Be it for the animals, for the planet or even your own body,
there is a huge amount of reasons to cut down on meat.
In this post, which is the second part of this series (be sure to check out the first one ;), I will make points why one should eat less, or even better, no meat. I will try my best to provide each and every argument with at least one source, so that nobody may tell me I am talking bullshit :P
Reasons to go vegetarian/vegan:
FOR THE PLANET:
Greenhouse gasses:
Most studies suggest, that livestock production contributes to most of the man-made greenhouse gasses every year. (Some studies show that up to 51% of greenhouse gasses can be related to livestock) (1)
Deforestation:
In the last 40 years alone 40% of all the earth's rainforest have been cleared out, in order to make space for pasture area. 70% of once forested amazon area are now used to grow soy and other plants as feed for the evergrowing amount of livestock. More than 70% of all agricultural areas are used to feed and raise livestock. (2)
Waste of Resources:
It is extremly ineffecient to farm livestock for food that's a fact. Some studies even suggets: in order to produce a single kilogram of steak you need 16 kilograms of wheat. In general about 90% of all calories are wasted when producing meat products. That means: for every 10 plant-based Calories you get no more than 1 calorie of Meat. (same counts for fish).
Additionally huge amounts of Water are wasted when animals are farmed. A single hamburger for example can contribute to a water-wastage of 100,000 Liters. (3)
FOR THE BODY:
Diabetes:
Studies suggest, that the consumption of milk and diary products as well as the consumption of processed meat can have a strong effect on causing diabetes. (4)
Cardiovascular Disease:
Studies have proven the link between death caused by heart diseases and the consumtpion of meat and animal products. These studies suggest, that cutting down on meat (especially red meat) can harshly decrease the chance of dying from CVD. (5)
Cancer:
Studies have found, that there is a certain link between the growth and development of cancers and the consumption of meat. Eating less meat may decrease your risk of getting and dying from cancer. (6)
Impotence:
Some quite new studies have shown a link between eating meat and impotence. Some of these studies suggest that eating meat might decrease ones' sperm count. (7)
Antibiotic Resistence:
The use of antibiotics in livestock farming has lead to the development of multiresistent viruses and bacteria. These may become a very big concern once they break out and cause an epidemic, since there is very little to counterract them. Additionally the consumption of meat (which was treated with antibiotics) can lead to a resistence to antibiotics in the consumer. Or with other words: If one eats meat some antibiotics may lose their effect on him/her. (8)
FOR THE ANIMALS:
Nowadays farming is cruel, in order to serve the evergrowing appetite for meat animals, living beings, have to be farmed under unbelievably inhumane conditions. They are kept in tiny space, partially not even able to turn around. Feeling parts of their body like horns or beaks get cut of whithout any anasthesia. Male chicks get shredded just minutes after they hatch, just because they won't produce eggs. This list of cruelties unfortunately goes on and on and on, here are some of the most cruel (I decided to go without pictures in this paragraph...):
- Pigs and lamb get their tail cut off
- Cattle is forced into a tiny space where it can hardly move at all
- Chicken are kept in tiny cages without ever seeing sunlight
- Cows have to produce so much milk that they die from exhaustion after a few years (normally they live up to 20 years)
- calf is chained to the ground, so that it does not move and use its soft tissues, this makes calf meat so soft.
- Often Animals are killed whilst being fully aware of it. often the carotid is simply cut open and the animals are lead to bleed to death.
And all of this just for the consumers to get their meat as cheap as possible, isn't that sad?
Obviously there are many, many more points to this list, but I think this gives you a good overview to why one might or one should go vegetarian/vegan.
If you are interested in more facts about this topic you can just go to the sources I referred. If you don't like reading very much I can also recommend you to watch movies like: earthlings, forks over knifes or cow-spiracy instead.
THIS IS ONLY PART 2 OF 3.
PART THREE WILL CONTAIN TIPS AND ADVICE ON HOW TO GO VEGETARIAN/VEGAN.
(be sure to follow me if you liked this post --> you won't miss out on future posts like this one)
It took me hours to gather the information and write this post, if you enjoyed reading it please consider giving it a upvote and resteeming it :)
This is it for today, thanks a lot for taking your time reading this
I encourage you to write a comment telling me your thoughts on this topic (both pro and con)
Greetings from Austria,
Alex :)
Sources:
(1),(2),(3) http://www.peta.de/umwelt#.WVtblYVSBPY
(4) https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/diabetes/
(5),(6) http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1134845?hc_location=ufi
(7) https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/does-eating-meat-really-cause-impotence/
(8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378521/