Do you think vegetarianism is bad for the enviorment?

Ever since I told my friend that I was a vegetarian, she makes up weird comments about it.
IShe told me the other day that vegetarians are really HURTING the enviorment because we eat all the plants and leaves, which decreases the World's Oxygen. Do you think that is true? Why do you think Vegetarianism is Good/Bad for the enviorment?

It is DEFINITELY better for the environment to be a vegetarian.

Yes, you're eating plants. But, before a cow gets eaten, what does it eat? Plants. And it has to eat plants all its life to convert them into the muscle tissue that people eat. I've read the statistic that a cow must eat 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of flesh. So, you can actually SAVE 16 times as many plants by just eating plants in the first place.

Also, eating meat wastes more water. You must water and raise the veggies to eat them, yes. But, to raise a cow, you must water and raise veggies to feed them before you can eat them, while watering the cow itself. It takes 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, but only 14 gallons to produce a pound of tomatos.

There are enormous patches in the Gulf of Mexico where no life grows because animal wastes (from factory farms) are being dumped there. You might think animal wastes are good for the environment (like manure), but not in such mass amounts. In mass amounts, they're deadly.

This really isn't a debateable issue. Eating vegetables is less detrimental to the environment than eating meat.

Just the opposite. First of all, forest land is cleared for grazing land--for animals. The trampling hooves of grazing animals packs the soil and makes it less likely to absorb rainwater. It takes between 5 and 15 pounds of plant food to produce a pound of "edible" animal flesh. It takes 100 times the water to produce a pound of animal flesh as it does a pound of plant food. Production of a calorie of animal food requires 10 times the fossil fuels as a calorie of plant food.

Get it? A meat-based diet uses up more resources.

Now, on all these animal industiral facilities, the animals produce waste. Often the waste finds its way into the groundwater, causing more pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental "Protection" Agency, than all other industrial sources combined. And one such industrial facility can produce more manure than a medium-sized city of humans. Cows also belch and fart methane, a greenhouse gas--tons and tons of it annually. And this doesn't include the pesticides sprayed on the plants the animals eat (and meat eaters eat in large amounts as a result).

Get it? A meat-based diet causes more pollution.

Animals are often transported several times during their lives and after they're dead--from where they're bred to the facilities where they're kept to sometimes a second facility, to the slaughterhouse, to the market. I don't know that plants log that much mileage.

Check out Bite Global Warming. You'll see all sorts of arguments that state a vegan diet is best for the environment.

Vegetarianism as a principle, no. But a vegetarian, maybe.

A vegetarian is one who eats nothing but plant based foods. It says nothing of how he or she otherwise lives.


sorry but the 2006 UN study or paper has been refuted by the same groups study and paper made in and released February of this year. It simply states "human activity"as the greatest source of greenhouse gasses not animal farming. I take it "human" in this case refers to ALL humans, omni, vegetarian, vegan or any other lifestyle group.

its great for the environment. we eat leaves, but so do livestock. so if the cow eats the vegies, and a small amount of that is processed to make muscles which are eaten by you, how could that be better than just eating the vegies yourself? it takes several times the land, and several times the water to support livestock vs. eating the vegetables. this means increase deforestation in addtion to the use of resources for the production of meat. plus, all those antibiotics and hormones we give livestock have a tendency to contaminate the water supplies. plus, methane from livestock is one of the largest contributers to greenhouse gases. Lots of people become vegetarians because it does help the environment.

in short, vegetarianism is very very good for the environment and your friend is just about as wrong as a person could be.

The UN's IPCC says that intensive *animal* agriculture is the biggest contributor to global climate change... more than all forms of transportation combined.

Your friend's logic doesn't take into account the massive amount of plant matter that has to be fed to animals raised for food. A typical meat eater is responsible for the death of more plants when you take that into account, not fewer. And then there's the water wasted, the rainforest cleared and the land degraded by animal agriculture.

Vegetarianism, and to a greater extent veganism, is good for the environment. If you want a slew of statistics to back you up, I recommend "Diet for a New America" and "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins.

If your friend tells you eating the plants and leaves causes a decrease in oxygen, tell her/him that the animals she/he eats eat a lot more plants than people do. That's why it takes TEN pounds of edible grains/vegetable to make ONE pound of meat. So eating meat wastes vegetables that people could be eating. The meat industry causes more water pollution in the U.S. than all other industries combined. Raising animals for food causes more greenhouse gas pollution than all transportation. More than one half of all water in the U.S. is used to raised animals for food. Going veg*n is the number one way to reduce your carbon footprint.

No, your friend's comment is ridiculous.

The world is not having a shortage of plants, and there are millions of plants creating oxygen that nobody eats (trees, bushes, flowers, etc). Farming fruits and vegetables doesn't necessarily kill plants, some veggies can be picked and the vines, leaves, etc stay in the ground. It's not like vegetarians are the only people who eat vegetables.

It is the OPPOSITE, GOOD for the environment : )

I wonder whether what is in your friend's thinking.

If eating plant hurt the environment by decreasing world oxygen. Don't tell me animals don't breath in Oxygen and breath out CO2, animals don't eat plants to live till become meat on the table (10kg of plant to yield 1 kg of meat, for me 10kg of plant can last me for so long).

Can we recommend your friend to visit the GoVeg.com website (http://www.goveg.com/) on how factory farming is harming the environment? She might get to see the truth and get the answers : )

In the UK, 80% of agricultural polution is output during the production of meat, and yet all that polution provides just 15% of the food.

To me,that seems meat production is far more damaging to the environment than veggie/fruit/cereal production.

You might want to read the UK report on sustainable farming from 2007 - it was written by the FARMING COMMUNITY and yet still highlights how much damage is caused by meat production. DEFRA will have a copy for you.

Your friend seems to be using very immature un-fact based logic. Is she young by any chance ?

Does she know how much grain a cow eats ?

Are you kidding me?! No, it's way better.
Do you know how much grain cows eat? It takes WAY more energy to make a pound of meat then a pound of veggies.
Also, cows give off a lot of methane gas. Plus, meat eaters eat vegetables too.. haha tell your friend to do some research.

Being a vegetarian is a proven fact that it is better for the enviornment. I'm guessing because of the factories fumes and all the natural recources they feed to the animals to make them fat. But I'm guessing on the reasons...

Yes.
A 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, Hummers, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined.

We eat all the plants and leaves? Is your friend brainless? I have never once ate one single leaf off a tree. The veggies I eat are grown specifically to be eaten. The lands that are cleared of trees for beef is doing alot more damage.

I think vegetarianism is good for the planet;
all that is eaten is vegetables that are grown for that purpose and what is left from what is eaten can be used for mulch;
all is biodegradable

An easy response to her statement would be to point out the amount of land (say...the rainforest) cleared out in order to keep and feed beef cattle.

Your friend is an idiot.