What if I told you one simple way that you could preserve this beautiful planet that we love to call home? I’ll give you a hint; look at your dinner plate.
We are going to explain to you why, without a single doubt, eating a meat and dairy-free diet can significantly reduce the destructive influence we are having on our planet. We hold the power in our hands to protect the world we are living in. Here are the reasons why a vegan lifestyle is the only answer for saving the planet:
Reduce Water Waste
We can help to prevent a water crisis simply by cutting the meat and dairy out of our diets. Raising livestock for slaughter is causing a massive strain on our water resources. More than 70% of the earth’s water is being consumed by the billions of animals being raised on factory farms. This is an unsustainable figure. Especially when one considers that more than 10,000 litres of water is required to produce just half a kilogram of meat and 1,000 litres of water to produce just one litre of milk. By skipping meat you will create more of a planetary impact than if you decided to stop taking showers for 6 months!
Alleviate World Hunger
Why in the world are there 795 million people starving on our planet when we harvest enough food to feed billions of mouths? The answer is because we are currently using this food to feed the mouths of animals that will be slaughtered to feed the mouths of the privileged. 1 in 9 people starve because of our inefficient use of grain for meat consumption. Just like our water, we are using over 70% of our earth’s grain to fuel and fatten up cows for the meat industry. Perhaps you may not consider veganism for the benefit of animal’s lives. What about for the lives of humans?
Minimize Deforestation
In the Brazilian Rainforest, an area the size of Portugal has already been cleared in order to make way for cattle farms used for animal agriculture. More and more of our earth’s rainforests vanish every year in order to fuel our desire for meat in our diet. However, what will happen when we run out of rainforest? The death of the earth’s forests equals a death sentence for us, as the earth’s atmosphere relies solely on the amount of carbon being held in our trees.
Slow Climate Change
The ecological impact of meeting our demand of over 200 metric tons of animal meat per year is, quite simply, devastating to our environment. A Cornell study has estimated that producing animal-based protein requires eight times more fossil-fuel energy than creating plant-based protein. In addition to this, the UN released a report stating that animal agriculture is a larger contributor to greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation put together. These harmful gasses are being emitted from the nether regions of the 56 billion farm animals that are being raised for slaughter every year.
Most of us want to do our part for the planet but don’t even realize that the answer is staring us in the face three times a day at mealtime. By switching to a plant-based diet we can go green by eating green and significantly reduce the impact of climate change, rainforest destruction, water waste and pollution.
