Happy World Vegan Day

Today (November 1) is World Vegan Day. In addition to being a cruelty-free and healthier way of living, many people are going vegan for environmental reasons.

As many people are reducing their car use, limiting their water waste, becoming more energy-efficient and generally seeking to lessen their environmental impact, they are increasingly examining their eating habits too. Environmentally conscious consumers are concerned not only with food miles, over-packaging, pesticide use and genetically-modified foods, but are also increasingly questioning the environmental sustainability of modern animal husbandry.

The livestock industry is responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and yet by comparison, all forms of transportation combined (i.e. cars, planes, etc.) emit 13.5%. The world livestock population is currently expanding at a faster rate than the human population and because meat production has quadrupled in the past fifty years livestock now outnumber people by more than three to one.

All these animals exist solely because of high meat consumption, which contributes significantly to water shortages, forest clearing, soil damage, use of oil-based pesticides and of course climate change.

The ironic thing is that millions of people all over the world suffer from hunger while more and more crops we could eat directly are being fed to livestock. Our dietary habits are a terribly inefficient use of the earth’s resources. A 2006 University of Chicago study found that a person switching from the average Western diet to a vegan diet would reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 1.5 metric tons a year.

The bottom line is that eating meat, dairy and eggs threatens our planet. I have been vegan for over a year now and not only was it one of the best decisions I have ever made in terms of my personal health and conscience, but I was surprised how easy and delicious vegan food is. For further information visit www.vegansociety.com