Vegetarianism promotes sustainability

This essay delves into the effects on the global environment if the entire global population were to turn into a vegetarian. The accuracy of the claims of vegetarianism being more environmentally friendly would be weighed against the utility that non-vegetarian food has on its consumers and on the environment as a whole.

Running head: VEGETARIANISM CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
Vegetarianism promotes sustainability
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VEGETARIANISM CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
Introduction:
Gilsing et al.(2015) define vegetarianism as the nature of human beings of living
exclusively on food products obtained from plants and avoid products obtained from animals.
There are over 375 million vegetarians in the world and their population is steadily increasing.
Vegetarianism is often described as a more environmentally friendly food habit compared to
eating non-vegetarian diet or a combination of both.
Environmentalists often claim that non-vegetarian diet contributes to global warming and
emission of greenhouse gases (theguardian.com 2018). However, others advocate that this claim
is not entirely true and sustainable. While some cultures from the eastern civilizations like India
traditionally advocate vegetarianism, the western cultures like the American culture have also
started following the suit.
The essay would delve into the effects on the global environment if the entire global
population were to turn into a vegetarian. The accuracy of the claims of vegetarianism being
more environmentally friendly would be weighed against the utility that non-vegetarian food has
on its consumers and on the environment as a whole. A few specific benefits of being vegan that
needs mention are that Vegetarianism can lead to falling in diseases like heart disease, it can help
to decrease in greenhouse gas emission and last but not the least it helps to save energy to
manufacture non-vegetarian food products. Therefore, it can be claimed that vegetarianism is not
always sustainable because it would lead to acute food shortage especially in arid regions which
do not produce enough crops.

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VEGETARIANISM CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
Analysis:
Vegetarianism is always sustainable and in fact environment-friendly. On the other hand,
vegetarian food is not always sustainable, especially in the arid regions. The arid regions which
include hot desserts and cold desserts. These regions do not produce enough crops to support the
local population (Cohen et al. 2017)s. The small variety of crops grown in these regions is not
able to meet the nutritional requirements of the people. Hence, the people living in this region
depend on meat and other animal products like milk and eggs to meet their daily dietary
requirements (Vanos, Hebbern and Cakmak 2014). The vegetarian food is rather sustainable as
because most of the food nowadays is imported and vegetarian food will be quite good for the
health especially in the arid regions. The economies like the United States of the Arab Emirates
which are situated in the arid regions of the world have developed chains of supermarkets owing
to their economic prosperity. These supermarkets sell vegetables, fruits and other vegetarian
products sourced from all over the world. The multinational food manufacturing companies
markets products like jam and packaged fruits (Gilsing, et al. 2015). These food products are
derived from different parts of plants and can be stored for a longer time than non-vegetarian
products. Thus, vegetarian products would make the life of people more sustainable even in arid
regions which do not produce sufficient food crops indigenously. The cattle-rearing industry
requires the immense area for the cattle to graze in order to fatten them. The cattle farming
industry which is very developed in markets like South America is slowly eating into the natural
resources like the forests. The cattle farmers and breeders exploit the natural water reserves
which leave the forests and grasslands prone to more fire. The cattle meat processing firms
which use highly advanced technology are also devastating to the water resources around their
processing plants to process the meat (theguardian.com 2018). Thus, the very rearing and
production of non-vegetarian food products are proving devastating to the environment. It can be

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counteracted that vegetarianism is not always sustainable and environmentally beneficial. This is
because vegetarian food contains far less protein than non-vegetarian food as the availability of
plant protein is more or less restricted to legumes. This means if economies were to meet their
protein requirement from vegetarian food, they would have allocated more land to the cultivation
of legumes at the expense of food crops like rice (Lee, B.J., Kim, B. and Lee, K., 2014). One can
clearly point out that this cultivation would result in food shortage. Hence, consumption of meat
to supplement plant food is more sustainable for economies than totally depending on plants as
food sources.
It can be said that vegetarian diet is more sustainable and causes less pollution compared
to non-vegetarian food production. It is the responsibility of the governments to provide the
sustainable framework to these industries. The dry countries like the UAE have increased their
imports of fruits to Dh 4.6 billion. This proves that countries are slowly shifting towards
vegetarianism to gain sustainability and reduce their meat consumption (gulfnews.com 2018).
The vegetarian food can thus be said to be easily accepted as it is easily available in different
areas of the world and can be made easily available in all areas of the world. Vegetarian lessens
the harmful effects of the environment. The reduction in the harmful effects helps in the
betterment of the environment (Vanos, Hebbern and Cakmak 2014). The harmful effects like
killing animals, procuring meat can be stopped and ecological balance can be easily restored as a
result of vegetarian diet.
It cannot be opined that vegetarian mode of food habit is sustainable. The rate of
sustainability depends on the economic development of the country. One can point though
apparently vegetarian food products are cheaper to store and transport, they attract immense
customs duties when they have to be imported to poor and dry countries. This makes them too

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VEGETARIANISM CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
expensive for consumers in poor countries (Li, et al. 2016). Moreover, their nutrition value also
falls due to long storage time. The locally available non-vegetarian food like meat and eggs are
less expensive compared to these imported vegetables and fruits. Thus, in reality, vegetarian food
does not personify sustainability in all regions of the word. Growing of crops also require the
immense amount of energy. The modern agrarian society uses the immense amount of petrol to
use modern machinery to till large tracks of land. Thus, vegetarian food production to results in
huge pollution. The agricultural sector in all countries is not uniform. The poor countries do not
manage their agricultural sector properly. Inefficient manage of fields results in the release of
methane and a large number of pollutants. The agricultural sector, if not managed properly can
lead to massive pollution. The run-offs from fields carry fertilizers which pollute surface water
and groundwater.
The inconsiderate killing of animals and eating their meat disturbs the ecological balance.
This can be only restored as a result of being vegetarian. The vegetarian diet can be helpful for
the environment as people will be encouraged to grow more and more plants which can help
reduce the carbon emissions. The production of non-vegetarian food industry like meeting cattle
killing and processing consumes an immense amount of water. The meat processing factories
release an immense amount of poisonous gases. This also contributes to global warming (Zhang,
et al. 2017).
It can be refuted that processing of vegetarian food products obtained from plants
releases less poisonous gases compared to meat factories. Further, one can point out that
exporting of meat products leads to more consumption of petrol to not only transporting meat
products but also to preserve them. Thus, it can be concluded that vegetarian mode of diet is
more environmentally friendly and help in minimizing global warming (un.org 2013).

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VEGETARIANISM CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
Production of vegetarian food also erodes the soil and harms the environment. The poor
countries use improper intensive cultivation when rids the soil of its nutrients. Thus, the degree
of sustainability vegetarianism actually promotes depends a lot on the economic conditions and
techniques used to manufacture crops.
Conclusion:
A vegetarian diet is more sustainable and causes less pollution compared to non-
vegetarian food production. It is the responsibility of the governments to provide a sustainable
framework to these industries. Loss of ecological balance can lead the world into an uncertain
future. The increase of vegetation will turn the world a much greener place. The world can be a
better place to live if every species live in a peaceful and harmonious way. The human species
has been utilizing its intelligence to destroy the environment. However, this must be stopped to
ensure a better place for the species. Vegetarianism can lead to a release of less amount of
poisonous gases, thus helping controlling global warming.

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References:
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