Environmental Benefits Of Veganism

The dictionary definition of vegan is 1. A vegetarian who omits all animal products from their diet. 2. A person who does not use any animal products, e.g. leather or wool. I’m aware that there are many different issues within the vegan topic but I’m going to try and touch on them all even if it’s just a little bit within this essay. I’m hoping to find out the truth behind what actually happens in the meat industry especially with animal cruelty. I’m also hoping to find out what the meat and egg industry does to our atmosphere as there are so many toxic gases that are by-products of this. I’m going to be comparing the health benefits and downsides to both meat and vegan diets and hopefully help someone better their life.

Vegan or Go Home!”, Sarah Breslaw asserts veganism as the answer to curbing environmental concerns. Breslaw makes a clear argument in her thesis and explains both negative and positive aspects of veganism but ultimately succumbs to logical fallacies, faulty sourcing and evident subjectivity which weaken her claim.

While vegetarianism has been proven to help environmental, health, and animal rights impacts, some people believe it to be too extreme. While vegetarianism claims to be helping the environment, there may be environmental problems associated with non-meat products. Stated before, animal agriculture produces greenhouse gas emissions. The farming of soybeans, which vegetarians fulfil their protein needs with, also has environmental impacts (Coogan,T.). Due to the increase in vegetarianism, there has also been an increase in the demand for soybean farming. Soybean farms have taken over many rainforests and diverse ecosystems (Coogan,T.). Ultimately, the creation of soybean farms destroys biodiversity. Biodiversity is necessary for ecosystems to

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

Veganism has grown into a widespread trend in the last 70 years; in fact, in the United States approximately 3% of the population reports that they do not eat meat and about a third of this group declare themselves as vegan (Singer and Mason 187). Factory farming is an intensive method of farming that results in inexpensive meat products at the expense of one’s health, the environment, and animals (“Factory Farms”) . Moreover, this form of farming has led to the slow destruction of the planet, the mistreatment of animals, and the increase of various health diseases. Veganism is increasing due to the exposure of the secondary effects caused by industrialized

Bill McKibben, as environmentalist and widely published author observes, that the more livestock produced in unethical ways, the more green gases emitted into the atmosphere. In McKibben view, “Going vegan is fifty percent more effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions than switching to a hybrid car according to a University of Chicago study.(201)” McKibben claims that becoming a vegan is one of the only choices someone can make that can actually help the environment. Livestock produces most of the world’s greenhouse gases, when they belch and because the livestock is stuck in one place, all the manure is in one place just emitting gases. Vegans want people to stop eating meat, because the more people eat, the more meat needs to be produced, producing more greenhouse

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.

For centuries, humans have been obsessed with the idea of a long life. From face creams and diets to climate change awareness and recycling, there has always been a push to keep ourselves younger, healthier and to keep humanity going. That’s why veganism is the way to go. Being vegan does not only benefit your health but the environment as well. The Earth is so important. From its beautiful scenery to all the astonishing life that calls this planet home, most would agee that Earth is absolutely phenomenal. While I understand that veganism isn't an option for everyone, those who have the ability to adopt a vegan diet and/or lifestyle should because it's not only better for the human body but the planet as well.

There is a lot of credence to this statement. Look at this way, animal agriculture has done a lot to contribute to the woes we are facing as a result of climate change because animal greenhouse gases contribute a sizable percentage of emissions clouding the planet. Taking the vegan route as it were, comes with obvious benefits like a reducing the individual carbon footprint and opportunity to eat more nutritious and fresher foods. In deed studies have shown that people on vegan diet have lower levels of cholesterol levels and are able to maintain healthy body weight.

Many people consider going vegan to reap the proposed health benefits of going without animal products in their diet. Some go vegan in support of protesting the inhumane treatment of livestock during the production of animal food products. While both of those arguments may be justified in their own right; a more recent argument is that all humans should take to a vegetable based diet to save our planet. Some propose that by consuming animal products we may be contributing to global warming. In George C. Wang’s article Go Vegan, Save the Planet, he suggests that we allow ourselves to be called to action as “global citizens” to address

Goodmorning/afternoon Ms. Walker and class, today I have chosen to talk to you about veganism and the impact it can have on us, the planet and of course, the animals. Veganism is the practice of restraining from using animal products, particularly in diet, completely cutting out all meats, dairy and poultry but also material things like fur coats or couches made out of leather.

One may argue that a reason to begin a vegan diet is to reduce the environmental impact of meat manufacturing. In Sussex County, Delaware, the chicken manure produced is spread out on the farmland instead of being processed like human waste causing the manure to seep into rivers, streams, and groundwater (Singer and Mason 29). The act of spreading the manure onto the fields seems beneficial, but it can have detrimental effects on the marine life. For example, when manure washes off into the ocean or other bodies of water it causes algae to grow and decompose rapidly which creates an area low in oxygen that is referred to as a “dead zone” because the aquatic life’s inability to thrive (Manure’s Impact on Rivers, Streams and the Chesapeake Bay).

The first thing that usually comes to one’s mind when they hear the word Veganism is healthy. However, many points would debate against and for this very statement. There are many researches that prove the vegan diet is a healthy one and that this diet is better than a normal animal product eating one, however none proving that it is better than all the other diets, like some people claim the plant-eating one to be. Being a vegan means that you miss essential nutrients on a day to day basis such as vitamins, iron, zinc and calcium just to name a few. As well as this, when you get rid of all these animal products you are at a much higher risk of developing a nutritional deficiency and becoming under-weight. Looking

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.

The environmental impacts of a diet based in animal products is well documented and is the source of much debate. According to a controversial United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow (2006),“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.” For those committed to reducing their environmental impacts, one solution would be to transfer to a vegetarian or even vegan diet. It is not necessarily ethical to prescribe one way of being for environmentalists all over the world, especially without thinking about differences in cultures. However, most committed environmentalists should adopt a