This article won third place in the 2021 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association spring awards ceremony.
This is a part of a pro/con package. To view the other side, click here.
Meat is a staple in most families’ dinners, it’s tradition to have a turkey on Thanksgiving or a ham on Christmas. We are taught to eat meat because it’s good for us. I have come to find that isn’t completely true.
About a year ago I decided to change my diet and become a vegetarian. I made this decision after watching multiple documentaries on the meat industry like Cowspiracy and What the Health. From the unfortunate effects on the Earth, to the harmful consequences our bodies face, I learned just how bad the meat industry actually is.
Carbon emissions are widely known as a large contributor to global warming. The carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere traps the rays of sunlight and overheats the Earth’s surface. According to the documentary Cowspiracy, animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions while transportation only accounts for 13%.
Society needs to change its standards on eating meat before it destroys our planet. Changing your diet is the solution, especially because it’s easier than walking everywhere you go.
According to Farmland LP, a meat-based diet uses a little over one acre to produce food for a year. When comparing this to the half an acre used for a plant-based diet it doesn’t seem like a significant difference, but on a large scale the change is massive.
Every cow uses two to five acres of land, approximatley four to ten times the amount of land used for a no-meat diet. If this land was instead used to grow vegetables for humans, three to eight extra people could be fed for an entire year.
Not only is animal agriculture responsible for taking up a large portion of our land, it is responsible for most of America’s water consumption. According to Cowspiracy, 80-90% of America’s water consumption is credited to agriculture. Out of that percentage, 56% of it is used to grow crops to feed livestock.
Water used for animal agriculture has the potential to be used for a variety of different purposes. According to the Vegetarian Society, over 542 liters of water are used to produce an eight ounce chicken breast. This is enough water to fill 6.5 bathtubs.
Another reason to choose a plan-based diet over a meat-based one is because meat can raise your risk of disease. Red meat contains high levels of saturated fats, these fats increase people’s chances of developing heart disease, one of the leading causes of death in America according to the National Institute of Health.
Reducing my risk of disease and death is worth living on a plant based diet.
Changing to a vegetarian diet isn’t as hard as it may seem. There are a variety of different substitutes for meat that provide similar nutrients. The benefits keep me healthy and secures a healthy planet for future generations. I am willing to give up meat to give myself and others a happy and healthy future.
