A Plant-Based Diet Could Save The Planet Essay

Anna Lappé’s book, Diet for a Hot Planet, discusses the impact that meat consumption has on the planet and our environment. It discusses how the global food system is a major contributor to climate change, producing as much as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. She writes about how the way we farm, what we eat, and how our food gets to our tables all

Instead of dieting, people should look to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In an effort to do so, I have turned to a plant based diet. With new studies informing the public about the dangers of red meat as a carcinogen and its link to heart disease, I felt it was best to leave the burgers behind. While not wholly vegan, I no longer consume eggs, dairy, honey, and red meat and instead have replaced these animal products with leafy greens, fiber rich berries, and whole wheat pasta. This transition has not been solely about health, however, as, after taking an Environmental Science course, I learned about the damaging environmental impacts of the meat and dairy industries. In the United States, agriculture accounts for 80% of our water usage -- and bovine meat is the largest offender, using 48x more water than vegetables. Land usage for livestock is another massive problem and as the consumer demands for animal products increases, our available land is slowly eaten away at.

When I was growing up I was taught how to hunt, fish and trap animals for food as well as being fed an omnivorous diet, but today I have found that I no longer need animals in my diet. The Vegetarian Times recently found that out of the 311 million people in the US, 7.3 million eat a vegetarian based diet and 22.8 million eat a vegetarian inclined diet. Over the past century people have begun looking into the health implications of plant based diets as a way of improving their health and increase their longevity. This research paper is intended

Introduction (Attention Step): What do you think is the greatest cause of emission pollution? What do you believe is harming our planet? Well if you guessed that fossil fuel emissions are the biggest emission polluters, then you are completely wrong (attention getter). Animal Agriculture is actually the number one Greenhouse Gas emitter in the planet. Yes, cow farts are destroying the environment. It sounds crazy, but ever since the mid 60’s, agriculture associations have been spreading across the Americas and dominated the industry. The most destructive of all Ag corps are Livestock Corporation. These associations include IBP, Conagra, Perdue, Farmland National Beef, Cargill, etc … Animal Agriculture is effecting every single person in this room because we all breathe in the same air, drink the same water, and eat the same (credibility). The buildup of Animal Agriculture is a great destruction to our planet and our species because it is creating

Most Americans are aware of global warming, cancer, heart disease and the fact that the earth’s supply of good water is diminishing. In an effort to conserve our planet people drive hybrid cars, recycle, and use low energy light bulbs and appliances, which is great. However, most Americans are unaware and uninformed about how meat effects global warming, our health, and how much of our planet’s water and resources meat production consumes. Meat contributes to global warming, increases risk for cancer, causes heart disease and uses a tremendous amount of resources to produce, therefore people need to be informed about what they are eating through food labeling and Surgeon General warnings, as well as

Since the world is consuming so much meat, more than ten times the amount of crops that would need to be grown if people didn’t eat meat is grown to feed all the livestock. After that, the animals need to be slaughtered, and the meat transported, which, Preston says, burns “ten times as much fossil fuels-and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide-as does a calorie of plant protein.” She later adds that animal agriculture can be credited for giving off 9% of carbon dioxide emissions, 37% of methane, and 65% of nitrous oxide. These hard facts are a sturdy appeal to logos, and surprise any readers that were not aware of the damage of eating so much meat, and may change some minds. Finally, she makes an emotional appeal to the people that don’t want to drastically change their diet, by mentioning delicious vegetarian food like veggie burgers, and by giving her readers a website to get free recipes from. Preston’s argument can credit its efficiency to the fact that most people, are shocked about the damage that livestock does to the earth, and are interested in ceasing global

By exploiting a president’s promise and several specific facts and comparing the emissions between car and animal cultivation, Freston raises her claim that calls for people should be worrying about their diet rather than their car. First, the author adopts an honest report from the United Nations: “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global” (800). In this way, Freston makes her audiences believe that raising

In Margaret Lundberg's short story "Eating green" she has a theory about the planet becoming a healthier place to live if everyone became a vegetarian, which I believe is true. Lundberg talks about her childhood and how right off the bat her mother had her eating healthy food and that pretty much stuck with her through out her whole life. "We had two vegetables with every meal, ate plain yogurt for breakfast, and excercised with jack LaLanne." If most families started off like that it would be easier for kids to enjoy eating healthier food now instead of them liking junk food. Most people do not realize that what they eat does effect the planet and how we live on a daily basis and how badly it effects our health.

