What would happen if the whole world went vegan at once:
Climate change would slow down
We could feed the hungry people (according to harvard if everyone went vegan there would still be plenty of food available to feed everyone, more than adequately)
If everyone became vegetarian by 2050, food-related emissions would drop by 60%
Worldwide vegetarianism by 2050 would lead to a global mortality reduction of up to 10%
Short answer: no, if people become vegan massively the problems would increase and not decrease. Long answer: Vegans who are often stupid people mock these illusions thinking they have brilliant ideas for fixing climate change. Veganism is a toxic diet, as it does not allow humans to live properly, due to the lack of vitamins of animal origin. On the one hand, reducing meat consumption is a great way to reduce your environmental footprint. However, there are numerous plant products which are highly polluting. Furthermore, these crops are a source of exploitation of the poorest workers in developing countries. The environmental impact of plowing the land is often underestimated. To consume foods with low environmental impact it would be necessary to feed on products grown in a "no-dig" way, that is, obtained without plowing. The soil in fact contains large carbon stocks inside it, which are released into the atmosphere in the form of CO2 through intensive plowing. Not to mention the motorized vehicles (and related emissions) used to plow large areas of land and the land lost due to erosion, which globally affects between 25 and 40 billion tons of earth per year. Instead of changing your diet from omnivorous to vegan without taking industrial crops into account, it would be more appropriate to encourage sustainable forms of meat and dairy production. Changing the whole system of food production from zootechnical and agricultural to agricultural only would create a global economic meltdown. Turning those impoverished lands into fields would require a considerable effort, and all those working in the livestock sector would have to be relocated. Not to mention the disastrous effects that the disappearance of grazing animals 3.5 billion ruminants worldwide, would result in terms of biodiversity and the global economy. Cows would no longer make sense. Meat is also an inseparable part of many traditions, from parties to weddings, to rites of passage. In addition, animal products contain more nutrients per calorie, and replace them globally it would require an unprecedented diversification effort. As usual, the key is in moderation. Following the WHO guidelines on meat consumption, once, twice a week at most for red ones, would already be enough to optimize the benefits of meat and reduce our environmental footprint.
First off, what are you wanting us to do? You are talking about two different lifestyles. Are you asking the world to become vegetarians, or are you asking the world to start practicing veganism?
Now, let me get this completely out of the way before I even start my rant: Nobody, and I mean nobody including actual practicing vegans, are true vegans! (yeah, I said it, bring it on !!)
To actually become a vegan, you must practice eating or wearing nothing that is ever been a byproduct or produced from any animal. This in itself is extremely difficult to survive doing, let alone people actually giving up there lifestyles in doing. I cannot express how many times I've seen someone campaigning for veganism, While they're holding their leather handbag 4 looking at them speaking to me with lipstick on. You would be absolutely amazed what goes in to making a pair of shoes. And I can nitpick their conversation (or what they're wearing) showing that they do not practice it themselves If you talk to a vegan long enough, you'd be amazed how much they enjoyed their Spanish omelet this morning , but they only had the egg whites to stay within their vegan lifestyle.
Now with that said, it is very possible to be a vegetarian. In fact, I have practiced and perfected many different meals as a chef that are well within the boundaries of vegetarians. you can have a very healthy life and still get all the vitamins you need practicing being a vegetarian.
I do not, in any way shape or form, deny the fact that Ciliax disease is a true disease. I have seen it take many lives from people who couldn't conform to the restricted diet. But there is a difference between practicing gluten free and the requirement to be gluten free.
I am vegan and while it may be nice to think that animal suffering MIGHT reduce and that overall health will increase, unfortunately this will not be the reality! If people stopped eating the abundance of animals they eat a year, what will we do to the animals that are currently in the farms? Mass killing at once? Letting them roam free (while they destroy the crops made for vegans etc... and thus will suffer abuse)? There is no easy peasy solution! Also, for some people it may be healthy going fully plant based but not for everybody. Everybody's constitution/body is different... some stomachs can absorb nutrients more efficiently than others, so while some people may get away with plant based diets, others will quickly become deficient in certain nutrients because of the poor resorption rate by their bodies! Hence I am never frowning upon people/persuading people to go the vegan way, because it can harm certain people!
- everyone living in hotter countries should stop wearing suits to their workplace, this was actually done in Japan and it greatly reduced their carbon dioxide emission. - everyone should quit smoking and drinking - everyone should exercise - McDonald's and similar restaurants should be permanently closed so people are forced to buy and eat healthier food - everyone should eat local fruits and vegetables when they are in season, everyday.
