Climate change is one of the biggest concerns of our generation. Did you know that one simple shift can help you contribute to stopping this problem?  What is that change? Removing animal products from your diet, in other words becoming a vegan.

       What even is veganism you may ask?  It depends on the person, but usually it is when a person cuts all animal products out of their diet and some even go as far as to stop using clothes, bed sheets, health products that come from animals.  We all know that meat is an animal product but some people would be surprised to know that cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and even ranch dressing are dairy which is an animal product. So what do vegans eat? Vegans eat a diet of mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and grains.  Plus, many of your favorite traditional foods can be made vegan.  

        Global water supplies are decreasing due to pollution and contamination, Because of this, many people around the world don’t have water.  You may think we have plenty of water to go around because the earth is mostly water, but actually only 2.5% of that water is fresh and 30% is available to us and not frozen.  So as you can see, conservativing water is something we should all be trying to do. Farming livestock takes up more freshwater than almost anything else. A single pound of beef takes 441 gallons to produce! That is 200 times more than it takes to make about the same amount of vegetables.  This means cutting out just 2 pounds of beef saves about 900 gallons of water. So basically, the more people that switch to a vegan diet, the more water we have to go around.

     A vegan diet reduces energy usage and cuts greenhouse gas emissions. But why is it important to save energy? The basic answer is that it will produce a better quality of life.  Which means cleaner air and an overall healthier planet. Plants can be made using 8 times less energy than meat. When meat is produced fossil fuels are burnt in the raising, slaughtering and transportation of animals.  Raising livestock accounts for 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. And that’s not it, livestock needs much more protein, water and calories than it does to produce plants. Cornell University found that producing one calorie of food energy from beef requires 40 calories of fossil fuel energy.  As you can see producing meat uses much more energy and greenhouse gas than a producing plants. 

     All of these things connect to help save our earth from one thing, climate change.  Climate change may sound like a big issue you can’t change on your own, but you can do your part by simply removing animal products from your diet.  Climate change has been called humankind’s biggest issue so far. It is affecting everything from agriculture to water supplies to ecosystems. If you truly care about saving our planet the best thing for you to do is cut out meat, eggs, and dairy.  Feeding, slaughtering, processing, transporting, and storing takes huge amounts of energy. Then forests that give us oxygen and absorb greenhouse gases are cut down so livestock can be fed. Lastly all the manure animals produce release more greenhouse gas into the air.  The U.N. says raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every scale from local to global.” If you want to have an effect on our earth and change it for the better all you have to do is simply become a vegan. 

Citation:

PETA. (2019). Fight Climate Change by Going Vegan | PETA. [online] Available at: peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/global-warming/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2019].
Ombar. (2019). 3 Environmental Benefits of Going Vegan. [online] Available at: ombar.co.uk/blogs/news/3-environmental-benefits-of-going-vegan [Accessed 11 Sep. 2019].
Rimmer, A. (2019). Does The Vegan Diet Help The Environment? - Simply Quinoa. [online] Simply Quinoa. Available at: simplyquinoa.com/vegan-diet-help-environment/ [Accessed 11 Sep. 2019].