Further Topic Research
It’s important to gather further facts and figures which can be used in the infographic as well as Instagram posts. These were what I found:
- If everyone stopped eating meat and dairy products, global farmland use could be reduced by three quarters. (https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/meat-dairy-industry-greenhouse-gas-emissions-fossil-fuels-oil-pollution-iatp-grain-a8451871.html)
- By 2050, we must reduce global emissions by 38 billion tons to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If all other sectors follow that path while the meat and dairy industry’s growth continues as projected, the livestock sector could eat up 80% of the allowable GHG budget in just 32 years
- For every 100 calories fed to animals as cereals, just 17–30 calories enter the human food chain as meat (https://www.insidescience.org/news/how-bees-you-know-are-killing-bees-you-don%E2%80%99t)
- The diet of meat eaters creates 7 times more greenhouse gases than vegans
- For the production every farmed fish raised, the equivalent of 5 fish have to be caught
- It takes 10,900L of water to produce 0.5kg of meat but only 114L to produce the same amount of wheat (https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/infographic-veganism-and-the-environment/)
As well as these facts and figures, I did a bit of personal research. I went vegan for a week to see exactly how difficult it could be. Admittedly I had an easy start, as a vegetarian who also doesn’t drink milk, but I still found it challenging as I’m a big fan of chocolate and cheese). I was definitely a bit more creative with what I made, and the big batches meant there wasn’t nearly as much cooking as you’d expect. Most importantly, I didn’t see my food shopping bill rise because unless you’re buying the branded cheese and yoghurt alternatives, vegan food is just vegetables, rice, beans and pulses. Unfortunately, the junk food I usually eat is mostly vegan too so a week of being a pillar of health was immediately down the drain.
Some of the foods I made in the week included banana and maple syrup pancakes, 3 bean chilli soup, lentil and veg shepherds pie, stir fry and Lidl’s curry flavour super noodles. These recipes will be going on my website (minus the super noodles) as they were super quick, cheap and easy, they just required a bit of planning ahead. It turns out being vegan is pretty easy as long as you have food ready prepared for when you’re hungry, to avoid temptation.
Although I think it’ll take me a while to switch gradually switch across, I can see myself becoming more, if not fully, vegan. That’s what this website is all about really, trying to get people to think more about the impact of how they eat and take steps to doing better for the environment.
