10 Ways Veganism Can Save the Planet

It’s Earth Day, and if you’re already vegan, you’re probably pretty aware of all the environmental issues that accompany eating meat and dairy. Not only do these industries perpetuate cruelty to animals and harm human health, they’re killing the planet.

Makes that double cheeseburger look a little less appealing, now doesn’t it?

While you may be in the know about these issues, millions of Americans have no idea about the ecological havoc their favorite foods are wreaking on the planet. So in honor of Earth Day, here are 10 reasons why veganism is the best way to protect the earth:

  1. 72% of the cereal grains grown in the U.S. feed livestock (not people). The world’s livestock eats 80% of the world soybean crop and more than half of the world’s corn crop.
  2. One dairy farm with 2,500 cows produces as much waste as a city with around 411,000 residents. One large pig farm annually creates 600,000 tons more urine and feces than the city of Philadelphia. In the U.S., farmed animals produce about 130 times more excrement than humans. 
  3. A 2009 study suggests that livestock accounts for at least 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. All cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles and airplanes combined account for approximately 13%.
  4. Agriculture is responsible for 80 to 90% of all U.S. water consumption.
  5. Free-range and organic meat use even more resources than factory farmed meat.
  6. The world’s supply of seafood is predicted to run out by 2048, according to a 2006 study.
  7. It takes 4,000 to 18,000 gallons of water to create one 1/3 lb hamburger.
  8. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that “over 70% of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted.”
  9. Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total, ice-free land.
  10. Animal agriculture is the primary cause of species extinction, dead zones in the ocean, water pollution, and habitat destruction.  
  11. 14,400 acres of rainforest is cut down for cattle farming every day.

Experts suggest that if we don’t significant reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, there may be no way to reverse the trend, and that’s pretty terrifying.

In honor of Earth Day, share these facts with your meat-eating friends and family. There are SO many reasons to opt into veganism—all it takes is one!

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Hannah Sentenac

Hannah Sentenac

A wizard of words, lover of all living things and vegan mac 'n cheese master, Hannah is the vegan girl behind bharmless.com. Her writing has appeared in Live Happy magazine, the Miami New Times, OneGreenPlanet.com, MindBodyGreen.com, FoodRevolution.org and numerous other publications and websites. She's obsessed with vegan pizza and crop tops, the holidays, and all things Los Angeles. You can reach Hannah directly at hannah@bharmless.com.

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4 Responses

  1. Such important information, Hannah! Thanks for putting this together. I’ve shared it on my Edible Musings FB page, and will continue to circulate it. Every day should be Earth Day!

  2. Avatar Savvy Vegan says:

    Don’t forget, the millions of baby animals killed as newborns (male chicks) or just a few days or weeks old or months old (male baby dairy calves), sometimes female beef cows are sent to slaughter, because they just want to keep the males, that have more muscle mass, so they can get a uniform price for them.

    Don’t forget, “runt” piglets, that have their heads bashed on concrete, in an attempt to kill them, or the fact that female dairy calves don’t escape pain either, when they have their horn buds burned off without any pain killers, or all the male land “meat” mammals, that are castrated without pain killers, or hens, who’s beak tips are burned off.

    Eating Dairy and eggs, is just as cruel as the lives of “meat”, animals, and actually even more cuel, as babies die, enslaved mothers mourn, and then they die too, the same happens for chickens, the male chicks die, the females chicks have their beaks burned off, and they’re then thrown into tiny cages their whole lives, or into warehouses 30,000 at a time, then they’re killed too.

    There’s so much suffering, pollution, and land and water wastage, habitat destruction, and the persecution and eradication of wild species, for something that is not economical.

    There would be enough resources, to feed the world population, if the “meat” animals and their feed crops, just disappeared.

    There would be enough land, to house the homeless, and for reforestation, and habitat and native wild animal population restorations.

    Also, don’t forget the costs of “wildlife” services personnel, who go around killing wildlife by the hundreds and thousands. so they won’t bother livestock, or take resources from them.

    There’s also huge ocean dead zones, from feed crop fertilizer run off, and super weeds and pests because of all the chemical herbicides and pesticides.

    There’s crop contamination, from GMO pollen transfer, and field workers and their families, which get sick, and human babies born with birth defects, and farmer suicides after GMOhybrid crop failures.

    So, with all of this, farmed animals as a food sources, has a monumental cost, in many different ways, all of which could be stopped, if animals stopped being bred to die, and instead, diverse, organic plant crops were raised instead.

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