I've always watched movies and read books about the vegetarian lifestyle, but never have I met someone who is a vegetarian, blame it on my African descent, or maybe not, but one sure thing is that we also love plant-based food a lot, and even these days we are mostly advised to focus more on plant-based meal for a healthier and longer life span.
When most people think about being vegetarian, they likely picture the ethical considerations around not eating animals or the perceived health benefits of a plant-based diet. However, have you ever wondered what significant impact could be on our economy and society if the current world tilted towards vegetarianism, From reducing healthcare costs to stimulating job growth and food production efficiencies, the potential upsides of mainstream vegetarianism are quite compelling from an economic perspective. Here's a closer look at some of the key benefits:
Relief for Strained Healthcare Systems
If you visit our healthcare system today, you will find that the rate of people suffering from heart-related and other major diseases like diabetes, and cancer is on the rise daily and some studies have detected that the ratio between non-vegetarians to the vegetarians is higher, which likely means that the vegetarian diet is more healthy in helping us not develop these diseases as we age, which will further reduce strain on public and private healthcare resources. healthcare costs associated with treating these diseases are usually very expensive, and some don't even recover to full health, if going the vegetarian way can increase prevention and reduce treatment costs, won't that produce a massive economic boost?
Improved Food Production Efficiency
Imagine sourcing protein from plants, and also sourcing the same protein from an animal, which do you think would require fewer resources like land, water, and energy? Your honest view would be plant-based protein of course, It takes far fewer resources compared to that of animals, This can also be likened to another aspect of food and other consumer goods, more efficient food production results in lower consumer costs, reduced environmental strain, and importantly, help feed more people with the same resources with the current rising global populations and climate changes. Since agriculture and food production are already a notion for our government to look into, improvements in this sector can create long-lasting effects.
While some existing food producers may be affected if there becomes an increase in vegetarianism, it would simultaneously create opportunities for economic growth in new areas of food production, product changes all for a healthy change, and jobs across agricultural sectors would be more focused on fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and other plant-based foods and meat alternatives.
In addition to what the world would be like if we produced more vegetarian than animal-based foods, vegetarianism offers indirect economic benefits through reduced environmental impact and pollution levels, Animal agriculture is a major producer of greenhouse gases, which causes significant land/water pollution, and contributes to environmental degradation, which has also shown to affect the public health and create more burden in labour and finances. A vegetarian economy reduces these costly effects.
These are just my thoughts, and I know that overnight shift to straight vegetarianism isn't realistic, still, we can't deny these benefits shifting to vegetarianism offers, from the economic advantage, to living a more healthy life as we age, also putting less strain on our health care system, and further more creating more efficient job opportunities, a plant-based diet could provide a major boost to the overall economic landscape in addition to the individual health benefits it offers.
And remember, moderation is the key, with a balanced vegetarian diet that contains all the required proteins, nutrients, and all other classes of food essential for our growth and healthy well being. Its not about simply switching to vegetarianism alone, as mere switching won't automatically create positive economic impacts either. However, a gradual change in this direction while taking advantage of all it's benefits.
This post is inspired by the #MarchInleo monthly topics, Day 19, which you can also be a part of, check out the announcement post for more info.