ls being vegan better for the environment?

Animal products are incorporated in most meals, in fact- in some countries, finding food without meat or butter is virtually impossible. However is our diet ruining this world?

Animals are well known for requiring more care than any other crop, they require water and food (which in itself requires time an energy to be made for the animal), and often over graze causing land erosion or even infertile land for future generations. Actually processing animal products requires a lot of energy to prevent any out breaks of disease (both in factories and at home) and animals require genuine care and compassion- which (at the hands of greedy farmers) they often don’t receive.

Despite the ethical and moral dilemmas of eating any animals products, going vegan can actually make a difference to our environment. With a portion of society going vegan (or at least vegetarian) there is less pressure on the producers, thus less animals are necessary. This reduces the amount of water is used to grow crops for the animals to eat (and the energy required for the crops to grow), prevents infertile land, and (in particular for cows) means less methane (one of the green house gasses) is released into the atmosphere, thus the impact of global warming is reduced.

Equally you could argue that going vegan means there is more stress on the vegetable producers, thus more energy into producing crops which balances out the stress placed onto the animal market.

The truth is that going vegan or even vegetarian is a major change to make, but there is also the possibility that if you cut down on the amount of animal products you consume you will relieve some pressure of this market and will make a tiny (but significant change to the world).

By Davina Veselichka U4NB