Vegetarianism helps health, environment
By Juanita King
March 17, 2005 - According to a recent survey in the National Post, approximately three per cent of Canadians are vegetarians. This may seem like a small number, but every day increasing numbers of people are switching to a meat-free diet.
Many people are changing their eating habits in light of growing obesity rates. Others decide not to eat meat out of concern for animal welfare. However, there are other reasons why vegetarianism is becoming an important part of life.
What many people do not realize is eliminating meat from their diets is not only good for themselves, but also for the environment. The Union of Concerned Scientists says eliminating beef is one of two lifestyle changes that most directly help the environment - the other is to drive a fuel-efficient car. However, it is not just beef production that takes a toll on the environment.
A meat-based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet. Right now, there are approximately 14.6 million beef and dairy cattle, 13 million pigs, 8 million turkeys, and 96 million chickens alive in Canada. Like humans, all these animals require natural resources such as food and water. Raising livestock for human consumption places a huge strain on the environment.
Wilderness needs to be destroyed in order for animals to graze. In geographically vast Canada, people might think there is land to spare; but, it is important to remember the meat industry extends outside the country.
Tropical rainforests are routinely clear-cut to create land for grazing cattle. According to People for the Ethical Treatment Animals (PETA), an area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed every minute. These rainforests provide many benefits to humans: They supply oxygen, moderate climate, and provide much of the world's medicine.
If more people cut meat out of their diets, less rainforest would need to be cut down for food. This would subsequently help tackle the devastating problem of global warming.
Steve Boyan, a retired political science professor at the University of Maryland, has published two books on environmental issues. He argues that eliminating meat from the diet reduces production of carbon dioxide, the most abundant human-produced greenhouse gas.
"Your average car produces [three kilograms a day of carbon dioxide.] To clear rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger produces 75 [kilograms of carbon dioxide.] Eating one pound of hamburger does the same damage as driving your car for more than three weeks," he said.
When we think about ways to help the environment, we often think about fuel efficiency. Many people do not realize that a simple cutback in meat intake can do so much for the environment.
The Worldwatch Institute also asserts that "belching, flatulent livestock emit 16 per cent of the world's annual production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas."
Meat production also produces large amounts of waste and pollution. For every 40 kilograms of manure excreted by cattle, there is only one kilogram of edible beef produced. Although the industry attempts to use these byproducts, much of it ends up in rivers and groundwater as runoff. This contributes to nitrogen, phosphorus, and nitrate pollution.
The effect meat has on the earth's water supply is tremendous. According to Sandra Postel (a leading authority on international freshwater issues) and Amy Vickers in State of the World 2004: "With its high meat content, the average U.S. diet requires 5.4 cubic metres of water per person per day - twice as much as an equally (or more) nutritious vegetarian diet."
It is important, for the sake of the fragile environment, that people become more educated about matters such as deforestation, pollution, and dwindling water supplies. Small steps such as reducing one's personal meat consumption, or going all the way and becoming vegetarian, can go a long way to better the environment.