Is It A Vegetarian?

The article describes the difference in green house emissions from changing two individuals diet from a high meat content to a vegetarian diet would be the equivalent of running a 10-year-old car 6,000 miles or for one person return flight from London to New York.

Vegetarianism has been around since as early as the seventh century B.C.E.. The civilization was the Indus Valley Civilization, they practiced tolerance towards all living things. Several Indian cultures and various religions (such as a ahimsā) also practice non-violence towards animals (“Vegetarianism”, Wikipedia.com). This used to be the sole purpose for being vegetarian, but nowadays people are becoming vegetarian for several more reasons. The ethical aspect is still a big reason in the decision. Health benefits and environmental aspects have now also become big reasons for the controversy over vegetarianism. People say that killing animals for food is not morally wrong and, is in fact, a crucial part of our lives. Another aspect is that, while in some ways vegetarianism is beneficial to the environment, it can also hurts the environment. Also, despite all of the health benefits involved with vegetarianism, there are also several health concerns connected with it.

One of the biggest arguments for most people that are vegetarian is that eating meat is not necessary for human survival or for their health. Some vegetarians find that slaughtering animals solely for the purpose of humans to eat meat is wrong and not justifiable. Most vegetarians do not eat meat due to the practises involved in the production and slaughtering of animals citing concerns about

There is much controversy and hypocrisy when it comes to animals. I, along with thousands of others, am part of the hypocrisy. I squirm and feel a deep sadness when I hear or see animals being abused, yet I am a meat-eater. I have learned that we all have different opinions and taste and we can not force others to change their ways. There will always be people, like me, perhaps, who will continue to eat meat and use animal products because that is what to us is food and normality. There are many ways to solutionize this; Become vegan or vegetarian, do protests and show others the suffering animals are put through, and/or simply let those who do not choose veganism to be themselves.

Being vegan can reduce/slow the rise in climate change and help the environment become a better place. The production of meat and other animal by-products​ affect the environment; from the crops and water required to feed the animals, to the transportation and process it takes in order to prepare the animals for human gormandizing. To produce one pound of meat it takes about 2,400 gallons of water. All this water consumption goes to waste, just for humans to consume the little piece of meat for their own short-lived entertainment. However, it takes about 25 gallons to grow one pound of wheat. As you can see, we are wasting water in order to have meat on our plates. This is not good for people to do, because we need water to survive in this

A vegan diet is the best possible diet because it inflicts less damage to the environment. According to Culinary Schools, “Nearly half of all water used in the UNited States goes to raising animals for food. It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat. Vs. 1 pound of wheat takes 25 gallons. You’d save more water by not eating one pound of meat than you would by not taking a shower for 6 months” (“Veganism & The Environment: By the Numbers” par. 9-11). In other words, 50% of the water used by the United States as a whole, was used to raise animals that were going to be eaten later on. This quote shows that raising animals for food is a massive waste of water. That large amount of water is used to provide the animals with wheat and grains to eat and to

From an environmental perspective a switch to a vegan diet makes a lot of sense. Federal grazing deals given to ranchers result in the destruction of wildlife on huge areas of land. Also nearly all cattle spend their final months at feedlots, where they are fed an inefficient and resource-intensive corn-based diet. Cows have digestive systems that rely upon fermentation, and the corn-based diet makes cattle emit huge amounts of methane which is a gas tied to global warming. The methane produced by pigs and poultry account for a lesser but still a huge amount of greenhouse gasses. “The UN estimates that animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of the total global warming effect stemming from greenhouse gasses. Beef and dairy cattle probably account for about 70 percent of animal agriculture’s contribution to global warming.”(http://www.vegan.com/articles/faq/)

According to Laura Fraser, being a vegetarian is way more complicated than she first realized. It takes a lot more effort being a vegetarian rather than if people just consumed meat like most of our generation does. Vegetarians have to find other ways to get all the proteins and vitamins they need to stay healthy. Since it is rare for people to be considered a vegetarian most people who aren’t have to conform to them to satisfy their needs. She states in her essay that people become vegetarians for several different reasons varying from health related, animal rights activists, and environmental issues.

The environmental impacts of a diet based in animal products is well documented and is the source of much debate. According to a report from the United Nations ' Livestock 's Long Shadow (2006),“[t]he 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 negative impact on the environment, one solution would be to transition to a vegetarian or vegan/plant-based diet. Its not ethical to prescribe one way of being for environmentalists all over the world, especially when considering potential cultural differences. However, most committed environmentalists should attempt to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet. This is because (1) animal products are an inefficient source of protein in terms of environmental impact, (2) the greenhouse gas emissions from an animal product-based diet is significantly higher than a plant-based diet and (3) animals are part of the environment and their treatment is as important as the treatment of the planet as a whole.

