How does eating animal products affect the environment?
Do you love eating juicy chicken burgers or pizza? If you’re vegetarian, you might love slurping on milkshakes, gulping down ice cream, slathering honey and butter on toast or munching on paneer tikka. While delicious food should be enjoyed by all, eating animal products has a bad impact on the environment. Let’s see how: 1. Raising animals to produce meat and milk takes a lot of space. Too many forests are destroyed to make this space. Destroying forests is one of the main reasons so many animals are going extinct nowadays. 2. Methane is a nasty greenhouse gas that’s causing a lot of climate change. When you or I fart, it just produces a stinky smell. When cows fart, they produce methane. That’s not a problem if a cow is living in the wild or roaming on the streets. But when millions of cows are kept in one place to produce milk, which is how the dairy industry works, then can you imagine the amount of methane being released into the air?
What is veganism and how does it help?
Veganism is the practice of giving up eating and using animal products. A person who follows veganism is known as a vegan. Three ways that veganism is awesome for the planet:
1. Veganism prevents forests from being turned into animal farms. 2. Eating a vegan diet is good for health.
3. Veganism prevents animal cruelty.
Does that mean I have to give up my favourite foods?
For many people around the world, eating meats, eggs and milk is needed to be healthy. The problem occurs when we overeat animal products and eat fewer plant options.
If you love your tandoori chicken and ice cream, you can keep eating them. It would be helpful to eat them less and explore more plant-based dishes.
As the human population increases, it’s super-important that people eat less meat and dairy. Reducing our intake of animal products has a huge positive impact on the environment and is one of the best ways to create a good change in the world.
