While many people switch to a plant-based diet for health and animal compassion reasons, an increasing amount of people choose to go plant-based because of the environment. More and more reports are showing that animal agriculture may be a leading contributor to issues such as global warming. One of the main reasons is the amount of methane coming from cows, which leads to greenhouse gases and ultimately, a warmer earth.
Other issues related to the environment are the amount of water needed to produce meat. For example, over 10.000 liters of water is needed to produce 2 pounds of beef. To compare, the same amount of vegetables and fruits require less than 1000 liters of water. Hence, people are encouraged to switch to a mostly plant-based diet.
Then there is also the issue of food availability. Cattle require large amounts of plant-based foods such as soy, and therefore take up a lot of land and food. Think of how much starvation there is in the world, and how this could easily be solved if we stop eating meat, stop growing plant-based foods for cattle, and give the plant-based foods to people who struggle to get enough food.
Health
Platforms like GingerKale, NutritionFacts, Forks Over Knives and others provide a lot of valuable statistics around food and health. The overwhelming majority of evidence suggests that a plant-based diet has positive health effects.
People who consume a mostly plant-based diet tend to have lower risk and prevalence of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer. To the contrary, people who consume a mostly animal-based diet are more prone to these chronic diseases.
As more research is being done on the impact of diet on health, governments may need to adjust their dietary recommendations and guidelines.
Animal welfare
A third reason for people to go plant-based is their concern for animal welfare. Many people have come to the insight that it is not okay to love animals (usually cats and dogs) but at the same time to eat animals (cows, pigs, fish etc).
There is a growing compassion for all animals and as a result, a lot of people decide to stop eating meat
What is your main reason to go plant-based?
