiful country is struggling under the weight of industrialized agriculture:

1) Midwestern farms are pumping 13 trillion gallons of water a year from the Ogallala aquifer that supplies water to a multi-state region. Why? Mostly for beef production. Many believe that the aquifer will be dry in 25 years, rendering states like Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas uninhabitable.

2) Because animals are so densely packed on today’s industrial farms, they produce more manure than can be absorbed by the land as fertilizer. The resulting manure runoff has created 230 dead zones along much of coastal United States, including much of the once pristine Chesapeake Bay.

Read More: Kathy Stevens,  huffingtonpost.com