Vegan for a day!

As a whole country, we eat about two hundred and thirty million tons of animal meat annually, which has doubled in the past thirty years. According to the Vegetarian Society, the average person eats eleven thousand animals in a lifetime: one goose, one rabbit, four cattle, eighteen pigs, twenty three sheep and lambs, twenty eight ducks, thirty nine turkeys, one thousand one hundred and fifty eight chickens three thousand six hundred shellfish and six thousand one hundred fish. That is overwhelming and almost unbelievable. If the average person were to eat a vegan twice a week for all three meals,the amount of meat consumed annually could be greatly reduced, and in return the green house gas emission from producing meat would be reduced. Eating vegan means to not consume or use any animal based product, such as red meat, poultry, pork, eggs, fish and dairy. These products contain protein which is important for living a healthy lifestyle, however one could get the same protein from other food sources such as nuts, beans, soy products, spinach and seeds. By eating non-meat products less animals would need to be mass-produced for consumption.  The main problem with consuming so much meat is that the more cows we need to make enough meat, the more methane and carbon dioxide emissions are released into the air. Methane and carbon dioxide are not the only gasses put into the ozone layer.Pesticides used on the grain to feed the animals is released back into the air, along with nitrogen and phosphorous which are the two main chemicals in manmade ammonia; which is a major contributor to acid rain. As study done by the Food Climate Research Network concluded that eight percent of the country’s total green house gas emission comes from meat and dairy consumption.  The methane comes from cows belching, farting and the manure produced. It may seem small thinking about one cow releasing gas but multiply it by the thirty five million cows killed for food use in 2008. Not only do cows produce gas, but the carbon dioxide emission are produced from hauling the meat thousands of miles across the country and the electricity used to refrigerate the meat. On top of just moving the carcasses from place to place, energy is also required to plough the fields and harvest food to feed the cows. The grain harvested to feed the cows is a whole separate procedure that creates its own harmful gasses that are released. Each piece that goes into creating one steak has a multitude of other systems all co existing and relying on each other. By reducing one organization such as the amount of meat consumed annually, each coexisting system will be impacted and reduced. 

Thanks for for reading my first post!! And don't forget to eat your veggies!!!