Why is Being Vegan Good for the Environment? “It’s estimated that going vegan saves on average one animal per day (many of these being smaller animals such as fish). If that’s the difference a vegan makes in one day, imagine the number of animals that are saved every month, every year, or throughout a lifetime simply by choosing a vegan diet.
That’s around 30 animals a month, 365 animals a year, and thousands of animals in a single human lifetime.” Abby Jade Sarfas, The Human League. Simply put for every meal that you eat only plants and not meat, that is one life saved. While this alone should be enough of a reason to follow a plant-based diet, there are so many more positive outcomes for you and this planet we call home if we simply only eat plants.
How much does being vegan help the environment?
The environmental impact of the meat industry is almost unfathomable. The numerical statistics that capture the harm done by animal agriculture are close to inconceivable in their magnitude.
The consumption of meat is one of the most destructive forces that we as humans inflict on our planet every day, and we can measure the effects of this devastation, the results are quantifiable.
“110 animal and insect species are lost every day from rainforest destruction” and “animal agriculture is responsible for 91% of Amazon destruction” states Cowspiracy, who goes on to explain that “livestock covers 45% of the earths total land” and that the land needed to feed one meat-eating person for a single year is 18 times that of someone who chooses to follow a plant-based diet.
But not only does the land suffer, but the problems of animal agriculture also extend to our oceans. The findings presented by Cowspiracy state “80.4 metric tons of fish are pulled from the oceans each year” and “for every 1 kilogram of fish caught 5 kilograms of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill”.
The environmental benefits of the plant based diet.
You can do something about it. The phrase “but one person cannot make a difference” does not apply here. If you choose to omit meat and animal products from your diet, you will save the lives of 365 animals a year.
As an individual, you alone will annually use 11458 m² less land than you did before to produce your food. That’s nearly 3 acres to grow food for people who are in far greater need than yourself.
You can be the reason that a fish is never pulled from the sea, a tree isn’t felled in the Amazon, or that a bird is never raised in a cage.
“A vegan diet is the single biggest measure that can be taken to reduce environmental pollution. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that not eating meat and dairy products can reduce a person’s carbon footprint by up to 73%” Vegconomist.
Our dietary choices have a massive effect on our planet’s ecosystem. Animal agriculture requires vast amounts of land, huge quantities of our planet’s water and substantial amounts of unsustainable energy, and all in the name of unnecessary livestock farming.
Eat plants, make a difference, simple.
