Vegetarianism and Sustainability

There are a few reasons for people to be a vegetarian. The reasons can be due to diet, practice of some religion, health problem and some others reason. Anyway, I wonder how many people are known about vegetarianism can actually bring benefits to environment instead of benefit the human health. There are also studies which compared the environmental costs of vegetarian, vegan as well as omnivorous (meat-eating) diets and it showed that vegetarianism diets are more sustainable. This is because vegetarianism can indirectly reduce the livestock farming which leads a lot of environmental damage. The following showing the problems including the environmental impacts that being caused by the livestock farming.

1. Energy
   Animals are inefficient calorie converters, taking in up to 40 times more energy from feed than humans yield from eating it.
2. Food supplies
   40% of the world’s grain is fed to livestock instead of to humans as human population also keep on increasing.
3. Greenhouse gases
   A 2006 report from The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the planes, trains and automobiles on the planet. The methane gas releases from the livestock such as cows have 21 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.
4. Habitat destruction and deforestation
   Food production results in 73% of habitat alteration. While in order to grow the livestock to fulfill the demand of meat eaters, there are more and more forest being cleared for pastures to feed all the animals. The problem will get worse as according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, annual per capita meat consumption in developing countries has doubled from 31 pounds in 1980 to 62 pounds in 2002 and it is predicted that meat production will double by 2050. Within this timescale the livestock population is expected to rise from 60 billion farm animals to 120 billion
5. Pollutions
   In order to meet growing appetite and demand, animals will no doubt be reared more intensively and cheaply with factory farming causing further pollution, water (eg. groundwater, eutrophication) and land (erosion, over-grazing, etc). If nothing is done, the environmental impact of meat production can only increase.

Thus, going vegetarian can be a good way to reduce the pollution from the meat industry and it can be a tool to achieve environmental sustainability. Studies on world food security estimate that an affluent diet containing meat requires up to 3 times as many resources as a vegetarian diet. Therefore, going vegetarian is an easy way to lower environmental impact and at the same time help ensure worldwide food security. Of cause to become a vegetarian or not is depending on personal choice, I just only intend to raise up the awareness. ^-^