I could make a big list of everything people should be doing, but can you really force them?
No. Also no, climate change and enviromental issues would actually not decrease (nitrogen run off would increase, over use of water would increase (almonds require a gallon of water per nut), and most plants are less nutritionally dense then meat (you would need to eat like three heads of lettuce to get the calorie content of a small steak and that means more land area used, more fertilizers and more labor and more fossil fuels (for the tractors and transportation) etc.
Also its awful for your health as your body has evolved to consume meat and their are nutrients we only get from meat. So in fact mortality would go up not down (our bodies process meat and animal fat just fine (we have been consuming it for longer then humans even existed (our ancestors homo erectus and even earlier hominids ate it) so obviously we have evolved mechanisms to properly process it). So would emissions, because as long as your meat is grass fed free range, it doesn't require chemical fertilizers or pesticides as they would just eat the naturally growing grass that is available in the midwest. They would also not require the killing of ground hogs since their is no crops that need protecting from them. So in fact if we wanted to do what your suggesting we should not decrease our meat intake but increase the number that is grass fed and technically increase the meat intake.
exactly right my friend. There is a reason people who are vegan look so sickly.. And when they go back to eating meat their health improves dramatically.. There are even famous vegan you-tubers who switched back to meat and suddenly their life was so much better.. There are proteins in meat that we need..
And there is a special place in hell for those that force infant children, or pets such as cats or dogs to be vegan..
Thank you. Yeah, the vegan trend is a rather unhealthy and absurd one. Its predominantly done by people who want to show that they are more moral then others but its actually awful for the enviroment, awful for animals (destruction of habitats will increase), and awful for people (both their health and the demand for other sources of food which will need to be done because you need to have more variety to compensate for the removal of meat (which itself is necessary to live healthy). If you look the mexican cartels now own many farmers who grow avocado's. Its called green gold because the demand of it is so high. Quino which has become popular is now no longer eaten by those who grow it as its now cheaper to import crappier processed food then to eat their traditional food because the yuppies keep demanding more and more of it.
False. False. False. Some people require animal protein to live, including myself. I need at least 50 grams of animal protein per day to avoid losing muscle mass, and I cannot eat a lot of carbs, and it's almost impossible to get enough calories on a low carbs diet from vegetables and especially from fruits. A diabetic basically cannot eat fruit at all, and most vegetables have far more carbs than protein, so you cannot ge ta healthy diet from just vegetables and fruits.
Cows eat Grass from land that isn't fertile enough from normal crops, so no, you could not raise more food on grazing land, because it can't produce as much beans or corn or wheat as it can grass, and the cows are about 50% efficient at converting grass to animal protein for food. So your Harvard study is bogus, I'm the Son of real Farmers so I know what the hell I'm talking about.
The Methane Emissions coming from cows farts and other human industry is INSIGNIFICANT compared to the methane emissions from the melting of permafrost and methane torches in the Arctic. Permafrost is melted by Nitrate Pollution and Carbon Dioxide pollution produced by INDUSTRY, not cow farts. Cow farts release a few grams of Methane, so all the billions of cows world wide might release a billion kilograms of Methane per year, but Methane Torches and Permafrost melt releases a billion TONS of methane per year. One billion TONS >> one billion kolograms.
So no, cow farts don't even effect global warming. That's a wrong and ridiculous myth.
People in Africa starve because they are living in over-populated wastelands and they are too poor and uneducated to do greenhouse farming. That's what causes world hunger, the planet itself can suppport a population of 15 Billion humans without pollution and without driving any animals extinct.
Its really hard to tell and predict, some studies based on American food consumption habits also predict an increase in CO2 emissions, water consunptions, as well as more hungry people.
This has several reasons, eg the most plants consumed are exotic, like bananas, mangos, ... and the worst of all avocados.
Next would be, humans can only comsume parts of the plant, mainly the fruit while the leafs and other parts can't be digested by the human body. So it would be a huge waste if 80% of the harvest is thrown away, which are now fed to farm animals.
And lastly, many regions aren't suitable for farming the most basic plants, either the soil isn't good enough, or there is a general water shortage. Eg in Kenya poeple are depending on eating the animals, since they can't eat most of the plants.
So the right way would be a balance, with mostly plants, but also small amounts of meat from happy animals who lived their lives on a giant field under the bluesky. Best farmed regional and saisonal, as well as only eating the recomended amount of calories.
