Vegetarianism

With the increases in the environmental pollution, the issue “environmental protection” has become an important subject for everybody. Regardless of some people not caring about this topic, there are still a lot of people worrying about our environment and willing to take time to do something to protect our environment.

I started to be interested in vegetarianism when there were more and more people becoming vegetarians. In the beginning, I didn’t know why they wanted to be vegetarians or vegans. However, after global warming’s effects become more and more severe, I gradually understood that those people just would like to have a better life and vegetarianism is one of the good ways that can help resolve our environmental pollution problems. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” “If we want to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet, we are going to have to eat less meat and dairy” (Western Daily Press, 2007, para. 33). However, there is a disagreement about whether vegetarianism is really a good way and if it is easy for people to carry out. Some people may think that encouraging people to eat vegetables can help our environment be restored. Sue Green said, as long as people become vegetarians just one day, this could lead to a significant influence for the environment and decrease ten times the amount of greenhouse emissions (Green, 2007). Others may have a negative attitude. They mention that not only does going vegetarian have its difficulty to carry out, but also it cannot actually reduce wastes and resources. Hence, now, I plan to focus on vegetarianism. First, vegetarianism is an easy way for people to carry out the environmental protection. Second, going vegetarian can greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions. Third, going vegetarian is very healthy. Finally, vegetarianism helps people preserve and save more resources.

First of all, because going vegetarian is not only easy but also convenient, everybody can do it. What’s more, they are able to take this way into practice at home. Donnelly said, “you can grow sprouts beside the kitchen sink and enjoy organic food that's high in vitamins and minerals, that's cheap and easy to grow” (2009, para. 20). Therefore, even if not having enough time to do something for the environment, people can still bring the ideas into their life every day. It’s really simple and does not take much time. For example, some people might care about the environment and indeed want to do something for the sick earth like doing recycling, but they often complained that they don’t have enough time to do it. However, whether you believe it or not, going vegetarian doesn’t take too much time. If people are able to change their diet, it really helps the earth a lot. Maybe we are not like some people who dedicated themselves to the environmental protection such as doing recycling in the recycling plant, but we also reach the same purpose---save the world.

Nowadays, most people have already changed their diets and some of them go so far as to devote themselves to encouraging other people to go into this way. Compared with the general public who still eat meat and dairy for their meal every day, maybe they are just those people who really care about the environment. I say in this way because although many people know how important it is for them to be concerned about the environmental problem, few of them are willing to take action to implement it. As Kilpatrick said, “We are all part of the problem, so we should all be part of the solution” (2008, para. 3). Therefore, regardless of knowing how important it is that we protect the environment, the most important is that we should actually carry out and decrease the pollution. That’s why I mention vegetarianism. It is really pretty simple and helpful. In short, going vegetarian is very easy and everybody can do it.

In addition, vegetarianism can help people decrease a large amount of wastes and pollution. For instance, we create great emissions from our daily life, such as the vehicles we used and our food like meat. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” the greenhouse emissions from the livestock sector account for 18 percent of all greenhouse emissions in the world (Western Daily Press, 2007, para. 4-5). Most importantly, the demand from livestock is still rising constantly. This would lead to a terrible result. The emissions increase continuously and the earth cannot afford to consume all emissions. Maybe 10 years later, the greenhouse emissions would be fill up our atmosphere. If it happened, how could we survive? The answer is pretty obvious. Therefore, how to slow down the greenhouse emissions becomes an important topic for us.

Moreover, animal protein also produces more greenhouse emissions than plant protein does. Sue Green quoted Dr. Tavakkoli as saying, “animal agriculture accounted for one fifth of global carbon emissions; animals accounted for 65 percent of the world’s nitrous oxide emissions” (2007, para. 9). Therefore, if everyone goes vegetarian, we can easily slow down the rate of all emissions and the ozone loss problem can be easily controlled. According to “Healthy breakfast can lead to a sicker planet”, “the average American could lower his or her emissions by between 252kg and 400kg, simply by having one red-meat-free day a week” (The New Zealand Herald, 2008, para. 5). In a word, going vegetarianism can protect the environment from being destroyed and polluted, because the livestock sector is responsible for a large amount of greenhouse emissions.

