When people hear someone declare their veganism, they often jump to the stereotype of a hippie gone rogue or a white girl on a vegetable rampage, soap-box ranting about their new favorite diet fad that just so happens to compliment their pseudo-humanitarianism. What they don’t realize is how high the stakes are for the Earth and everything that inhabits it. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we have 12 years to improve our ecosystem before the effects of global warming become beyond repair. Consequences of resisting to do so will significantly increase our risk of natural disaster. This includes sweltering climates, rising sea levels, extreme droughts, floods, and wildfires. Not only this, but obesity is a national epidemic and cardiac arrest from high-cholesterol levels is one of the leading causes of premature deaths in adults. Eating is something every human must do multiple times a day, and the food we choose to put in ourselves has a direct influence on our world, health, and even conscience. There is no better day than today for those of us who have the privilege to pick what is on our plate to switch to a more or completely plant-based diet.
If you’ve ever read a health article or the nutritional facts on a food label, you’ve probably heard the term “cholesterol”. It is a waxy by-product of fat that in high levels can clog arteries, cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and even cardiac arrest. What you most likely did not know is dietary cholesterol (cholesterol we intake and is not produced by our body on its own) is found in fats that are only contained in animal products. While this substance is notorious for being bad for your health, it is not general knowledge to the public that it can only be found in foods containing animal byproducts; whether it’s dairy, eggs, lard, or just straight up meat. We have been told from a young age that milk, eggs, and meat are good sources of protein. What we are not told is that the protein we are getting from these products have already been digested and used by the animal that once contained them through the eating of plants.. In fact, protein deriving from plants has been proven to be a more direct source and is better for muscle build. Meat-eaters may argue that there are amino acids in meat that you cannot acquire from anything else, however, all those that are necessary for the human body can be found in fruits and vegetables and even grains like quinoa and barley; much healthier, affordable options that are full of vitamins and fibers your body needs that animal products lack. People who are vegan or vegetarian also tend to unintentionally lower their caloric intake resulting in less fat for the body to carry, which if was better implemented by our nation’s population, could result in a decrease in America’s obesity rate. A plant based diet filled with proper nutrients prevents exposure to many health risks, aides in losing weight, and is actually better for gaining strength and building muscles.
Actor and vocal animal rights activist Joaquin Phoenix once said “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight” when discussing his decision to go vegan growing up. There is a very good reason slaughterhouses and factory farms do not have windows, because the lives they contain are not living lives at all.. Whether they’re raised for their milk, eggs, or flesh, livestock get a complete lack of care beyond their most necessary needs for survival. Some are even born in their pens and never see the light of day until they are being hauled off to their demise. Farm and meat processing workers have been caught on footage torturing these animals; kicking them, slamming them against walls, and even sexually abusing them simply for sadistic pleasure. None of these actions or conditions any of us in our right mind would even fathom to subject another human or house-pet to. Yet we condone this treatment every time we purchase or eat foods that derive from the animal victims of this torture. This is recognized globally by psychologists as “The Meat Paradox”. The Meat Paradox is the paradox that “most people care about animals and do not want to see them harmed, but engage in a diet that requires them to be killed and, usually, to suffer” ( The Psychology of Eating Animals, Loughnan, Bastian, & Haslam, 1). It is never easy to be confronted by our conscience, especially when it pertains to something that has become such regularity in most of the population’s daily life and routine. However, the denial is actually damaging to our own psyche, and the more desensitized we are to it, the more likely we are to be indifferent to more publicly visible forms of violence and cruelty. In an article released by Psychology Today , a research lab studied this paradox and how it affects our relations. The study revealed that “We dehumanize other human groups because we consider animals beneath humans in value and worth in the first place” and “People who express greater ethnic and social prejudice also express the most willingness to exploit non-human animals” (Dr. Gordon Hodson, Ph.D, 2). The further we choose to ignore animal cruelty, the more likely we are to ignore cruelty towards others or be cruel to them ourselves.
