The effects of vegetarianism

 

The effects of vegetarianism

The world is facing some big problems right now. Of course, there is the fact that we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, but are there some other things that could be destroying our society from right under our noses? There are many problems such as global warming and decreasing health that are causing some major problems in our modern civilization. So what can we do to solve these problems? Well, this answer might be coming in a rather unexpected place. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the average American eats an astounding approximation of 222.2 pounds of meat in a single year. But is this diet really sustainable or is it actually causing some of our biggest problems? Today we will be exploring the fictional scenario of what would happen if the world went vegetarian by 2050 and what the effects of this would be.

Let’s first explore the effects this would have on our greenhouse gas emissions. Beef and milk cattle and any processing involved account for approximately 41 percent and 20 percent of food-related emissions respectively. By 2050 our food-related emissions would drop by approximately 60%. That’s a total emission decrease of 40.8 percent! This would dramatically slow down our global warming problem. Now, of course, there would still be cows but the lack of commercial breeding would dramatically reduce this amount.

Next, let’s look at the effect on global health. If the world went vegetarian by 2050 studies show that the global mortality rate would decrease by 6-10%. That’s a global decrease of up to 7 million deaths! This is due to a reduction in things such as diabetes, stroke, coronary heart disease, and some cancers. Half that decline would come from the elimination of red meat and the rest from things such as higher fruit and vegetable intake and less calorie intake. 

Lastly, let’s take a look at the impact on the overall food supply. If we simply dedicated 10-20% of the land used for pastures (which is in total about 12 billion acres or 68% of all agricultural land) we would easily make up for the loss in food and if we dedicated just a bit more we would actually have more food. The rest of this land could be restored to forest and grassland which would further decrease our emissions.

In conclusion, by simply reducing our meat intake we could take some big steps toward solving a lot of problems! Now, of course, the idea of the whole world suddenly going vegetarian is a bit drastic, however, there are some less extreme ways to solve some of these problems eating away at our society. By simply doing Meatless Mondays, for example, you lessen your weekly meat consumption by about 15 percent which by 2050 would reduce emissions by 6%, and if we reduced 25% (or ¼) we would reduce emissions by 10%. So there is no pressure to completely change your lifestyle however by simply paying more attention to what we eat. Maybe just maybe we can fix some of these problems.