Vegetarians Vs. Omnivores
The world is changing for the worst all thanks to animal protein. In 2016 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that Americans ate an average of 92.1 pounds of chicken, 50.4 pounds of pork, and 54.3 pounds of beef, per person every year. (Per Capita Consumption) While meat is the most convenient source of protein, vegetarian diets are better for people because it decreases pollution, conserves resources, and is better for your health.
Global warming is becoming a bigger issue every day. NASA predicts that the earth’s surface temperature is going to rise between two and six degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century. A vegetarian diet leads to lower greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are made by enteric fermentation (aka animal burps and poots, methane equals bad), deforestation to make room for grazing animals and growing their feed, and manure decomposition. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, raising animals for consumption creates 18% of global greenhouse gases. That’s more than transportation! Producing only one pound of hamburger meat makes just as much greenhouse gas as driving a little car almost 20 miles. One pound of pork equals about 5 miles, and one pound of potatoes is only 0.34 miles. A study found that diets including meat protein cause the creation of up to 54% more greenhouse gas emissions than vegetarian diets. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, a
In the science article, “Beef and Climate Change Collide”, Los Angeles Times argues that beef is unhealthy for planet Earth due to the released gases that contribute to climate change. They claim that the U.S. beef production uses twenty eight times for land and eleven times more water than any other types of meets. Beef production pumps up five times more planet warming gases into our atmosphere than chicken, or pork. Furthermore, developing nations raising cattle have significantly increased the amounts of gases they produce. These developing countries have increased fifty one percent from 1961-2010. Although gases from cattle have been increasing, U.S. beef industry claims that the U.S. create the least amount of greenhouse gases being
Being vegetarian or vegan is not only beneficial to the animals that are being slaughtered but it also beneficial to the earth and helps to reduce global warming. According to Wikipedia, there are more than seven billion people and out of those seven billion people only three hundred and seventy five million people are said to be vegetarian or vegan. This mass slaughter of animals and livestock is also one of the leading causes of global warming. People may think that the earth is slowly dying but that is not the case anymore as global warming has caught up with us. According to NASA, there are 406.94 parts per million of carbon di oxide in the atmosphere the highest it has ever been in 650000 years. The global temperature has risen by 1.7 °F and sixteen out of the seventeen warmest years on earth have been recorded since 2001. The arctic ice minimum has decreased by 13.2% per decade and in 2012 arctic summer sea ice shrank to the lowest extent on record. The global sea level has also grown by 3.4 millimeters per year and the global average sea level has risen nearly 178mm over the past 100 years. These statistics show you how quickly global warming and climate change are having an effect on earth and who knows what the stats will be in another 50 to 100 years the earth may become uninhabitable and humans will be the sole reason for this.
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
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
Brought up in the southern of China, I often heard about that people from there “eat anything with four limbs except tables, anything that flies except aero planes, and anything that swims except ships”. Nevertheless, I eat more fruit, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains but less meat to make careful choices for environmental protection. Similarly, Kathy Freston argues that animal agriculture is one of the top contributors to global warming. In her Huffington Post selection “Vegetarian Is the New Prius,” Freston lists how many emissions of greenhouse gases people make when they eat meat and illustrates the consumption of tree in animal agriculture. She effectively convinces her audiences that the livestock results in the most serious environmental problems and encourages people to lead a greener diet to protect our environment. However, ardent craving, poor health, and perpetual hassle and cost prevent all Americans from being vegetarian.
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.
Another Ted Talk video “What’s Wrong with What We Eat” is a speech video by Mark Bittman discussing “what’s wrong with the way we eat now, and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk”. This video discusses the way we eat is a Holocaust of it’s time. Bittman discusses how energy production, livestock is the second highest contributor to atmosphere altering gases. With one-fifth of those greenhouses gasses coming from livestock production, more than transportation. Bittman also talks about how livestock is one of the largest problems with land degradation, air and water pollution, water shortage, and biodiversity.
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.
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
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
During Niccolo Machiavelli’s time, Italy was the epitome of political conflict. Machiavelli witnessed an array political change from the expulsion of the Medici family to the rise of Girolamo Savanorola. He even served as a diplomat to Pope Julius, but when the Medici family regained control of Florence, Machiavelli was dismissed from office and accused of participating in a conspiracy. As a result, he was held in jail for three weeks and was tortured brutally. After his release, Machiavelli began writing The Prince, a book that outlines in a very straightforward and logical manner how a prince should procure and maintain his princedom. Though he is seemingly expressing his thoughts about how men should approach their journey to princedom in his book, The Prince, there is an underlying cynical discernment about the dark shadow of human nature, perhaps a perception that stemmed from Machiavelli’s excruciating time in prison. To Machiavelli, the real truth is that men are simply selfish individuals who are almost animal-like in their actions and will spare no humanity if it means becoming a prince and successfully keeping their princedom. He accepts this truth and proceeds by writing a very systematic and binary how-to manual that describes every decision a prince can make and its outcome. In every chapter, Machiavelli outlines another aspect of ruling a princedom and in every chapter, Machiavelli expresses another cynical attitude toward human nature.
In Exodus 4:25, the story is told of how Moses’s wife, Zipporah, circumcises their son Gershom before their trip to Egypt and after the near death encounter with God. After the circumcision, Zipporah “touches Moses’ feet with [the foreskin]” (Exodus 4:25). After a further study, we realize that in fact the word “feet” in this passage is a euphemism for the genital area for Moses. This act by Zipporah of touching Moses’ genital area with his son’s foreskin is extremely symbolic and is one of the reasons God decides not to kill Moses. In earlier readings we see that Moses’ was almost killed because he was not circumcised, nor was his son – the reason God wanted to kill him. The touching of the genital area with Gershom’s foreskin is symbolic
Diets that focus on animal products, like meat, dairy, and eggs, require disproportionate high amounts of resources like water and land. Additionally, animals produce huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change. Such diets are not great for the environment that surrounds us, but more and more studies also link them to chronic diseases and early deaths. If the way we eat is bad for us and for the environment, we should inform ourselves about the potential impact of changing our diets.
The word diet is defined as the kinds of food a person habitually eats. Diets often vary according to culture, religion, and personal preference. People often use different diets as a way to manage their weight or improve their overall health, both vegetarianism and flexitarianism are diets that are commonly adopted in order to improve health. Vegetarianism is typically practiced as lacto-ovo vegetarianism which means that milk products and eggs may be consumed although meat, fish, and meat byproducts are not. A flexitarian diet is less easily defined because it consists mainly of a vegetarian diet and includes only small amounts of meat when necessary. Both diets are based on either eliminating or reducing meat intake in one’s diet. Vegetarianism/Flexitaritarism diets are effect at reducing the risk of some diseases and can be used as a way to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.
There are two main lifestyles that we as human beings practice that impact our eating habits. One being a Vegetarian, a person who chooses not to eat meat. The other being a Meat Eater (also known as an Omnivore), a person who chooses to eat both meat and vegetables. A controversial debate continues to go on, evaluating the pros and cons of each group, along with the reasons behind their choice. In the end it all depends on the individual’s outlook on life that makes the decision.