As if the treatment of the animals we use for this industry wasn’t horrifying enough; the completely unsanitary conditions they are forced to churn out products in is enough to make anyones stomach churn. Livestock are forced to live up to their legs in their own fecal waste and body parts of those that could not survive the conditions. This makes these animals a complete breeding ground for salmonella and other harmful contaminants. In a discovery through live footage of slaughter houses recorded for the food documentary Food Inc. , it is regular procedure for meat to be doused in an ammonia solution, a compound that is toxic to humans in high doses; before being shipped out for sale in markets and grocery stores. Even after this chemical bath, this meat poses an incredibly high risk for severe food poisoning that can lead to death if not cooked thoroughly.
America recently had an enormous recall on romaine lettuce due to contamination of it from the lethal E. Coli bacterium killing 4 people. This killer does not surface on our produce at random on its own. E. Coli is found in the lower intestines and fecal matter of warm-blooded organisms; particularly cattle and poultry. In a case study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, samples of produce cultivated with fertilizer containing poultry and cattle manure carried a much higher contamination rate for E. coli, and fecal streptococci and coliforms: bacterium’s that contain pathogens that cause ear infections, food poisoning, bloody stool and diarrhea, gastrointestinal disease, bacterial pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, and can even lead to death. The study concluded that “the intensive use of organic matter (in fertilizers/cultivation) like cow dung and poultry manure and other animal feces are a significant environmental risk to soils, waters, and crops” (,3). This experiment just studied fertilizer carefully cultivated specifically f or produce use; meaning it had already been processed and had been taken through preventative majors not to taint the crops. This does not even account for the dangers posed by runoff from livestock/egg/dairy farms contaminating adjacent produce fields, which is unregulated and exponentially more dangerous and harmful.
If your physical health and moral compass are not enough to sell you on the idea of converting to a plant based diet, its global effects definitely will. Animal Agriculture, the manufacturing and selling of animal-derived products, uses 34-76 trillion gallons of water per year, and is the second largest contributor to climate change; responsible for eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. This is more than every mode of transportation combined. What’s even more disturbing is that this does not count the greenhouse gas emissions produced directly by the animals themselves; a whopping fifty-one percent, more than half of the entire worlds emissions. Through studies scientists have discovered the effect of the gas produced by livestock known as methane on the Earth in a twenty year time frame is anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred times more destructive to our ozone layer than carbon dioxide, the gas emitted by the burning of fossil fuels. Altogether, our eating habits have an effect on nearly seventy percent of all contributing factors to global warming. A person living a vegetarian lifestyle has a fourth of a carbon footprint of an omnivore; a vegan a sixteenth of it. Hundreds of years worth of damage to the the earth could be reversed if our diets shifted as a population with the power to do so.
The animal agriculture market is an economy that is killing our world and its inhabitants; with us, the consumers as absent-minded willing participants. You can choose to ignore or disregard facts, but that does not diminish their existence. We have to open our eyes and take action if we want to preserve the well being of our world and its inhabitants. Switching to a plant-based diet is not a fast or easy process. However, most important things we do in our life are not; but the reward we get for them is well worth the hardship. Just a few decades ago, recycling was not a popular concept; most households and public areas did not even have receptacles for it. Nowadays, there are recycling bins nearly everywhere you go, and the idea of chucking a plastic bottle into the garbage instead of the blue bin next to it is frowned upon by many. If we can all make this slight change to our routine for the benefit of the planet, there’s no reason that opting for a veggie burger or switching out the cow’s milk in your fridge for almond or soy should be anymore of a hardship. Due to dietary and financial restrictions many people face, we can recognize that it’s not physically possible for every person to live a completely plant-based diet; any solution to any global problem is not that simple of an issue to solve. But I do believe to my core, that if people have a change of heart and just even lower their intake of animal products we could make a very great change to our bodies, our world, and every creature we share it with.