Does Veganism Help The Environment? 🥬

February 11, 2024 Alterna Environment, Organic / food waste, Recycling

Energy Disrupter

Does Veganism Help The Environment? 🥬: You may have heard of the saying “go green” about as many times as you heard the ludicrous “throw shrimp on the barbie” being associated with Australians, right? Rightfully so, people are now becoming more aware of the environment. And veganism is one trend that is steadily on the rise in all parts of the world. Is it a viable way to reduce our environmental impact? Or is it something that will only worsen the Earth’s current situation?

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A bit about Waster

Before we discuss the topic of veganism helping the environment, let me share with you more information about Waster itself.

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How can veganism help the environment?

People come up with all sorts of schemes to help sustain the environment. For instance, they have been promoting the idea of shopping locally with one goal in mind: to reduce environmental impact.

Furthermore, environmentalists and researchers alike even invented complicated machines like the CAT-HTR or the Shruder to fight off the ongoing plastic waste war.

But what we don’t realize is that there are much easier ways to help the environment: theoretically, veganism. Implementing a vegan diet might be the key solution to reducing your environmental impact.

According to a study done by researchers from the University of Oxford, omitting meat and dairy products in your daily diet reduces your carbon footprint by up to 73 per cent. By the way, have you heard of Waster’s charitable partnership with Greenfleet? We decided to help in reducing carbon emissions by teaming up with them!

Additionally, if all people miraculously stopped eating these types of food, the number of farmlands all over the world could be reduced by 75 per cent, which is equal to the size of Australia, the US, China, and the EU combined.

This will lead to a positive decline in greenhouse gas emissions. It would also mean that more animals retain their homes, as it would free up wildlands due to human activity (mainly agricultural purposes).

Fighting climate change going vegan

Aside from the stated above, veganism also helps the environment by reducing climate change. According to a study reported by the BBC, the West eating too much meat and dairy products is fuelling global warming more.

But that does not mean scientists and officials are asking for everyone to become vegan. They said that more people could be fed utilising lesser lands if people cut down their meat consumption.

“We’re not telling people to stop eating meat. In some places, people have no other choice. But it’s obvious that in the West we’re eating far too much,” as stated by Prof Pete Smith, an environmental scientist from Aberdeen University, UK, in an interview with BBC.

Climate change compromises our food supplies. High and rising temperatures, increased rain, and more extreme weather patterns will all have a negative effect on crops and livestock.

However, the food production process also contributes to global warming. About a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stems from agriculture – together with forestry. This is due to the fact that caring for livestock produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

Lessening this and applying veganism will help the environment, as a result.

But in the next section, I present to you details suggesting that maybe this is not the answer at all in reducing our environmental impact. See our blog on drones in waste management and how they can help the environment.

Maybe veganism isn’t the answer to helping the environment

Conversely, some argue that veganism actually does nothing to help the environment. In fact, they might even argue that vegans destroy the environment.

According to an article done by the Guardian, this practice ignores two powerful “tools” to reduce our environmental impact: grazing and browsing animals.

Let me enumerate some negative effects of veganism that won’t help but rather destroy the environment (inspired by PaleoLeap):

In growing crops, many farms still use harmful chemicals like pesticides and insecticides. These types of chemicals are harmful to the environment. Releasing it in the air can cause sickness for both humans and animals alike. Furthermore, according to PaleoLeap, “Most are neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors that destroy the nervous systems of insects or cause them to be unable to reproduce. The same effects are passed on to humans when we eat these plants, and this is reason enough to be wary of ‘plants only’ diet.

Going vegan also consumes much of our natural resources. Vegans argue that only grain production for cattle feed is bad for the environment because it is the cause of deforestation, loss of habitat, and the extinction of species. But that is simply not the case. Almost all types of agricultural systems involve exhausting crude oil – a natural resource – in the planting, harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation stages.

It destroys the ecosystem. Building farmlands to support the growing demand for vegetation harms the topsoil, rivers, and streams. As a result, many animals lose their source of food. Growing all kinds of genetically modified crops destroys the animals’ natural feeding grounds.