Some studies are finances by the animal agriculture industry to produce a skewed image by focusing on the wrong things, like if everyone would only eat almonds, which are very water intensive. The consensus is a clear drop in emissions and resource consumption. Using farmland to produce food for humans is magnitudes more efficient than producing food for animals which are then consumed in turn. If we'd reuse all the farmland we had to feed humans, we'd have an abundance of food - so no hungry people.
You can cook just fine without using exotic ingredients. But I do agree, the ethics around avocados currently are very grim.
Again, because of the abundance of food we'd have, this waste is irrelevant. We could indeed feed animals for free with them, so there is no environmental argument there. So my argument against this is purely based on animal cruelty.
Again, because of the abundance of food we'd have, we wouldn't even need to utilise any grasslands, even allowing the lands to convert back to a proper ecosystem to capture CO2 emissions and promote animal diversity.
Unfortunately, the 'happy' animals have not lived their lives and will be slaughtered at a fraction of their lifespan, in order to maximise profit and meat quality.
Having grown up an ag, I can tell you there is a huge reason why the government subsidize farms not to plough their lands... you break that ground and a few things will happen. You will release A shitload of greenhouse Into the atmosphere which is presently trapped in the soil. Then you will plant... then all those plants will further heat the world thus increasing temperatures. Then you have to maintain those fields and that takes something and a lot of that something to do this to maintain those gigantic fields... and even if electric, it takes a momentous amount of energy to manufacture and maintain those devices. That is just for starters.
I won’t even get into the health issues as that has been beaten beyond the dead horse stage... and poor skin, losing teeth and hair is not “detoxing” ... nor is the brain fog. Humans have a gallbladder for a reason just as birds have a gizzard.
May as well be prepared for all those vegans who eat eggs on the “down low” so best have them egg ranches at the ready.
Global hunger was solved a long time ago... a certain segment of society did not like the method, genetic modification vegetation so as to sustain growth in harsher environments and grow larger in size...
There are some humans who can go entirely vegan, but this portion of human population is quite small. Definitely not all of humanity.
You want to cool the planet? Figure out a way to build roads, infrastructure, and buildings that do not absorb so much heat and release it back into the atmosphere at night thus artificially elevating temperatures.
There is so much more physics to this than simply saying, “eat vegetation”...
Disagree. As vegetable cruelty should be a crime. We seriously need to start talking plant rights, as they have a right to be protected from cruel vegans.
But also, veganism would lead to faster climate change, with more methane in the air and more CO2. Plant foods require MORE processing and resources than any other. Some of the ingredients in the preserves are even carcinogenic at high levels.
Veganism would also kill off most of the forests, as more grounds need to be cleared to make way for planting crops. Not to mention it's very inefficient and hundreds of animals and habitats that would need to be destroyed also.
Plants do NOT contain all the required nutrients and amino acids required for a healthy body. Humans would become more susceptible to disease and complications.
There is no correlation between being a strict vegan and living a long healthy life. In fact, of the people known to have lived to 100 or above - none were strict vegetarian. Most successful athletes are not strict vegans either.
There is no reason to be a strict vegan. That feeling of a smug vegan can be acquired more easily by getting yourself an electric car instead.
I've seen a lot of great answers, but I have one more reason to add. Going vegan wouldn't stop us from killing animals. In my state (CO, USA) most people hunt for meat, and there are hunting permits given out at different times of year for different animals. We learn in primary school that this happens mainly to control the population of animals, so they don't eat crops that we sell. Normally this would be done by natural preditors, but guess who killed them all to protect livestock? We did. So they're out of the picture. Humans are the main population control in many parts of the U. S., without hunters to control the population of animals, they would have a lot of babies and eat what would be our food supply.
Many people where I live are poor, and are only able to eat year round if they get a couple of animals to eat. Deer or elk meat is just as likely to be served in a home as steak or chicken.
If, magically, everyone became vegan we would have two options.
1) Allow the animal population to get out of control and NOT kill them. The issue with this is that they would eat our crops, and we would be starving more than many already were in my state.
2) Continue to regulate the animals. This would mean that we just kill the animals and leave them there. Do nothing with their bodies. This is ALSO a problem because its just unnecessary death, which vegans try to avoid.
This is just my take on why its a bad idea, so to sum it up: humans regulate animals, no humans means that animals eat crops. People starve. People depend on animals for food, they would starve if they tried to go vegan. This answer isn't even taking into account how you would actually DESTROY ENTIRE INDUSTRIES AND LEAVE COUNTLESS PEOPLE JOBLESS, or even HOW YOU WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO ENFORE THE ENTIRE WORLD GOING VEGAN, LIKE DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS FOR ONE HOUSEHOLD?
