Vegetarianism: Good for the Environment!
You probably know someone that is vegetarian, right? People do it for many reasons: To live a healthier lifestyle through cleaner eating, they feel that it is wrong to kill animals for our food, or because they've done their research and know just how much more damage that a meat-eating diet does to the environment.
Livestock account for more C02 emissions than cars, planes, trucks, etc. put together! That's a whopping 18 to 51 percent of C02 emissions. Another issue is that we're destroying natural resources to make room for all these animal farms. About 30 percent of the total land mass of the earth is covered with livestock farms!
"A farmer can feed up to 30 people throughout the year with vegetables, fruits, and cereals produced on less than 2.5 acres of land, but if the same area were used for the production of eggs, milk, and/or meat, it would only feed 5-10 people." (ChasingGreen)
Not only does being a meat eater harm the land, it also harms our water supply. Over 70 percent of all freshwater goes straight to farming. Livestock take up over 8 percent of water consumption. Why are so many people in the world without water? I think a huge part of it is because we're using so much of the freshwater to raise cattle that wont even feed that many people!
"A 2006 study, examining the impact of a typical week’s eating, showed that plant-based diets are better for the environment than those based on meat. An organic vegan diet had the smallest environmental impact, but the single most damaging foodstuff was beef. All non-vegetarian diets required significantly greater amounts of environmental resources, such as land and water." (VegSoc)
Being vegetarian means saving animals, forests, rain forests, other precious land, our atmosphere, our bodies, and our environment. The positives from being a vegetarian blow being non-vegetarian out of the water.
Of course, if you really want to step up your conservation game you can switch to an all organic vegan diet. That means no animal products whatsoever! A vegan diet might sound bland to you, but if you do a little research you'll find that vegans eat better than most of us! I encourage you to check it out if you're really wanting to reduce your carbon footprint. Our planet will thank you!
Sources:
http://www.chasinggreen.org/article/why-going-vegetarian-good-environment/
https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=520#.UbIc2kDVAdx
Livestock account for more C02 emissions than cars, planes, trucks, etc. put together! That's a whopping 18 to 51 percent of C02 emissions. Another issue is that we're destroying natural resources to make room for all these animal farms. About 30 percent of the total land mass of the earth is covered with livestock farms!
"A farmer can feed up to 30 people throughout the year with vegetables, fruits, and cereals produced on less than 2.5 acres of land, but if the same area were used for the production of eggs, milk, and/or meat, it would only feed 5-10 people." (ChasingGreen)
Not only does being a meat eater harm the land, it also harms our water supply. Over 70 percent of all freshwater goes straight to farming. Livestock take up over 8 percent of water consumption. Why are so many people in the world without water? I think a huge part of it is because we're using so much of the freshwater to raise cattle that wont even feed that many people!
"A 2006 study, examining the impact of a typical week’s eating, showed that plant-based diets are better for the environment than those based on meat. An organic vegan diet had the smallest environmental impact, but the single most damaging foodstuff was beef. All non-vegetarian diets required significantly greater amounts of environmental resources, such as land and water." (VegSoc)
Being vegetarian means saving animals, forests, rain forests, other precious land, our atmosphere, our bodies, and our environment. The positives from being a vegetarian blow being non-vegetarian out of the water.
Of course, if you really want to step up your conservation game you can switch to an all organic vegan diet. That means no animal products whatsoever! A vegan diet might sound bland to you, but if you do a little research you'll find that vegans eat better than most of us! I encourage you to check it out if you're really wanting to reduce your carbon footprint. Our planet will thank you!
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| Looks delicious to me! |
Sources:
http://www.chasinggreen.org/article/why-going-vegetarian-good-environment/
https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=520#.UbIc2kDVAdx
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