One issue I am very passionate about is global warming and being kind to our environment. There are very simple things I do such as not keeping the water on while brushing my teeth, carpooling with friends to places, and making sure I recycle. This environmental conscientiousness has been driven for my love of animals – I will most definitely be that girl when I’m older to go to the pet store to buy my child a fish and come back with six puppies. Looking at these topics I was passionate about lead me to explore veganism which I knew from the beginning was beneficial to the environment and was pro- animal rights. By doing more and more research I came to find that meat production companies had a huge negative impact on the environment from resource depletion, deforestation, climate change and global hunger. They are even the leading cause of global warming over the motor vehicle industry. This then lead me to believe that there were more than the stereotypical reasons to going vegan other than health or animal rights, such as it can save the enironment. By looking at the deforestation and pollution caused by meat production and distributing companies we see their purpose is driven more by profit than environmentalism, which tells us that veganism is important to cutting down on meat industry production of c02, methane, and nitrous oxide and deforestation of valuable land.

To first understand this topic and how it even relates to the environment, you must first know what veganism even is. A popular website ran by CEO George Gill who gives gave a clear definition right on the main page of the website: as the company’s main goal is to educate and advocate. "A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals." (The Vegan Society) People do not take into consideration about how much resources animal by products take to make, and as much as they use strongly negatively impacts our environment. From water consumption drank by the animals (soon to be slaughtered), to all the land that is cut down to make into commercial farmland, which turns into habitat loss for all of the other animals in the world, edible grain crop used to feed these animals is then taken from third world countries adding to global hunger, and to top it all of it has caused 51% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and has created over 500 nitrogen flooded dead zones in the ocean so far. (Veganism and The Environment) By looking at the Website “Your Daily Vegan”, a facts based website that speaks further to the detrimental impact of these broad problems it also says how going vegan can have a positive impact. “Each day, a person who eats vegan saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forests, 20 pounds of C02 gas emissions, and the life of an animal.” (Veganism and The Environment). Yes of course there is the stereotypical reasons of animal rights but specifically looking at the environmental aspects we could save so much clean water, get our air cleaner if more forestation was around, and hold off on the gas emissions of killing an animal.  Even if someone did this just a few days a week think about how much healthier our environment would be eventually.

We as a society need to get away from thinking that veganism is dietary social trend that needs to be done 24/7 or for publicity. This can be a leading way to save the environment for future generations. As we are in a generation of constant social media presences the idea of veganism is not taken seriously or even taken into consideration as a way to save the environment. In the book “The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror.” The theory is challenged that these non-talented celebrities even have an impact on the way veganism is looked at as most are doing it for the dietary ways or for promotional opportunities instead of the social movements it was meant for. Authors, Laura Wright and Carol Adams write, “Furthermore, much of the discourse generated by vegan celebrity status functions to stimulate veganism within mainstream culture, thereby divorcing it for the most part, from predominant ideological investment in animal advocacy and its political function as a form of social and cultural protest. In fact, I would argue that perhaps in part because of the negative connotations associated with veganism post 9/11 there has been a media campaign staged by vegans and nonvegans alike to divorce contemporary veganism from its most foundational import and reconstitute it as something decidedly other- a diet- neutralized of its “fringe” focus on animals.” (131) Which is why we need to get away from thinking that this is just a dietary trend rather a social movement meant for rights which was what it was intentionally intended for. And if we (celebrities included) got back to the social movement of veganism being a positive impact for the environment and taking the commercial out of it, there would be many more benefits to our world.             

Not to say people around the world are not recognizing the global issues these meat corporations are making. Such as the United Nations, one of the most powerful government organizations in the world that helps to solve issues around the globe and bring countries together. A report that was put out by their United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management urges, “A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.”
