Veganism: the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet

Veganism has begun to gain popularity in recent years. Despite the hype surrounding plant-based diets, vegetarians and vegans are relatively rare in America today. Though a search online about veganism in the United States will result in a few articles about how “veganism in the U.S. soars by 600%” in recent years, there is not much credence to these statements. The number of Americans who self-identify as vegetarian or vegan has remained steady over the past 20 years – and it continues to be a small number. As vegan restaurants pop up throughout the United States and clean eating gains more attention, it does seem as though more people are adopting the vegan lifestyle; however, not many people who eat a plant based diet because it is “trendy” continue to follow a strictly vegan diet for long periods of time. People within the vegan community get frustrated with those who say that they are yet still consume animal products, and others attempt to “gate keep” veganism as a whole, stating ridiculous reason that others are not “true vegans” such as donating foods to places that serve non vegan food. Regardless of this, there are many reasons to adopt the vegan lifestyle.

We’ve all seen the shocking statistics related to meat production and the environment, all of the studies warning to “Eat Less Meat to Prevent Climate Disaster” and lower our meat and dairy consumption. While there are countless health benefits associated with veganism, the environmental benefits are even greater.

 

Veganism combats world hunger. A majority of the food that is grown in the world is not being eaten by humans. In fact, 70% of the grain grown in the United States is used to feed livestock and globally, 83% of farmland is set aside for the purpose of raising animals. It is estimated that near 700 million tons of food that could be consumed by humans goes to livestock each year. On top of this, all of the deforestation, overfishing, and pollution caused by the meat and fish industries limits the overall capacity of the Earth to produce food.

 

Veganism cleans the soil. Similarly to how livestock pollute water, they also erode and weaken soil. This is in part due to the fact that raising livestock usually leads to deforestation in order to make room for the livestock to roam. The world loses a significant amount of trees each year to deforestation, something that accelerates climate change. Chopping down forests, especially rain forests, releases carbon dioxide from the trees and soil into the atmosphere.

 

Veganism conserves water. Millions of people around the world do not have access to clean water and many more struggle with water scarcity (for many reasons including drought and mismanagement of water sources). Livestock consumes more fresh water than just about anything else as well as being one of the biggest polluters of fresh water. The more livestock that the world replaces with plants, the more water there will be to go around. It takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat.

 

Veganism purifies the air. All of the livestock in the world cause more pollution than all of the modes of transportation in the world combined. In contrast, plants clean the air.

 

Veganism reduces energy consumption. There is a lot of energy consumption that goes into raising livestock. It takes an extensive period of time to raise animals. They need to be fed and their food is cultivated on land that could have otherwise been used for other purposes. Finally, not only do meat products need to be shipped and refrigerated, but they take a long time to process from the slaughterhouse to the kitchen table.

 

Veganism reduces greenhouse gases.  Methane has 23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. The livestock sector of agriculture emits 37% of anthropogenic methane. People who eat meat are responsible for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians and about 2.5 times as many emissions as vegans. A study published in New Scientist magazine shows that each person can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that their diet contributes to climate change by up to 60% by just going vegan.

 

Making any effort to reduce the consumption of animal products can have an enormous impact on the environment. Even if it may seem like cutting dairy and meat out of one day of the week may not be a big deal, every little action matters and makes a difference. I urge you all to adopt “Meatless Mondays,” switch out your ice cream for a dairy-free alternative, try incorporating more vegetables into your diet. Every little effort counts and perhaps one day we could be looking at a completely vegan America. After all, change begins with us.