Going vegan to save the planet
By Yasmin Wolkow
As climate change and global warming are important topics, scientists and researchers are looking for solutions to reduce our impacts on the environment. A not so popular solution is switching to a plant based diet and living a vegan lifestyle.
Since the weather is becoming more extreme, food security and the availability of food are becoming serious topics that need to be addressed worldwide. The interest in what and how people eat is an important issue that needs to be covered. Going vegan or vegetarian might be a solution to reduce climate change and therefore have a positive impact on our world.
Vegans refrain from eating any animal products and their byproducts such as eggs, milk and cheese. Not only is this one of the healthiest choice a person can make according to many scientists such as Dr. T. Collin Campbell (The China Study), but it is also ethically right and environmental friendly – which becomes important in a world where climate change and global warming are on the daily agenda. The trend towards a vegan and vegetarian lifestyle is growing. In 2011, five percent of the world’s population was vegetarian with 2,5 percent of them vegan, according to the organization PETA – these numbers are most likely still growing.
Global warming is one of the biggest challenges humankind has to face and it is the world’s most serious environmental threat. Whoever is aware of this threat tries to help reducing emissions and global warming by driving more fuel-efficient cars, using energy saving light bulbs or using public transport instead of driving a car at all. However, scientists have proven that going vegan is one of the most effective ways to reduce global warming. With celebrities going vegan this lifestyle has become even more popular.
Warnings of eating meat and dairy date back to 2010
Already in 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management released its annual report warning about the high consumption of meat and dairy products. According to the report, the global population is predicted to reach 9.1 billon people in 2050 – which is 34 percent more than today – and therefore the Western diet, which is rich in meat and dairy, is unsustainable. The most predicted growth in population and livestock production will occur in developing countries, which already have difficulties feeding their populations. According to some researchers, the annual meat production needs to increase by over 200 million tons (to reach around 517 million tons). This will stress the already stretched ecosystem services necessary to produce as much meat as needed.
“Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products", says the UNEP report. This is also important, since according to the report, food prices are expected to rise between 3 and 84 percent by 2050.
Animal products are not necessary to live a healthy life
Myths about how meat and dairy are necessary to sustain a healthy and balanced diet are mostly wrong. People tend to believe it, because the dairy and meat industry have been promoting these myths successfully for decades – this has been mentioned amongst others in the documentary Earthlings. Drinking milk is unhealthy and can cause osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease. The China Study by Dr. T. Collin Campbell is one of the biggest studies to date that concludes that the less animal products we consume the healthier we are.
The production of animal products also destroys the environment. Dairy farms have a huge effect on the environment and poison hundreds of miles of groundwater, rivers and streams with the manure from their farms. California, America’s biggest milk-producing state, has more than one million cows, which excrete 18 gallons of manure every single day. In this state, the dairy industry also is the primary source of smog-forming pollutants. In total, factory-farmed animals in the US produce 1.65 billion tons of manure every single year – most of it ends up in waterways and drinking water.
Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the IPCC report from the UN, said to The Guardian on June 2, 2010: "Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products – livestock now consumes much of the world's crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilizers and pesticides." The report ranked animal agriculture on the same level as fossil fuel, because of its rapid growth.
Animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions
Two-thirds of agricultural land in the U.S. is used to grow food to raise animals and these animals consume 40 gallons of water every day. Using this land to grow food for the world’s population would therefore save water as well as agricultural land. Having fewer animals would result in less harmful emissions and less water pollution and in the end benefit everyone. Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the UNEP report, said to The Guardian on June 2, 2010: "Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels."
Every aspect of raising animals for food production is harmful and inhumane in some aspect or another. First of all, forests get depleted in order to make enough grazing place for the animals, especially in Latin America where three-fourths of the Amazon is used for growing feed. According to a report by the Worldwatch Institute, at least 51 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture. It is also the largest source of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous-oxide emissions. Not eating meat is the “single most effective thing you can do” to reduce your impact to climate change, says The Life Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook that Al Gore helped to organize.
But not only land must give way to the animals, more animals need to be reared and slaughtered yearly to satisfy the growing number of people who want to eat meat. With an increase in animals comes an increase in waste and necessary feed. The waste the animals are producing ends up in the water, which causes massive water pollution. This situation becomes a vicious circle. The UNEP states that animal agriculture is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”
Since cows and other animals produce different gases that are responsible for global warming, the whole logistics in animal agriculture are also taking part in this process. Equipment, distribution, feed, rearing and transportation in animal agriculture produce more gas emissions than the world’s transportation. This is a serious problem that could be solved in more people going vegan.
A plant-based diet is the solution
So in order to save the planet, people should stop buying meat, milk and other dairy products. Non-dairy milks made from soy, rice and almonds for example contain calcium, vitamins, iron, zinc and protein and are free of cholesterol. The diversity of non-dairy products and meat substitutes in grocery stores is growing and special health stores are rising in number. Veganism makes people think about what they put into their bodies and always comes with some huge realizations about the food industry. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has also urged people to observe one meat-free day a week to curb carbon emissions.
