Jorja Fox, who plays Sara Sidle on the hit TV show CSI, manages to make dusting for fingerprints, collecting DNA, and examining cadavers look like the hottest job around. Now, Fox hopes to generate the same amount of buzz for vegetarianism as she has for forensic science. In her new ad for PETA, Fox encourages people to “investigate vegetarianism”-something she’s been doing for 20 years.

“[I]f you just cut down [on meat] or tried [vegetarianism], you might find that you love it,” Fox says in her exclusive interview with PETA. “And the list of things that you’d be doing positively to affect the planet and the next seven generations that come after you is humongous.” And she’s not kidding-in response to animal welfare, world hunger, and environmental concerns, compassionate people everywhere are adopting a vegetarian diet.

Meat: A Crime Against Animals and the Environment

Every year in the United States, more than 27 billion animals are slaughtered for food. Animals on today’s factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter.

More than half of the water used in the U.S. goes to animal agriculture, and since farmed animals produce 130 times more excrement than the human population does but without benefit of a sewage system, the run-off from their waste pollutes our waterways. Animal excrement emits gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, which are major contributors to global warming. Forests are being bulldozed to make room for factory farms and feed crops, causing soil erosion, species extinction, and habitat loss. Farmed animals consume 70 percent of the corn, wheat, and other grain that we grow, and one-third of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S. go toward raising animals for food.

Fox knows the stats all too well: “I think society can best be judged on how they treat their elderly, their kids, and their animals. … If that’s something that doesn’t resonate with you, think of world hunger, and think of the rain forest depreciating, and think of global warming. All of these things can be traced pretty powerfully to eating meat.”

If you’d like to investigate vegetarianism, PETA has all the information to get you started. Order your free vegetarian starter kit today or follow Fox’s lead: “[D]o some reading, get on the Web, … check out PETA.”