This article was originally published on Suite101.com. To see the article in its entirety and its original state, click on this link: Environmental Reasons to Become Vegetarian.
There are many reasons people become vegetarian--most often, people stop eating meat because of their health or for ethical reasons. But sometimes people become vegetarian for environmental reasons.
The term "sustainable agriculture" is often used when vegetarians speak of their choice to be meatless to save the environment. The idea is that farming should be self-sustaining (sustainable farming can include raising cattle). Because a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle requires less water and pollutes less, it is considered to be more sustainable.
Go Vegetarian to Save Water
Ed Ayres, in the Time Magazine article “Will We Still Eat Meat?” lays out the facts in no uncertain terms. He says, "To produce 1 lb. of feedlot beef requires 7 lbs. of feed grain, which takes 7,000 lbs. of water to grow." Note that he equates 7,000 pounds of water to raising just one pound of beef to maturity. Considering many feedlot cows can end up weighing well over 1,000 pounds, it's not hard to see how much water is used to simply fatten up cows for slaughter.
Global Warming Concerns
Most people have heard that global warming is caused by an increase in the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and carbon-specifically carbon dioxide (CO2)-is usually identified as a culprit. Some people don't know that methane is also a large contributor to global warming. The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook cites John Robbins's arguments that cattle on the planet "produce nearly 100 million tons of methane." Robbins's organization, the EarthSave Foundation, also mentions that cattle are just one of many other animals that are consumed by human beings.
Deforestation
The Vegetarian Society claims that meat eating causes deforestation in two ways. The first is that land (such as rainforest) is cleared to grow grain to feed cattle; the second is that land is also cleared to raise cattle. They mention that one "third of the world’s land suitable for growing crops is used to produce feed for farmed animals." It is "inefficient" to use land to feed animals that become food for human beings when using the land to directly feed people would result in more food and less land use.
Environmentalism Can Start With One's Diet
It really is possible to save more water and contribute less to global warming by going vegetarian or--at the very least--reducing one's consumption of meat than by doing many other things that help lessen one's carbon footprint.
(Original article publication date: September 20, 2009.)
It's a very simple way of looking at things. There are areas in the world where you cannot grow crops, but you can grow animals. Most animals, even cows, can eat things humans cannot. Most people don't feed grain to cows.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you could use the "nearly 100 million tons of methane" as biofuel.
On top of that, the biggest reason for deforestation today is the growing demand of soy beans.
I must respectfully disagree on several points, but you are entitled to your opinion. However, I think that saying we can use methane as biofuel is oversimplification. How do we capture the methane, for starters? And you're still left with all the liquid waste, which does seep into underground water sources. How do we handle the waste? And even if we can grow animals in parts of the world where plants don’t fare as well, there’s the question of water. Lots and lots of water. Also, most CAFOs do feed grain to cows, which is why they reach astronomical proportions before they're slaughtered, and CAFOs are the main source of beef to market in the United States. Finally, Brazilian and Central American deforestation are both directly attributed to cattle (a good source: http://www.ru.org/ecology-and-environment/the-causes-of-tropical-deforestation.html). I would be interested in reading your sources. Thanks for stopping by!
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