Why vegetarian? ...3- Environment

"Those who claim to care about the well-being of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests…

When nonvegetarians say that “human problems come first” I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals."

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, 1990

Another major reason for vegetarianism and veganism is the environment. Although some people may not right away recognize the direct link between a plant-based diet and a cleaner, more sustainable environment, the two are incredibly closely connected. In fact, veganism and animal rights are also very closely tied to human rights efforts.

Environmentalists argue that factory farms are beyond wasteful, creating more food than could ever used by those its available to, food that is then discarded every day. Most human rights activists agree with this argument against factory farms – an incredible amount of food is unnecessarily created every single day, bought by those who can afford it, and then discarded.

Vegan Action expresses this same view on their Web site, stating:
“Animal agriculture takes a devastating toll on the earth. It is an inefficient way of producing food, since feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food.”

Along with over-using valuable resources, this means that instead of just deforesting a few areas for a few crops to feed everyone, much more land is being deforested to grow crops in order to feed animals in order to feed them to humans. Animals require more nutrients from grain and other vegetables to bulk up for consumption as well, so not only is more land being used, but more food is also being used – to feed animals that feed much less of the human population.

Vegan Outreach includes findings on their Web site compiled from the Executive Summary by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2006:
“With rising temperatures, rising sea levels, melting icecaps and glaciers, shifting ocean currents and weather patterns, climate change is the most serious challenge facing the human race. The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport….Livestock* are also responsible for almost two-thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.”

Millions of gallons of liquefied feces and urine seep into the environment from collapsed, leaking or overflowing storage lagoons, like the one shown in the top left photo at a pig factory farm.
Waste runoff, like that shown in the middle left photo from Vegan Outreach's site, contributes to, among many other environmental problems, the contamination of humans' and animals' drinking water and the death of millions of fish and other water life.
The book "Diet for a Small Planet" argues for a vegetarian diet not just for environmental reasons, but for human rights and world hunger reasons as well.

The Summary also discusses water use, land degredation and deforestation. About water use, it states: “The livestock sector is a key player in increasing water use, accounting for over 8 percent of global human water use, mostly for the irrigation of feedcrops... The major sources of pollution are from animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures.”

The Summary goes on to talk about deforestation, stating that 70 percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures, and feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder.

*"Livestock" includes all animals including pigs, chickens, egg-laying hens and dairy cows.

"A single dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of wet manure per day, which is equivalent to the waste produced by 20–40 people. That means California’s 1.4 million dairy cows produce as much waste as 28–56 million people."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Notes from Underground," Fall 2001

Check out some of these sites to learn more about the environmental impact of a non-vegan lifestyle on our world:

Vegan Action
http://www.vegan.org/about_veganism/environment.html

Vegan Outreach
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/environment.html

Vegan Society
Article: “Animal Products and the Environment”
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/environment/

Another great resource is the book “A Diet for a Small Planet,” available for just a couple dollars at Amazon.