The excess of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have led to a dramatic rise in the climate and the hottest recorded years the Earth has seen. To be specific, “the 25 warmest years on record have come since 1980 [and] the 10 warmest since global recordkeeping began in 1880 have come since 1996, (p 56)” which is nothing to boast about, seeing as this is also the largest population and most technology the Earth has ever seen. Moreover, in lecture, we went over the amount of greenhouse gases created solely by livestock and how being a society dependent of livestock for food is very negative. Livestock emit about 68% of all agriculturally produced methane(lecture) and methane counts for approximately 18% of greenhouse gases (p 57). That is not to say that livestock do not create a large amount; in fact, human-caused methane emissions are almost solely from agriculture. To combat this, Dr. Wailes proposed that instead of basing our diet on water-heavy crops and methane-emitting animals, we switch to much more sustainable foods. One example of this would be to eat bugs. Bugs contain much more protein by the pound and do not eat alfalfa, which is what causes cows and other livestock to emit greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Dr. Wailes also displayed a chart with three different “meals” which

We’ve all heard environmentalists explain what global warming is, why it’s dangerous, and what we can do to stop it. People protest against auto emissions and fossil fuel daily. “ But the one industry that produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUV’s, cars, ships, planes, and trucks in the world combined, has carefully avoided scrutiny” (Goveg.com). Often overlooked in environmental destruction is the meat industry. This industry has a major source of deforestation, wasted natural resources, and pollution. As consumers we expect our food to be safe, but Americans should pay more attention and fear what may affect our environment in the future.

Scientist have proven that global climate change is a direct result of mankind and is not in fact caused by natural occurrences. In addition, Walsh agrees with recent studies that the raising of livestock might be the biggest impact humans have on the planet today. Nonetheless, this impact is nothing to be proud of when animal agriculture takes up 40 percent of our earth’s land alone, is the cause of the world’s methane emissions by up to 40 percent and even 66

In 2016 alone, the industry has made up $1.02 trillion in total economic output, which is about 5.6 percent of the nation’s GDP and has employed 1.87 million workers that earned over 71.63 billion in wages and benefits (Dunham and Associates, 2016). Based on these statistics alone, we can already see how important the meat industry is to our economy. Imposing a pro-vegetarian diet would indirectly harm the industry as less demand for meats would cause prices to go up and eventually workers to be laid off as employers cut costs to maintain their potentially dwindling industry. This would lead to an increase in the unemployment rate and an inflation in meat prices that would only serve to damage the industry even

As we can now observe, vegetarianism has become something fashionable, and the number of people who reject eating meat is constantly increasing. In Britain, for instance, over 5 million people have done it so far. It is obviously connected with the recent animal diseases, but this tendency is likely to spread on the other regions of the world. However, it is not only a fashion or fear of illnesses. I myself became a vegetarian about 2 years ago, and I can see a number of reasons why people should stop eating meat. They are mainly of ethic, economic and health type. Those who think in an ecological way should also be aware of how this meat consumption ruins our environment. I don’t have an intention

As different crazes and fads are appearing each day, we have come to expect them to simply fade away as the hype passes. However, veganism has stood the test of time in our fad society and is still increasing in popularity. Originally only thought to be a religious lifestyle, many people from different walks of life are becoming vegans. However, this poses many questions and sparks heated debates, mainly from omnivorous people who believe that veganism is against life’s natural order. Vegans, then, argue against an omnivorous lifestyle by bringing up facts about humans’ biological makeup and how humans are, contrary to popular belief, herbivorous by nature, not omnivorous. While both sides present good arguments to some, the veganism lifestyle contains more benefits and less harmful cons than an omnivorous lifestyle.

Consumption of meat by humans creates several problems. First and foremost, raising animals for food compromises the environment. For example, it takes a large amount of natural resources to sustain the meat industry. The use of water, land, and food to raise animals for human consumption is not an efficient use of our limited resources. In contrast, it is more efficient to feed humans directly than to use land, food, and water to feed animals to be used as food. There are shortages of fertile land, clean water, and food in several third world countries. Many of these countries’ resources are allocated to produce feed for animals in developed countries around the world. As a result, the citizens of these countries are stricken with water and food shortages, while their crops are feeding cattle from across the globe. However, this problem can be solved by adopting a vegan diet. The vegan diet will allow a more efficient use of resources that in turn can be used to feed starving men, women, and children throughout the world. Consequently, more people in the world could be fed if the land used to grow feed for animals was used to grow food for humans.