This image relies on and utilizes the audiences’ emotions. Most people care about the environment and the Earth, therefore more people will be willing to switch to a vegan lifestyle. This image represents another one of PETA’s points on the benefits of becoming a vegetarian. According to PETA, becoming a vegetarian can help save the environment and even affect climate change because the creation of meat factories causes environmental destruction Although PETA’s simple solution to our complex predicament seems to be an easy fix, requiring a society that is rooted on the foundation of meat such as beef burgers, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets can be quite a challenge. PETA states that “typical meat-eaters who switched to a vegan diet reduced their food-related carbon footprint by 60 percent, saving 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year”. According to their independent researcher, the study states that “vegans’ carbon footprint is 25 percent smaller than that of vegetarians, who still eat dairy products and eggs.” Also, PETA states that the amount of methane produced by the billions of animals “produce enormous amounts of methane, through the acres of waste “lagoons” that store their feces”. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “the impact of methane on climate change is 25 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period... the digestive processes of animals used for food and the management of manure together account for more than a third of total methane emissions in the

Studies with staggering statistics have shown how much of a negative impact producing meat for consumption is having on this planet. “It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef, while producing 1 pound of tofu only requires 244 gallons of water (PETA).” Factory farms create manure which produces runoff and is one of the leading causes for the pollution in rivers and lakes. This also poses an issue for the air that people are breathing. “Studies have shown that [animal waste] lagoons emit toxic airborne chemicals that can cause inflammatory, immune, irritation and neurochemical problems in humans” (Foer). Another issue is the land that is being wasted. Threats like deforestation become a reality when crops are being used to feed animals and not humans directly. Only 4 million acres are being used to grow plants that go directly to humans, while 56 million acres are being used to grow feed for animals, and this is in the United States alone (PETA). Vegetarianism is an option that promotes better health and a positive environment for

Perhaps the most associated reason by non-vegetarians are the rights of animals. It has been reported that the average American will consume nineteen thousand animals in his or her lifetime. There are many absolutely grotesque and gruesome stories of animals waiting to die, stories that I will not divulge here, but the magnitude of it is worthy of researching on one’s own time. The ethical treatment of animals a moral that many vegetarians believe and follow. This is largely reason enough to become of vegetarian, but combined with the many other reasons; vegetarianism is too hard to turn a blind-eye towards.

The water used to produce just ten pounds of steak equals the household consumption of a family for an entire year (Parr 39). The production of meat and dairy products take up more than half of America’s water consumption. Meat and dairy products pose many environmental problems, but an effective solution for everyday people to soothe their conscience and save water is to become a vegetarian. Vegetarianism is a subject shunned by most, but it’s actually a simple lifestyle change that most anyone can do. It has many benefits health wise, only one being that vegetarians are 25 to 50 percent less likely to get cancer (PETA). It has the potential to solve or greatly reduce many global problems, like greenhouse gases and deforestation. There are many reasons people give for not becoming a vegetarian, sometimes they even come up with false “facts” about how being a vegetarian affects your health negatively. People claim that vegetarians do not get enough protein, even though meat eaters tend to eat two to three times the amount that the U.S. government RDA suggests (19). Another common reasoning for not being vegetarian is the theory that humans were made to eat meat.

According to the United Nations Populations Fund, US citizens eat on average 260 pounds of meat per person. In the past five years the argument that mass-produced meat is a key cause in manmade global warming has gained a great deal of steam. Many environmentalists have been pushing the idea of vegetarianism by pointing out what is wrong with meat-eating. Emissions, feed supply for animals, and animal welfare are what James McWilliams argues in Bellying up to Environmentalism why meat should not be consumed. He writes that, “it takes a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of conventional beef…and if all of the grain that is used to feed animals went to people, you could feed China and India.(McWilliams A21)” Ranchers, farmers, and

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, water pollution, habitat destruction, and other issues (How Eating, 2014). How could this still be happening? This is because about 94% of the US population are meat eaters and the industry does not tell you what happens behind their closed factory doors: the industry is the leading cause in both resource consumption and global warming, their meat can cause diseases that can be prevented, and the industry abuses their animals. Converting to a vegetarian or vegan diet might sound intimidating, or sound like we might not get all of the needed nutrients but there foods that vegetarians can eat to get what they need to get. Despite not eating meat on a regular basis there are positives to a plant-based diet. Switching your diet to a vegan or vegetarian can save the planet by eliminating resource consumption, pollution, in occurrence for diseases, and giving animals a second chance at life.