Negative Effects Of Veganism On The Environment – Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms that appear automatically (or to turn this feature off entirely).

All IPCC definitions are taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Negative Effects Of Veganism On The Environment

Although veganism has the potential to reduce individual and global GHG emissions, it is only one of many individual actions that can reduce GHG emissions.

Is Veganism The Best Way To Reduce Carbon Emissions?

Although the subjects of animal welfare and animal consumption have a long history in human societies, vegetarian diets (which avoid excessive consumption of animal products) have become increasingly present in public discourse over the past two decades. The topic has been, represented by the growing interest in veganism around the world. Vegan activism, the act of advocating for people to adopt a vegan diet, is also on the rise. Therefore, since the year 2000, many books, films and media campaigns have been created with the aim of focusing the public’s attention on animal welfare and the benefits of a vegan diet.

Vegan activists have made strong arguments to justify the adoption of a vegetarian diet from an environmental perspective since the publication of several reports and studies, such as the 2010 United Nations report entitled “The Environmental Impact of Consumption and Production”. Guessing”. This report, among others, argued that “

Animal products, both meat and milk, generally require more resources and cause more emissions than plant-based alternatives.

. Such findings have encouraged vegan activists to focus on presenting the vegan diet as a tool to reduce humanity’s impact on the environment, in the process integrating the ethics of animal welfare into ecosystems. Connect to protection.

Climate Impact Of Meat, Vegetarian And Vegan Diets

Figure 1: Estimated impacts on GHG emissions, land use, freshwater use, eutrophication and biodiversity by Poore and Nemesek (2018). Data from our world in data. (Click for larger image)

However, as with any activism, communication with vegan activists can be biased and incoherent to push a particular message. This is linked to the controversy surrounding the 2014 documentary film “Copspiracy” which denounced the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. Although the documentary tries to justify all its main arguments with quotes from scientific sources or the opinions of researchers, it has been criticized for focusing on promoting the idea that animal agriculture is a global greenhouse gas. (GHGs) is responsible for the majority of emissions. A number provided by a World Watch Institute report that was not peer-reviewed, and ignores the larger consensus on the impact of animal agriculture (Figure 1).

(PETA) echoes a similar view, stating on its website that “Eating vegan food instead of animal-based foods is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint”. However, while the scientific consensus indicates that a vegetarian diet can be a powerful lever for reducing individual GHG emissions, it is not necessarily the best option in terms of their mitigation potential. Compared to other measures we can take.

The environmental effects of vegan diets have been studied in many different disciplines since the year 2000, resulting in meta-analyses and reports that summarize current findings. They show a growing consensus about how animal agriculture affects the environment, how much animal product manufacturers can reduce this impact, and how much it can be reduced by changes in the use of animal products. Can go (as with a vegetarian or vegan diet. ).

Statistics About Veganism

Existing studies often use a “life cycle analysis” (LCA) approach when comparing the effects of production and consumption of different food products. This approach takes into account all the steps and resources necessary to make the product, but also to dispose of it. Therefore, when a large number of GHG emissions are obtained for many food products, theoretical diets can be formulated and compared to determine their potential to reduce GHG emissions. can be estimated.

Regarding the emissions of GHGs associated with animal agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) first estimated them to be 18% in their report “Livestock’s long shadow”. Another estimate from a recent FAO report puts the figure at 14.5%. However, FAO says that the first report is “based on a much more detailed analysis and better data set”, and that “the two figures cannot be accurately compared, as the reference period and sources are different”.

Meanwhile, a meta-analysis by Clarke and Tillman (2017) compared environmental indicators across a wide range of food types, including GHGs emissions. Their results show that “

For all indicators examined, ruminant meat (beef, goat, and lamb/mutton) had 20-100 times greater effects than plants, while milk, eggs, pork, poultry, and seafood did. But plant-based foods have 2-25 times the effects per kilocalorie.