Disagree. There's actually a lot of extra baggage that comes with being vegan. That's medication and vitamins. Plants don't provide all the vitamins and minerals us humans need to be healthy. We require protein and some fats blah blah blah. It's actually quite healthy eating some meats and fish. Plus, it'll only put us near the bottom of the food chain. That's like getting carnivorous animals to stop eating meat to help their dinners live. In this world it's eat or be eaten. It is what it is maaaan. The law of nature. No matter if the world became vegan or not, that's not gonna stop all the plastic and garbage all around the world and in the oceans. We're all bound to fall.. and I'm falling with BBQ ribs and chicken nuggets in my mouth. 💁🏽♀️
We'd tear the planets vegetation apart as 8 billion people only eat non meat food. As we do that animals grow in number adding more mouths to feed to overpopulation limiting the vegetal resources further.
Eventually and very soon the planet will be baren and plagued with hungry beasts. (animals and humans alike) By then it would be too late to stop the bloodshed.
There are tons of overused arguments as to why humans are made to eat animals I'm sure you've heard them all so I won't bother makings a near endless list.
I think it would be great but too hard. People would definitely do whatever it takes to eat meat like a drug. I think there's no reason why people can't severely reduce their meat intake though. Most people eat meat at least once or twice a day, some every meal. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to eat meat only a couple times a week and/or in smaller more efficient quantities though. We really need to use our land more efficiently, people who don't see that are just ignoring it. We have to slash the amount of land we use for cows/methane production while still distributing their meat fairly.
The only problem with that plan is that wild animals, the ones people hunt and kill for meat to eat, would quickly overpopulate, leading to them overgrazing, which is leads to them either starving to death or venturing closer and closer to Human towns and cities to find food, which would inevitably draw Predators into human towns and cities where they would start hunting and killing humans as well as their ordinary pray. Some people might not like that humans kill animals, but we play a very important role in the ecosystem when it comes to animal populations, and stopping that, just because you're feelings are hurt on behalf of a wild animal, is not just a reckless, it's idiotic.
I have no problem with vegans personally. If you want to go vegan, more power to you. You should just realize the consequences of what you are suggesting by saying everyone on Earth should go vegan.
Many areas are grazed because the land simply won't produce food. For example in Florida (the largest beef state) many of the cattle are scrub cattle btgat graze under powered lines keeping the brush down.
If you stopped grazing you would get zero food produced and have to burn fuel to keep the brush down. A lose lose situation. Which means you would have to clear more land in other places to grow food to make up for the loss. Im a very environmentaly concerned person. As far as food, the best thing to do for the environment is to buy local. Remember almond milk from California is an order of magnitude more harmful to the environment then milk from Ohio.
Men need meat if you want us to fuel the economy on the labor side. Nuts etc aren't good long term diet unless you have an office job etc or something light weight. Our testosterone needs fuel. That comes first for our lives. Now we could cut cows eat chickens or something. Or turkeys. Or goats.
As for the science on global warming it's unknown. We don't know. Look up the tilt of Earth's axis. Let's just go to Mars and other planets. Cutting out oil consumption and drive less great idea. All on bikes.
Also, soy is terrible for man. Produces estrogen. We are men. Meat. Testosterone. Defender. Warrior. Lift that couch for you from downstairs to upstairs. Meat. In order to do things you find attractive, we need meat. We don't need the crusty yum yum all over the crispy chicken. But we do need the chicken. Pi-got!!!
There's not a single word on your reaction that's true. You don't need meat, you can get plenty of 'fuel' from plant based options. As for the science on global warming, there is a clear consensus. Plant based options produce magnitudes less emissions and consume less resources.
Soy produces plant oestrogen. For plants. There's no evidence that it has any effect on humans. You know what contains mammalian oestrogen, though? Dairy.
I feel like both, but we eat meat all year round. We kill fish all the time, that they don't have time to reproduce. We put pigs and cows in small claustrophobic pens. Where they experience depression and anxiety. Sometimes they even pump things in the cow's body. If we change the way how we kill and take care of animals. We even separate cow babies from their mothers. I think we should both eat meat and also be plant-based. I don't think eating meat is bad, but we put so many chemicals into our foods.
I don't understand how is it possible to feed everyone on the planet if we forbid people from eat meat, eating milk related stuff, etc... That's just doesn't make sense. Also we don't need to be vegan to feed the poor we can actually feed them now but because of our law we can't. In Europe there's a law that say "Your cow must product "(insert the certain amount) and if the cow produce more milk then this milk is throwing away in a trash can and is it the same with a tons of others food.