An example of why people turn vegan comes from Anna O’Connell, who decided to go vegan a year ago. Prior to this, she already had been vegetarian for a while and eased into a vegan diet after a lot of research about it. “I wanted to reduce my actions that contributed to animal cruelty and environmental damage,” says the 19 year old student and blogger from Brisbane, Australia. “I am passionate about health and environmental benefits that veganism brings.” Environmental considerations played a huge role in Anna’s decision to become a vegan. “It takes 2400 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, but only 25 gallons to produce the same amount of wheat. If only one person were to go vegan, they would reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 tons per year – which is more than if they were to switch to a hybrid car.”
Going vegan from time to time as a new trend
However, not everyone goes vegan forever. These so-called part-time vegans are on the rise, too. Giving up all animal products for a week or a month has become more popular. And even though this might not be ethically or environmentally motivated, people become aware of what they put into their bodies. According to The Vegan Society, one vegan meal saves about 3000 gallons of water, since a lot of water is needed to grow the grain to feed the animals that are being consumed. So replacing 4 ounces – about one hamburger – of beef with a vegan option already helps. Secondly, it saves about 16 pounds of grain: animals consume 16 times as much grain as they produce meat which means that we waste far more energy per unit of food to produce meat than we would have done by consuming the grain directly. Thirdly, one vegan meal saves your money and strengthens your health – vegetarianism extends your life by a several years and lowers the risk of cholesterol, heart disease and cancer which also reduces health-care costs. But what do vegans think about part-time vegans? “I support anything that promotes veganism. Obviously, from an ethics view point that is not ideal, but I still believe that every bit helps,” says Anna O’Connell.
The number of people who sign up to be vegan for 30 days is growing. According to The Vegan Society – the oldest vegan organization in the world, which was founded in 1944 – 40 percent more people signed up in the first two months of 2013 compared to the same time period in 2012. This might be linked to the fact that more and more celebrities are adopting a vegan diet. As a result the worldwide enthusiasm for a vegan diet and the interest in going vegan is growing. According to The Huffington Post, Google searches for the term “vegan” is increasing, reaching 100 in March 2012. Also, 2,5 percent of the American population labels itself as vegan. Although this is only a rise of 1,5 percent compared to 1 percent in 2009, it still means that the number of vegans has more than doubled.
“The 30 day vegan campaign is there to get people introduced to veganism,” says Justin Kerswell, campaign director of the vegan and vegetarian group Viva, based in Great Britain. “It’s supposed to be a journey towards veganism. Although it is not ideal, it is better than nothing.” Kerswell has been working for Viva for ten years and has experienced a growing interest in veganism. “In the last five years, the online search for veganism has been increasing,” says Kerswell.
The motivation for people to go vegan differs from person to person, but health, environmental end ethical considerations are the biggest motivations. A lot of people are convinced about the arguments they get for turning towards a vegan diet, however “a lot of people don’t know how to change”, says Kerswell. Therefore, Viva’s website offers a lot of material and guides on how to switch to a vegan diet.
He also states that a lot of people are cutting down meat and easing into a vegan diet by becoming vegetarian first. But if all the benefits of a vegan diet are so obvious, why don’t governments promote veganism more? “There is not as much money in veganism as there is in the meat and dairy industry,” say Kerswell, “These industries have a huge amount of money and therefore also a big influence.”
Why meat eaters won’t change their diet
Meat eaters, however, have plenty of arguments why a vegan or vegetarian diet is more harmful towards the environment than not eating meat. Some argue that meat consumption is humane and healthy and that producing a lot of vegetables causes as many environmental problems as producing meat. Another argument is that humans have been consuming meat for 2.3 million years, which shows that humans clearly are carnivores.
As far as the consumption of meat goes back though, vegetarianism also dates back to Ancient Greece. For example, the mathematician Pythagoras promoted a diet free of any meat which even got its own name – the “Pythahorean diet.” Afterwards, vegetarianism became popular in the 1800s. In 1850, Reverend Sylvester Graham formed the American Vegetarian Society.
History also shows that in times of hunger and prosperity, farmers tend to grow grains and soy on their land instead of using their land as grassland to feed the animals. In the 1950s for example, American farmers did so. Its result was that by 1960, the US American soybean production nearly tripled compared to that of China.
Another contra argument towards the skepticism concerning a vegan or vegetarian diet is the statement from the USDA made in December 1995, which stated that “vegetarian diets are consistent with the dietary guidelines for Americans and can meet the recommended dietary allowances for nutrients.”
Opponents of a vegan or vegetarian diet furthermore state that producing processed vegetarian protein options such as tofu can cause more greenhouse-gas house pollution than farming meat. In 2010 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found out that the production of soy-based proteins could have the mentioned effect. However, eating tofu is not necessary to have a balanced diet when not eating meat. Local sources of food are sufficient enough and eating lentils and beans will provide everyone with enough protein. Also, a German study from 2008 concluded that a diet consisting of meat is responsible for eight times as much greenhouse-gas emissions as a vegan’s diet.
From all we have seen until now, going vegan can save the planet. Statistics and reports from the IPCC, the UNEP and the Worldwatch Institute show how much growing animals is wasting water and land and how much water and air pollution animal agriculture causes. Even little changes such as going vegan for some period of time are beneficial for the environment. As Anna O’Connell says: “I support anything that promotes veganism. I believe that every bit helps.”
Yasmin Wolkow has been a reporter in Germany as well as the States where she interned for The American Spectator during her semester in Washington D.C. followed by an internship at the German press agency in New York for a month. She has been living and studying in Denmark for the last year and will move to London in the fall to study financial business reporting at City University.
