Veganism and climate change: how eating a plant-based diet can decrease your carbon footprint.
Vegans have always been seen as a radical group of plant lovers, tree huggers, and in general a group of people that you would probably want to avoid altogether. No one wants to feel guilty about their love of steak or their desire to eat ice cream on a daily basis, but the truth is that as much as we don’t want to talk about it, the vegans have a fair point. As climate change continues to progress, we have to face the facts that animal production and farming is a huge contributing factor to the polluting of our environment. According to Climate Nexus, “cattle are by far the biggest source of emissions from animal agriculture, with one recent study [by the American Chemical Society] showing that in an average American diet, beef consumption creates 1,984 pounds of CO2e annually. Replacing beef with plants would reduce that figure 96 percent, bringing it down to just 73 pounds of CO2e.” Livestock production also contributes to deforestation, global water pollution, and air pollution from the release of methane gases alone.
According to Joseph Poore, a student of the Environmental Research Doctoral Training Partnership at Oxford University, “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” (The Guardian). So, what does this all mean for meat eaters everywhere? Well according to Climate Nexus, veganism isn’t the only option (even if it might be the best one). There are plenty of people in the world who would be unable to become vegan due to dietary restrictions, allergies, and health concerns. In these cases, Climate Nexus said that “Agricultural emissions can also be limited through smarter livestock handling, technology-enabled monitoring of fertilizer application, simple changes in field layout, and other, more efficient agricultural techniques.”
The conclusion of all this research really determines that humans have no excuse to be allowing animal production to be creating so much pollution in our world. “New research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% — an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined — and still feed the world,” (The Guardian). Even if you really feel like “you could never be a vegan because you just love cheese too much,” there are ways to make sure that you are minimizing your ecological footprint. Things like buying locally to save on travel emissions, buying from natural farms where they don’t feed their animals antibiotics, or just trying to decrease the number of animal products you consume, could help decrease the amount of pollution you are creating.
The fact is that veganism is no longer a fad. There are more vegan restaurants and replacement options in the world than ever before. “According to Statista, Americans spent roughly two billion dollars on vegan and vegetarian food in 2017, a 23% increase from 2016. Katrina Fox, in an article for Forbes, contends that the data is clear that the popularity of vegan and vegetarian restaurants is only going to continue to grow,” (restaurantnuts.com). With accessibility to vegan foods continuing to increase, it is easier than ever to become a vegan and decrease your carbon footprint. Climate change isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but it turns out neither is veganism! So it’s time to hop on the bandwagon, open your eyes, and decrease your CO2 emissions.
