Vegetarianism and Environmental Impact of Food

To eat or not to eat meat

Most people have not yet asked themselves whether it is morally acceptable to eat animals and treat them as resources. However, vegetarianism and its strictest version - veganism, have a rich history in both Western and non-Western cultures challenging dominant culture perspective about how humans shall live their lives and make use of the natural world. Religious and philosophical practices and ideas about diet emerged since the Greco-Roman period until now. Strong, sustained vegetarian and vegan movements today coincide with the rise of the animal rights/liberation movement, and are fueled by concerns about factory farming, climate change, healthy eating, and how to feed a rapidly increasing human population. 

Population wants more and more meat

The global meat demand is sharply rising because meat is considered status food in social hierarchy, and increasing affluence in the developing world also encourages a new culture of meat consumption that replicates the diet of more economically advanced countries. However, today’s agricultural methods cannot meet this demand indefinitely, nor can the planet sustain it. According to a UN report, animal farming is already a major factor in the degradation of Earth’s atmosphere, land, water, and species diversity, yet “Global production of meat is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, and that of milk to grow from 580 to 1,043 million tonnes”. 

Vegetarian Economy can help the Earth 

During this same period, the world’s population will grow from 6.5 to 9.1 billion. Furthermore, one-third of the world’s grain supply now goes to feeding livestock, with the food value of the output being many times less than that of the input. Other resource requirements of industrialized animal agriculture (water, fossil fuels, and so on) are very great and wasteful; soil erosion is massive; and abundant amounts of polluting gases are added to the atmosphere, while large quantities of toxic waste enter land and water environments. These trends seem irreversible as long as the demand for meat accelerates. Nor can the oceans yield enough food to keep pace with insatiable demand, because world fish stocks are already under severe threat of collapse (FAO/UN 2010). Therefore, conversion to a vegetarian-centered economy, many maintain, appears not only obligatory and desirable, but also inevitable. 

Source: Fox, M.A. (2013): Vegetarianism and Veganism. International Encyclopedia of Ethics.

Worst environmental impacts of animal agriculture 

Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, water, and energy. It is a known fact that a staggering amount of global greenhouse-gas emission is caused by animal agriculture. According to the United Nations, a global move toward a vegan diet is necessary to ‘‘save the world from the worst impacts of climate change’’. Growing crops to feed animals, cleaning pollution from factory farms, and satisfying animals’ thirst require an enormous amount of water. The numbers among studies vary, but to have an idea consider that a single cow can drink up to 50 gallons of water per day, and double that amount in hot weather. And according to the USGS Water Science School, ‘‘About 460 gallons for 1/4 lb of beef, or about 1750 L per 113 g’’ of water are required.

Pollution, hormones, antibiotics, and human health

Considering the great number of animals raised for food, it is not surprising that they produce enormous amounts of waste that inevitably pollute our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Also, pesticides, chemicals, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics involved in animal agriculture degrade the environment and cause human health problems. Runoff from factory farms and livestock grazing pollute our rivers and lakes. The USEPA notes that bacteria and viruses are carried by the runoff and contaminate groundwater.

There would be no world hunger if animals did not eat all the crops

Furthermore, using land to grow crops to feed animals is inefficient. According to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, In India, annual grain consumption per person amounts to around 400 lb per year, while in the United States, it is 1500 lb. It is crucial to understand that of these 1500 lb, only 300 lb are directly consumed as bread, cereals or pastry. The great bulk of the rest is used for meat production. While three pounds of grain are needed to produce a one-pound gain in live weight of pigs, seven pounds are needed for a one-pound gain of a cow’s live weight.

It takes almost 20 times less land to feed someone on a plant-based (vegan) diet than it does to feed a meat-eater since the crops are consumed directly instead of being used to feed animals.

Source: Alvaro, C. (2017). Ethical Veganism, Virtue, and Greatness of the Soul. 

Resuming briefly, we can find a wide evidence of environmental, human, moral, and philosophical arguments that together create a unidirectional synergy towards a social transition by the means  of a "new diet", which actually is not that new at all as it was here since the ancient times among great philosophers, scientists, writers, rulers but for some reason has been overlooked.