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.
If everyone became a
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With the pros there's the cons as well, "Americans are now eating nearly 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish every year; an increase of 50 pounds per person in the last 50 years" ( Lumdberg) some very high numbers for what the appropriate amount should actually be.
Farmers do not want to be looked at as the bad guys in all of this, which they aren't, everyone has to make a living. A group of New York farmers thought of an idea to work with General Electric to produce renewable energy from cow manure. That is a pretty good idea to try and atleast get something good out of the slaughtering of the cows to try and help the planet Earth out. If successful the dairy industry would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in 2020, basically the equivalent of getting 1.25 million passenger cars of the road every year. That is a good idea but it still does not solve all the other major problems that switching your diet could help.
In conclusion, I personally feel that it will not hurt to try something new. Like I mentioned earlier it would be extremely difficult to get used to but if it is benefiting you, others and the planet might as well take a chance. Why wait till it is to late to change your habits of wanting a 16 oz steak over a green salad knowing how many pros it would be to choose that salad. If things continue to go as they do, there will be no more places to raise these cows to produce meat because global temperatures are
In the second section of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pastoral grass and “organic foods” are the main focus and many agree that grass is a far better choice for animals that graze. By switching a cows diet back to normal food, will impact the market of food prices because the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand, thus making the food market a disaster, or at least that’s what I picture when I think of the outcome. The demand for beef now is so great that these cattle are being slaughtered at roughly 12 months, that’s not even half of the total life-span they’re supposed to live. A grass fed cow takes about 4-5 years to be ready for some great steaks, but thanks to our wonder crop, “corn”, we can slice that
In the short story of Margaret Lundberg ‘’Eating Green’’ Margaret has grown up being a vegetarian because her mother fed up with healthy foods, that included vegies in her meal and plain yogurt for breakfast. As the time passed by, she became a mother and transported a vegetarian diet to her family as well as she was accustomed to its lifestyle. Margaret had realized that if everyone becomes a vegan it could make a huge impact and contribute to benefit on saving the planet we live on. The purpose of the argument is to encourage others to consider taking a vegetarian diet; It will likely reduced badly effects in our health. By considering/ taking in mind a vegetarian diet it could decrease the percent of people suffering from obesity, diabetes,
What is a hamburger without grilled meat, hotdogs without sausages, or Thanksgiving without turkey? These foods contain an excessive amount of meat that people like to enjoy in their foods which make it tasty and delicious. However, an excessive amount of meat is affecting people’s health because people are consuming more meat instead of the necessary fruits and vegetables that are needed in their body. People do not realize that excessive meat is affecting their health. Most of the human diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are caused because people are consuming a great amount of meat. People fail at having a well-balanced scale in which they can balance their diet and consume smaller portions of everything. It is incredible to realize where meat comes from. According to the article in order to obtain 1 pound of meat it takes approximately sixteen pounds of soybeans and grain.
Following a vegetarian diet means eating no meat, and sometimes, no animal products at all. Many Americans scoff at the idea of cutting out meat from their diet, but Kathy Freston writes an effective argument on why people should be vegetarians in her selection, “Vegetarian Is the New Prius”. Her argument focuses around the negative effects eating meat has on the globe (like global warming), and offers another logical option: going vegetarian. First, Freston establishes her ethos by appearing as someone that is concerned about the future of the earth, and someone that has completed extensive research due to the statistics she uses. Next, she acknowledges the fact that there are other ways to slow down global warming-like buying a Prius-but
Tracing back history, food has always been traditionally imperative to humans. Food is what we treasure and really derive pleasure eating. It has been part of every culture and tradition because every culture has its delicacies. In some parts of Nigeria, if you eat a meal that is meatless, people tend to consider you as poor and unable to afford meat. In essence, meat is really considered a big deal in some parts of my country. Growing up as a child, I was taught that I needed the “omnivore’s diet” to grow effectively and be healthy but today, I have discovered that I no longer need animals in my diet. America
But what are we to do? It has been made abundantly clear that the vast majority of the U.S. population is not ready to give up their carnivorous ways, so abolishing the production of meat is off the table. Thankfully, however, there are other options out there.
Beef accounts for so much water usage and methane emissions and carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses and it all contributes to global climate change. We are killing our planet because we like the way meat tastes. It is crucial we leave the old ways behind so that we may embrace the new lifestyle that is caring about the world and doing something about it. It is crucial that everyone understands what they are doing to themselves when they eat processed foods. It is important to recognize severely hormone treated meat as the carcinogen
Everybody loves meat. From steak to pork chops, it’s all good, just not good for you. In the past few decades, as our population has increased exponentially, so has our demand for food. Because of this, we have changed in the way we get our food. The way that the food is produced has changed and because of this the health risks increased and the environment is also affected. People need to know that there are consequences.
Since the beginning of mankind, we have become dependent on animal products as a food source. As population increased, so did the production of animal agriculture and its profitability. Unfortunately, it has grown into an industry that is unsustainable for this planet and is demolishing our environment at an astonishing rate. In the academic article, ‘Cowspiracy’ Strips the Meat Industry Down to the Bone, Ford reports the shocking statistic that “even if all utilities were turned off and every fossil-fuel-guzzling system of transportation ceased immediately, environmental damage that results from greenhouse gases would be irreversible…even with humanity’s greatest efforts, the dairy and meat industries will still eventually destroy life on Earth”. As the environment is at its most crucial and devastating point, the major contribution that animal agriculture has on rainforest deforestation, pollution of our water, and global warming becomes undeniable.
The quantity of meat Americans consume and the way the animals are farmed in the U.S. has changed over the last half century resulting in major impacts on the environment. These effects are largely a result of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations which are also known as “CAFOs” or “factory farms” in abbreviated terms (McCorkell 2009). Animal agriculture is responsible for much of the damage to land, biodiversity, consumption of drinkable water, and contributions to global warming in the United States. For years, its impacts have only become more extreme. Over the years, a few options for solutions have been brought to light involving efforts of reducing the demand for animal products, grass-feeding livestock, and passing stricter
Going vegetarian can help preserve the limited land and water system that us humans take for granted sometimes. Factory farming along with free range farming are destroying the earth and its biodiversity. When people think of pollution like unnecessary CO2 emissions and deforestation of rainforests, they do not think about the animals being raised for consumption. In an article, “Concentrated animal Agriculture Is The Biggest
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
To eat a cow or not to eat a cow, that is the question. Americans eat more meat than people in any other country. But eating meat causes air pollution, water pollution, and may cause health problems. People should become vegetarians to prevent these problems.
Agriculture for meat and beef, eggs and dairy products are responsible for eighteen percent of all the greenhouse gas emission per year, which is more than the emissions of cars, planes, and trains together. And livestock and their byproducts are responsible for fifty-one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and for up to ninety percent of water consumption in the U.S.. Thousands of gallons of water are used to produce beef, eggs and dairy products. More than half of the oceans are fished and two acres of the rainforest get destroyed every second for food production. Switching to a vegan lifestyle can decrease all these factors and make the world we live in now exist longer.
The issue: We’re eating the planet. All of us - and not in the fun, culinary sense of exploring international cuisine. The amount of food Americans eat exceeds the amount they actually need. Our food choices are high in calories, high in fat, high in sugar, high in resource and energy input, high in everything. The average American eats 258 lbs. of meat every year. That’s roughly 1/10 of a cow, half a pig, one turkey, and 26 chickens. Maybe this doesn’t sound that much to you – but it is 30 times more meat than the average Indian consumes yearly.