Third, going vegetarian is much healthier for people and can help decrease some harmful sources. For instance, eating meat too much will produce both high calories and fats for people’s health and then cause severe diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Also, all these diseases are ranked as top five of all ailments. This is also why we need to go vegetarian. If we go vegetarian, we can decrease the risk of having those diseases. For example, more and more people become vegetarians, because they are aware of many benefits from this way. Even many families made their children go vegetarian when they were very young. Green mentioned that Ms. Owers became vegetarian meat 23 years ago, and one of her children, 10, only eat very little meat in school but he didn’t feel bad (Green, 2007).

Moreover, not only does eating less meat and dairy give you few chances of contracting severe diseases, but also vegetables and fruits have already provided sufficient daily needs and nutrition for people. For example, people eating vegetables can prevent osteoporosis. This is because vegetables contain lots of vitamin C and vitamin C can accumulate in our body to assimilate the calcium and then keep our bones from being destroyed. It is good for many elderly women and some people with osteoporosis. Besides, people who choose to eat more vegetables and less meat would easily keep an appropriate weight. Because vegetables would make our stomach have a good digestion, then we will have fewer harmful materials accumulated in our bodies. It is also good for our health. In short, vegetarianism can offer people a much healthier life.

 Some people may disagree with vegetarianism. Opponents of vegetarians said that vegetarianism cannot actually reduce wastes and pollution since plant protein can produce greenhouse emissions as well. However, Sue Green said, “it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of beef and just 1,500 to produce a loaf of bread” (2007, para. 7). If more and more people go vegetarian, there are fewer and fewer resources wasted. For example, each year, Americans consume many tons of meat and dairy and their consumption is top of the world. If they are willing to eat less meat and dairy every day, more resources and energy can be saved. If we save and preserve more resources, we can have a sustainable environment. It will be a benefit not only for us ourselves but also for our offspring.

On the contrary, when people eat substantial meat and dairy, more animals will be raised and then much energy like fresh water and fertile soils needs to be put in the processing of meat and diary. As we know, generally, producing meat would waste more resources than producing plants because raising animals requires more lands and energy and then produces more wastes and pollution. According to “Can vegetarians save the world,” “70 percent of agriculture land – one third of the entire land surface of the planet – is used to raise livestock” (2007, para. 15). Furthermore, eating plants can reduce the demand for a huge amount of processing and animal resources. Similarly, Shepard said, “Animals require space and feed - an acre (0.4ha) of arable crops can feed 20 times as many people as an acre dedicated to cows” (2008, para. 3). In a word, vegetarianism can really help people reduce the use of the resources and preserve and save more resources.

In conclusion, going vegetarian is a much easier and simpler way and people can take little time to do it. In addition, vegetarianism can reduce a great amount of pollution from the livestock sector because the livestock really produces great greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, going vegetarian can provide a healthy and comfortable lifestyle for people and keep them from suffering severe diseases. Finally, vegetarianism can not only help people save and preserve more resources, and energy but also can offer a sustainable life for people and animals. Based on the reasons that I just mentioned, I totally believe that vegetarianism is really a feasible way for people to carry out and then reduce wastes and pollution.

Reference

Donnelly, F. (2009, April 14). How to have a sustainable diet, The Courier Mail. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from LexisNexis Database

Green, S. (2007, September 29). It’s easy being green, The Dominion Post. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database

Kilpatrick, J. (2008, June 19). Fighting climate change - one footprint at a time, The Gazette. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

Shepard, A. (2008, February 9). A huge hoof-print, The Times. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

The New Zealand Herald. (2008, September 18). Healthy breakfast can lead to a sicker planet. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.

Western Daily Press. (2007, June 16). Can vegetarian save the world? Retrieved June 2, 2009, from LexisNexis Database.