Throughout the history of mankind our diets have been extremely influential on the behavior and lifestyle of humans.  Something many people especially in modern times are not aware of however, is the impact that our diets have on the world around us. In fact, many of the things that we eat on a daily basis have proven to be very harmful for not only our bodies, but also other living beings and the environment. Animal Agriculture is one of the leading causes of land degradation, world hunger, and water shortages. It is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. (Cowspiracy). In addition to the tremendous impact-eating animal products has on our environment, it can also be extremely hazardous for our health. According to several studies analyzing the affects various diets, people that include meat and other animal products in their diets are at a much higher risk for obesity, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer (Beydoun, Wang). The best way to save our environment, health, and compassion is by transitioning to a vegan diet, which is the most sustainable and ethical diet. 

So what exactly is a vegan? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products. This includes all meat, eggs, dairy, fish, various byproducts such as gelatin and even honey. Although vegans are commonly inundated with harsh stereotypes such as being pushy, mean, or aggressive, like most stereotypes these are very untrue. While it may seem like a drastic or near impossible life choice, nearly all vegans were once meat-eaters who also enjoyed steak, cheese, and bacon. Upon learning about the harsh realities of animal agriculture, they decided to transition toward a more ethical and sustainable diet for the planet and ourselves we all share as a home. Something many people are not aware of is the tremendous impact the meat and dairy consumption of our society has on the world around us in many facets. Take the environment for example. Animal Agriculture is arguably the single-handedly most destructive industry on our planet.  “Climate change. Ocean dead zones. Fisheries depletion. Species extinction. Deforestation.” All have direct ties to our worlds reliance on animal products (Hyner). 

Our environment is in a dire condition. For humans to continue to ignore our many contributions to it’s devastation is irresponsible and will eventually catch up to us. We are all aware of reducing our water consumption by turning off the faucets while brushing our teeth, or by taking shorter showers or even by reducing the amount of times we wash our clothes, but something else overshadows the water usage of all of these things combined. “Animal Agriculture is the number one consumer of fresh water by a significant margin. Animal agriculture consumes on average 55 trillion gallons of water annually—more than 520 times the water used in hydraulic fracturing” (EPA). In fact, if you bring this down to a small scale, 1 pound of beef requires roughly 5,000 gallons of water to produce.  So today we can approximate that “every U.S. household of just three people uses well over a million gallons of water each year. And 96% of that outrageous water use results directly from the choice to eat animals” (Oppenlander).  While water consumption and use is a significant source of concern, considering the amount of places that suffer from extreme drought, this is not the only concern involving animal agriculture and the environment. 

Another way that our earth is being compromised due to the practices of animal agriculture is through greenhouse gas emissions. Many environmental activism groups point fingers at transportation, factories, and other oil-burners as the biggest concern when it comes to gas emissions. While these industries do contribute significantly to gas emissions, Animal Agriculture tops the charts with 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions, then follows transportation at 13% and several other industries trail behind. (Cowspiracy) Another factor to consider is that among industries releasing greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere the largest percentage CO2 also known as carbon dioxide however, a large percentage of emissions from animal agriculture are from nitrous oxide and methane, which are notably worse for the environment than CO2. Livestock is responsible for 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, and this hazardous gas is roughly 296x more destructive than carbon dioxide.  The impact of these gas emissions are often ignored by environmental action groups due to the pressures put on them by those in the animal agriculture business to keep quite on the effects of their industry. 

Waste in the animal agriculture industry is something that not only effects the environment, but also brings into question the ethics of producing and killing other living beings just for a meal that is not essential to our health. The first problem involving waste that must be addressed is directly regarding the excrement of the animals we are producing. In 2016 in the U.S. approximately 4.6 billion farmed land animals were killed for food (Humane Society). This is in the U.S. alone and these animals obviously produce a large amount of waste, which often has no real way of being safely disposed with waste management. According to the USDA, more than 335 million tons of “dry matter” waste (the portion of waste remaining after water is removed) is produced annually on farms in the United States. A farm of 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city with a population of 411,000 people (Cowspiracy).  While human waste is nearly always disposed of safely with many regulations, there are very few laws on the regulation of livestock waste disposal.  

The environmental impact of animal agriculture is undeniably something to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to transition to a vegan lifestyle, but something that affects everyone directly are the health affects of our diets. Numerous medical journals point toward high meat and dairy intake as the leading causes of some of the most lethal illnesses in the United States. The World Health Organization classified processed meats as a “Group 1” carcinogen, which means that there is a direct link between these foods and cancerous cells in humans. They classified Red Meats as a “Group 2A” carcinogen which means that they “probably cause cancer” in humans (Phares). Due to the vast amount of evidence of the relation between processed meats and cancer it’s interesting that there are not warning labels on these products similar to the warnings on cigarette packs.  By avoiding meats and dairy, the average person can lower their risk of many types of cancers while also improving their health with nutritious alternatives. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control about 610,000 people in the U.S. die from heart disease every year, that is approximately one out of every four deaths.  It is the number one cause of death in this country (CDC). This is clearly a major pandemic that is plaguing our country. There are countless prescriptions that people are constantly told they need to reduce their risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke and more. These prescriptions come with a long list of side effects and then come even more prescriptions to reduce the side effects of those and so on and so forth. If this is by far the most common cause of death in the United States, why are so many people unaware of the simplest thing that can be done for prevention? Avoiding animal products in a diet is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to prevent major chronic illnesses like heart disease. In the “National Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets,” they examine the effects of plant-based lifestyle through various case studies. The journal made very strong claims regarding their findings and stated that, “Research shows that plant-based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C, and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates“ (Tuso).  While so many people are resistant to change, we need to open our eyes to the possibilities and ways our life can change through a healthy, plant-based lifestyle. 

