5 (Environmental) Reasons to Be a Vegetarian

In English class we have been talking about the environment and Eco-criticism and as always school work tends to seep into the rest of my life, so I want to examine Vegetarianism with environmentalism in mind. I have been a vegetarian for about eight years and I sometimes have a hard time explaining to people why I am a vegetarian, partly because I am not quite sure myself sometimes. However, I stick with it because I think it is a good thing to do, not only for yourself but also for the environment.

1. On Land
When food is grown to feed animals that are eventually consumed by humans, the transfer of energy is extremely inefficient. The human consumer only obtains about 10% of the energy from eating an animal (it is lower for most livestock, 6% for cattle) that was used to sustain the animal. Therefore, about 90% of the energy in the crops being grown to sustain the livestock industry does not get to the consumer, so it is hugely inefficient to eat meat. If the livestock is free-grazing, they still have a dire effect on the environment because the energy rules apply as above stated, except now they destroy natural environments and habitats. Furthermore, 90% of cattle ranch land is abandoned after about 8 years because of overgrazing and nutrient loss.

2. Food & Land Availability for Growing Population
Since it is more efficient to be a vegetarian this hypothetically creates more available food for those throughout the world that need it. Twenty vegetarians can live off the same land that one typical omnivore needs to survive, so the level of efficiency is not inconsequential. Furthermore, over grazing of crops leads to desertification that pushes people out of their lands. Also, increased need for land to grow more food for livestock has pushed millions of people out of their traditional homes and usually into lifestyles much less eco-friendly than they previously lived.

3. In the Air
Large livestock around the world release about 80,000,000 tons of methane, a greenhouse gas, per year. That is 22% of anthropogenic releases of methane. Fertilizers used to grow feed for livestock releases nitrous oxide, and the clearing of forests by fire releases more methane into the environment. Sprayed-on pesticides stay in the air and have been proven to be carcinogenic. Furthermore, the production and movement of meat-products to keep up with demand is extremely tolling on the environment. The actual process of growing enough food for livestock to sustain the unhealthy pyramid of energy in a non-vegetarian diet, and then bringing it to the consumer, reaches as far to effect the air we breathe. So the choices people make about what they eat also affects what they breathe.

4. In Water
As the world's fresh water sources decrease it is important to consider the fact that it takes 100x more water to produce 1 pound of meat than it does to produce 1 pound of wheat (water used to produce a 10 pound steak could provide an average household with water for a year). Wastes from farmland and production facilities flow into the water supply and harm both ecosystems and humans. Vegetarianism is more sustainable because water consumption and pollution is much decreased, leading to greater water availability and less polluted water overall.

5. Ecosystems and Non-Domesticated Animals
Many fishing methods destroy local ecosystems by destroying either the bottom of the ocean or by killing many different species in large non-discriminative nets. The depletion of the fishing stocks around the world has lead to the decrease in many different aquatic species that depended on the missing fish because ecosystems are a mess of connections. Livestock and other domesticated animals have terrible living conditions, painful procedures, artificial living conditions and hormones to speed up their growth, and many are killed in non-humane ways. The large farmland that is used to grow feed for these livestock have also become barren spaces devoid of almost all ecosystems and organisms that used to live there due to pesticides and lack of natural diversity.

Regardless of what people think about meat, I am happy with my decision to be a vegetarian for the environmental reasons alone. I think people forget that the industry we have built up to support the American lifestyle is neither sustainable or health (for ourselves or the environment) so although I would never push vegetarianism on anyone, I think everyone should consider it (or at least consider reducing their intake of meat products).

Thanks for reading, do not forget to comment!

Genocide Awareness Week

This week at my school the STAND (Students Taking Action Now in Darfur) group hosts Genocide Awareness Week. We build a model refugee camp and give tours of it the whole week. On Friday, we give presentations about historical genocides to classes and that night we have a musical fundraiser event. Events still occur in Darfur often, however, it is very rarely in the news.

Recently, I attended a talk at the Illinois Holocaust Museum given by Rebecca Hamilton, author of Fighting For Darfur, a story of activism and journalism surrounding the genocide in Darfur. She followed the spotlight of international attention in Sudan and Africa and found that when eyes are concentrated in one spot other conflict in other areas falls through the cracks. Once attention shifts, the attention-lacking areas are redefined but there are always places where events take place that warrant outcry and action, but do not receive it. The sad thing is that even when there is an outcry of a large group of people, as there was in the United States when the events in Darfur came to light, it does not guarantee any action or any wrongs being righted. Hamilton made the argument that if the attention does not shift, and if we can unite the stories of the different people of Sudan, then less crises and atrocities will slip through the cracks. So how can the story of Sudan be unified in a way that leaves nothing in the dark but brings into attention what needs to be done?

The two 'big' stories in Sudan recently were the referendum for Southern Sudan to secede and the Darfuri Genocide. As attention switched from one event to the other, people would be killed in Darfur or election preparations would be left undone in Southern Sudan, so both locations suffered. Uniting the narrative of the Southern Sudanese and the Darfuri people would have prevented, or at least helped to spread awareness about, some negative events.

Now, with the events happening throughout North Africa and the Middle East, Sudan might as well have fallen off the earth. Because 2 million people are still displaced from the conflict in Darfur, because more are joining their numbers every day, and because Darfur is not the only place that houses refugees and conflict is, why we host Genocide Awareness Week. To unite the stories of many into something that is consumable to the public may sound overly consumerist, however, in a fast paced world it is disgraceful that our outcry and our action is still slow. Our goal should be to find the balance between depth and scope of information so that the first story on the news is not the only crisis that we address.

So this week, remember those throughout the world that need remembering - and do what you can to act.