A plant-based lifestyle is better for the environment as it usually takes less resources like land, water and energy to make plant foods. 

Over consumption:

The average person in our society already uses a lot of water, eats a lot of food and produces a lot of household waste. But many more people, in the developing world, use much less than they need simply because they don’t have access to food water and other resources. This is an imbalance in the distribution of our planet’s resources.

• On a global level, we produce enough food to feed twice the world’s 6 billion strong population.
• Currently 1 billion people in the world are undernourished or starving.

Animals and food:

A third of the food we produce is used to feed farm animals. This is a huge waste of resources because it takes so much grain to feed an animal over its lifetime. Theoretically, that grain could feed a lot more people than the meat from a cow could. 

‘Within as little as ten years, the world will be faced with a simple choice: arable farming either continues to feed the world’s animals or it continues to feed the world’s people. It cannot do both.’ - George Monbiot, leading global justice campaigner.

Harmful as well as inefficient:

Water, another of our precious resources, is also inefficiently used in animal agriculture. Beyond this, the animal industry creates a huge amount of waste which leads to land degradation and water pollution. Intensive farming is also responsible for the decline in biodiversity and a big chunk of the world’s carbon emissions. 

• According to ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’ (Nov 2006) animal agriculture is responsible for 18% (measured in CO2 equivalents) of green house gases. The world’s entire transport system produces only 13.5%.

How you can help:

By switching to a plant-based diet you can help decrease the demand for meat and use less resources at the same time. A varied plant-based diet uses far less land, energy and water than one that regularly includes animal products and leaves a much smaller eco footprint. 

• A vegan requires a quarter of the land needed for the resources to feed a meat eater.
• A day’s food for a meat eater requires over 5000 litres of water. For a vegetarian it’s 2900 litres. A vegan’s daily food intake requires just 1900 litres on average.
• The energy used to produce a day’s food for a vegan is a third of the amount a meat eater uses.

Want to learn more?

If you have a question about veganism and the environment, contact me at sarahATtheveganmentorDOTcom or leave a comment on the blog.