Disagree. Humans are capable of eating meat we have the ability to digest the protein we need protein so clearly not eating meat isn't the answer. If we're supposed to drink blood then why can't we digest it saying don't drink blood would be reasonable. When it comes to climate change and meat that's not the problem. The problem is cars not meat or animals. Animals have existed in huge amounts for years before and there were no climate change issues. On top of that, not everyone likes vegan I know I don't so why should I? Nobody likes rape but if you said it saves the planet would you do it? Nope.
That's not true. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Dietetic Association both vouch for a vegan diet being perfectly healthy.
Animal agriculture is in any student a huge factor in climate change. Yes, animals have existed before in huge amounts in the wild, but still not remotely to the extent in which we're keeping them in factory farms.
Not everyone likes vegans, because vegans want you to stop eating meat to save the animals. If you're a meat eater you have two options, stopping to eat meat or feeling personally attacked because someone wants you to change your lifestyle. So don't have a fragile masculinity and actually consider what people suggest.
@D4nielv The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Dietetic Association is funded by just that companies promoting veganism you can't say meat doesn't cause cancer when the advice comes directly from people who sell meat. Needs to be at an FDA standard.
No, what I'm saying is back then animals existed way more than today more than mass-produced and in much larger sizes than today.
If I'm a meat eater I have a third option doing what I want with my life. Feeling personally attacked? Is that a joke? Some guy telling me to stop living life the way another person wants doesn't come close. Fragile masculinity? What would you know about masculinity? Do you have a science degree anything related? No? Then how about trying the silent insults somewhere else to make up for the lack of education you have we've tested these things before veganism doesn't work.
Being vegan is great but if everyone would start eating only vegetables it would ruin the natural balance of the world then there would be an great influx of animals that are eating the vegetables as well an equal balance must be maintained for prosperity. Meat also is helpful for people living in extremely cold areas like I do where most crops don't grow. But hating on someone for the stuff they hate is not fair aswell. If you're vegan I respect that and I think you should respect my views as well.
I disagree because I don't think logistically it works the way you've discussed.
It's like electricity. We could make solar farms in the Sahara that would generate enough power for the world so why dont we do it? Because you then have to get the energy to the rest of the world and store it to deal with spikes in demand and lows of generating.
If everyone went vegan although technically we have the resources to do it we do not have the infrastructure for the bonuses of veganism to be a reality.
Also can we stop with the whole "vegan food is healthy" no it isn't, like all foods it's about getting the balance right.
First off, veganism is a luxury. Its mostly for rich white people. Also not everyone can go vegan. Many vegan substitutes for certain foods contain gluten, soybeans, nuts etc all of which are common food allergies. Vegan diets are also EXTREMELY high in carbs which could be bad for those that are either trying to lose weight or for those that need to be on a lower carb diet for health reasons. If I were to go vegan, with the amount of protein I need, I'd be most likely having 1000 grams of carbs a day.
Secondly, veganism isn't sustainable because foods like almonds (which are used by vegans frequently) require a shit ton of water to harvest.
I wasn't aware that rice, beans and legumes are mostly for rich white people, they must be giving out meat for free then where you live.
Everyone can go vegan. You're saying that excluding a handful types of foods leaves few alternatives, while there are literally thousands of plant based food options. I know plenty of people that are vegan and celiac, and they're doing just fine.
Then you don't know where to get your protein from. I literally don't know what else to say than this. I'm not even trying and with a bunch of hummus, soy milk and beans I'm way over my protein requirements as someone who works out every other day. Get yourself some protein powder.
Yes, almonds require a shit ton of water. You know what still requires more water? Pretty much still all animal products. Don't forget, a steak takes about a thousand gallons of water. If you're really that concerned, stop eating almonds as well, but until then, it's still insignificant when you eat any animal products.
Even if we were to convert all livestock farms and slaughterhouses into plantations it still wouldn't be sustainable. There's far to many uncontrollable factors that directly affect agriculture. That's why fresh vegetables are so expensive. Also, the groundwater that the agriculture industry relies on so heavily is a fleeting resource, and draining it could have devastating impacts, from worldwide droughts to destructive sinkholes.
That would be ideal, but it would never happen. There's too many "meat lovers "in the world.
My heart breaks when I hear about Gorillas being butchered just to sell meat on market stalls. It would stop the abuse and inhumane killing of thousands of animals worldwide.