Vegetarians Are Even Worse For The Environment Than Flexitarians, Study Concludes

A systematic review by Clune, Crossin and Verghese (Clune et al. 2017) echoed these findings, stating that “

“The same conclusion was stated in the article by Sandstrom et al. at the European Union scale 2018, which states “

Our results show the current gap between EU countries’ food emissions and that their consumption is largely driven by the amount of animal products consumed. Therefore, less animal products, especially beef, is an effective way to reduce food emissions.

“When looking at actual global warming caused by animal agriculture, a modeling study by Reisinger and Clark (2018) found that animal agriculture accounted for 23 percent of all anthropogenic warming in 2010. was due to, he added that it represented a “low.” bound” estimate.

An Introduction To Veganism: What Is A Vegan Diet, And What Is The Point?

Another meta-analysis by Poore & Nemecek (2018) published in the journal “Science” attempted to broaden the scope of previous studies, beyond a small number of products or mainly Western European producers. and by correcting existing differences in methodology between LCAs. The authors also sought to assess how the environmental impact of food could be reduced by producers, or consumers. As a result, the article states that our current food supply chain is responsible for 26% of GHG emissions, and that “shifting from current diets to diets that do not include animal products , has transformative potential, which […] can reduce food GHG emissions by 49%”. In an interview, Joseph Poore (lead author) later stated that “

A vegetarian diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the planet, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.

Joseph Poore’s conclusion is echoed in a recent study by Kim et al. (2019), which states that “

A theoretical shift to a vegan diet has reduced food-related GHG footprints by an average of 70% per capita.

Could Veganism Be Missing The Mark? The Case For Mindful Meat.

“However, the best summary of the question may come from the IPCC’s special report entitled “Climate Change and the Earth”, in which the authors summarize opportunities for demand-side mitigation from various foods. Vegetables Forage was ranked first globally with a mitigation potential of about 8 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The IPCC summarizes the mitigation potential of different foods in its 2019 report entitled “Climate Change and Earth”. (Click for larger image)

Therefore, the expert consensus now appears to be consolidating on the idea that animal agriculture is a significant contributor to global GHGs emissions by human societies. that the production of animal products, in turn, is responsible for a significant portion of these emissions; And that a vegan diet can therefore be a powerful mitigation tool to reduce these emissions.

The results of a vegetarian diet on GHG emissions are presented by Joseph Poore in his interview as follows.

Environmental Research About Meatless Monday

Turning grass into [meat] is like turning coal into energy. This comes with a huge cost in emissions.

” When expressed in this way, it becomes relatively easy to understand why a vegan diet can make such a difference: to eat animal products, to allow animals to be born and grow large enough, to kill or euthanize them. Before cutting, one has to provide energy (milk, eggs, etc.). Much of this energy is lost through the animal’s basic metabolism, in the form of food, water, shelter, or other forms. can, and thus cannot become food. This is included in the concept of “ecosystem efficiency”, which represents the efficiency with which energy is transferred from one trophic level to another in a food chain (e.g. primary producers, herbivores, hunters, etc.).

When we compare animal products and plant-based products, there is a considerable difference in environmental performance. This is due to the fact that while animal products need to be fed to the plants first, and then the plants are fed to the animals (since farm animals are mostly herbivores), plant-based Products skip this step, which avoids a lot of damage. Ecological efficiency in the transition from plants to farm animals. For example, the calorically most efficient farmed animal – chicken – has a ratio of 18.1% of edible kilocalories to kilocalories required for farming, as reported by Eshel & Martin (2006). That means 18 percent

Negative impact of humans on the environment, negative effects of plastic on the environment, gmo negative effects on environment, veganism and the environment, effects of veganism, effects of veganism on the environment, negative effects of wind turbines on the environment, negative effects of gmos on the environment, side effects of veganism, negative effects of veganism, negative effects of mining on the environment, negative effects of solar panels on the environment