When people are literally saving their lives by increasing heart health through avoiding animal products, it does not come as a surprise that this diet can also drastically lower rates of obesity. There are hundreds of fad diets, from replacing one meal every day with a cookie, to only eating a certain number of carbs every day. While some of these diets may temporarily cause you to lose weight, they are not permanent solutions and are often hazardous to our health not only physically, but also mentally. A vegan diet can transform your body and increase overall well being on many levels. According to an article in the International Journal of Obesity, “Compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarians have been reported to have lower BMI, blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels; lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer, and reduced death rates from heart disease” (Wang and Beydoun). They elaborated on their findings by explaining that through recent “nationally representative data” they found that there is a consistent positive correlation between meat consumption and fat deposits on the body; as well as having an adverse affect on many chronic diseases.  Plant-based or vegan diets not only decrease the likelihood of obesity and chronic illnesses but they are rich in many vital vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy body. 

Many skeptics of vegan diets profess the supposed dangers of protein deficiency, calcium deficiency, iron deficiency, B12 deficiency and various other claims with little to no evidence based in fact. The most common claim among people concerned with transitioning to a vegan diet, is the fear of protein deficiency, but despite the common belief that meat is the best way to get adequate amounts of protein this is very untrue. According to the “National Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets,” protein deficiency is generally not a risk associated with plant based diets. Many plant based foods are rich in protein and certain food combinations provide a complete protein such as rice and beans or hummus and pita bread. In fact some plant foods have even higher protein content than beef, without all the added cholesterol and saturated fats. Take spriulina for example; according to the USDA, 100 grams of spirulina has a whopping 57 grams of protein compared to only 25 grams in the same amount of beef. Additionally spirulina has more than ten times the amount of protein, twelve times the amount of calcium and less than half the fat of beef. While this is an incredible super food that most people wouldn’t regularly incorporate into their diets, it proves an excellent point about the power of plant foods! 

Another common concern is how someone could possibly obtain calcium without cow’s milk. There are numerous plant-based sources of calcium that are far richer in other nutrients with almost no negative aspects, unlike cow’s milk. Before listing the many healthy alternatives to sources of calcium other than dairy milk, it is important to address many of the dangers of cow’s milk that are often pushed under the rug. People don’t generally think of milk as a highly processed food, however there is a considerable amount of processing and chemicals that go into that “wholesome” glass of milk we often encourage our children to drink. Milk goes through the process known as pasteurization and this is done so that milk is fit for human consumption, with out it there is a tremendous risk for E. coli, salmonella and several other foodborne illnesses. Additionally there is an incredible amount of hormones, antibiotics, pus, and even white blood cells that are present in the typical glass of milk. The reason that pus cells are present in this milk is because of the severe mistreatment of the dairy cows in many of the industrial farms in America. 

The last subject that plays into veganism is the ethical benefits of the diet. In addition to the many environmental and health benefits or avoiding animal products, there are the many lives everyone has the opportunity to save every day. Many of the common practices to efficiently produce meat and dairy products are highly unethical and put the animals into severe distress. On Modern Farmer.com they describe the ways milk used to be produces versus how milk production works today. According to Modern Farmer, “ Cows spend their lives being  constantly impregnated in order to produce milk. Bulls can be difficult, so the majority of dairy cows are now artificially inseminated.” This is done by putting the female cow into a head cage, commonly known as a “rape rack” by people in the industry; it restricts the cow so that they can insert a metal rod into the cow and inject it with the bull semen. This is certainly not the natural process that many imagine it to be. 

There are countless other violent acts that billions of animals are put through every day simply for the sensory pleasure of taste in a meal. People often justify the treatment of these animals by dismissing them as just a stupid cow, pig, chicken, etc. but just because an animal lacks intelligence according to humans, does that mean they should be subject to abuse. Besides that there are many scientific studies that rank pigs above dogs in their intelligence. Chickens are often cramped into tiny cages for their entire lives and many never even see sunlight. Many of the animals that we use for food are mutilated for the convenience of the farmers. Take debeaking for example. Baby chicks often have their beaks clipped with hot blades to prevent them from injuring one another due to the extreme close quarters that they put the chickens in.  

Every day a human being makes close to 35,000 decisions. (Hoomans).  Throughout that day you will make several decisions on what food you wants to fuel your body. When making the decision between reaching for a plate of bacon and eggs or a bowl of oatmeal with fruit, consider the impact you can make. Consider the impact that your choices have on the environment. Consider the effects of your choices whether it’s the water you could save, the medical conditions you make be preventing, or the suffering that you are not contributing to. We all have a responsibility to make conscious and educated decisions. Many people do not have sufficient knowledge on the impact of something as simple as your meal has on the world. By living a vegan lifestyle people can make profound change through eating sustainably. 
