Does being a Vegan really help the environment?
Answer:
Yes and no.
It depends on how much energy and resources are consumed in producing the foods you choose. Traditionally, we have relied on animals doing the work for us by processing vegetable matter that we can't digest, converting it into something we can. Needless to say, those animals consume cheaper, easier to produce foods. So there is some POTENTIAL savings in eating meat.
But in the real world, things can go either way. Vegans could choose foods with lower production costs, including producing the food themselves with a lower negative impact on the environment. By the same token, a vegan could be more particular about food choices, and end up with a greater negative impact.
Sorry, it's not as clear-cut as you may have liked, but the one truth is that ALL of us can make food choices with lower negative impact on the environment.
it doesn't hurt...though i doubt if it makes much of a difference
I don't see how. Vegetables still require farmers to use gasoline and pesticides, etc etc etc.
no. All it does is make u think ur better then every1 else bc u dont eat/use animal products
Nope, 2 different subjects.
Yes. However, many people would rather change their impact in other ways than becoming vegan. Every positive change is a step in the right direction.
Yes, much like weaker animals in the wild, the Vegan is a complete pu-ssy therefore the rest of us at the top of the food chain have someone to pick on and make us look better.
The meat and dairy industries do cause a lot of environmental problems and they take other forms of agriculture to support them. Being vegan will reduce the demand for meat and dairy so in the long term, if enough people did it, it could help the environment. I'm just not sure if enough people are willing to make that sacrifice.
I think most vegans do it for ethical rather than environmental reasons.
The argument I've seen is that eating less meat means fewer domesticated animals used for meat will be using up natural resources like water, and they won't take up so much land or eat so much feed grain.
The problem with that theory is, you would have to KILL all of the domesticated animals on earth in order to actually stop the effect they have on the environment. You think not eating them is going to prevent them from eating for themselves? Or using land and water?
We already have lots and lots of cows and chickens and other food animals. They aren't going to stop affecting the environment just because we don't eat them.
And plants require more pesticides, as others have pointed out.
It actually does, animal feed is made from grains. If we eat less meat then not that many animals will need to feed.
Absolutely...no eating meat--not using animal products saves millions and millions of gallon of water---and acres and acres of grassland--not to mention all of the poisonous wastes created by the meat industry...
I doubt it would have much effect on the environment if you became a vegan. The environment and how you eat are two different things. However, you might feel better because a Vegan is a vegitarian who does not eat any animal, fish, or dairy, so.. it may be a healthier diet (I am not a vegan and I really do not know if it is any better my personal tastes are that I like meat occassionally).
This said, it would have an affect if EVERONE was a vegan. We would not need commercial cattle ranches, dairy farms, chickens, pork farms, CAFOs, etc.. all of which cause various types of pollution (did you know that cattle make soo much gas -- by "burping" -- that one of Brazil's major sources of air pollution is raising cattle?)
Yes, being vegan is beneficial to the environment.
Livestock make a significant contribution to global warming, though it's less than previously thought.
Factory farms have created some major environmental hazards, such as lagoons full of animal sewage and nowhere else to put it.
Using energy and resources to grow crops to feed livestock to eat is less efficient than directly eating the crops we grow (though it depends on what's grown).
Personally I'm not a vegan. It's hard to get sufficient nutrients as a vegan because humans are omnivores - certainly not impossible, but more difficult. Plus I like meat and dairy. But there are certainly environmental benefits to veganism.
I can't quite accept that, but I think it doesn't hurt it!
I think being vegan has more to do with personal ethics and health than saving the environment, though the two causes may often go hand in hand.
Being a vegan,a vegetarian, or a pescetarian makes little to no difference in the environment.
being a vegetarian or vegan has a HUGEEE impact on the earth.
every vegetarian saves the lives of 83 animals a year.
the more vegetarian/vegans the less demand for animal products.
it makes sense.
go to peta.com
they have tons of resources
and useful info.
I think being a vegan does help, many less resources are used in production. Single serving size packagings cancel out much of the environmental goodness, some vegans I know eat a lot of singe servings of "junk food"
I think it does.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: