According to Albert Einstein, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” People chose their diets for a variety of reasons. We eat to nourish the body. Many interrelated factors influence our food choices. The main initiation for eating is of course hunger and satiety, but what we choose to eat is not determined solely by physiological or nutritional needs. Other factors like the sensory properties of the food, personal life experiences and beliefs as well as cultural, religious and economic factors all influence our food choices.
A person who eats vegetables, eggs, and dairy products but who does not eat meat or fish is called a Lacto-ovovegetarian, …show more content…
James Owen writes in the National Geographic article, “40 percent of the Earth 's land is now given over to agriculture. “Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy and water. The byproducts of animal agriculture pollute our air and water systems. As the world’s appetite for meat increases, deforestation occurs to create pasture for animals and to grow crops to feed them. According to William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, forest destruction in Brazil between 1995 to 2000 was the “equivalent to seven football fields a minute.” This is a shocking statistic as the Amazon Rainforest is one of the planets most important carbon dioxide sinks. The environment is impacted by livestock based food production, in a profound and pervasive way. Researchers from Bard College, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Yale University investigated the impact that raising various livestock has on the environment and concluded that livestock-based food production causes about twenty percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions and effects biodiversity. However, it is beef that is the biggest culprit, as one pond of beef takes about one thousand eight hundred gallons of water to produce. Compared to raising chicken, pork, eggs and dairy, beef requires twenty eight times more land, six times more fertilizer, resulting in five times as much greenhouse …show more content…
A recent study published in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition found that people who were vegetarian saved an average of $750 each year on their grocery bills compared to their meat eating counterparts. Researchers from the Miriam Hospital and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank compared the costs of one vegetarian seven day meal plan and one meat seven day plan from the United states Department of Agriculture’s My plate meal plan and concluded that the vegetation plan cost $38.75 each week and $53.11 for the meat based meal plan. Consequently a vegetarian diet could save a person $746.46 a year compared to a meat based diet. In conclusion, Health and the environment would be aided by the United States shifting to a beef free diet. Ideally moving to a livestock free diet does the most overall good for the planet and puts money in a person’s pocket, as Paul McCartney says, “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology,
A person who eats vegetables, eggs, and dairy products but who does not eat meat or fish is called a Lacto-ovovegetarian, …show more content…
James Owen writes in the National Geographic article, “40 percent of the Earth 's land is now given over to agriculture. “Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy and water. The byproducts of animal agriculture pollute our air and water systems. As the world’s appetite for meat increases, deforestation occurs to create pasture for animals and to grow crops to feed them. According to William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, forest destruction in Brazil between 1995 to 2000 was the “equivalent to seven football fields a minute.” This is a shocking statistic as the Amazon Rainforest is one of the planets most important carbon dioxide sinks. The environment is impacted by livestock based food production, in a profound and pervasive way. Researchers from Bard College, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Yale University investigated the impact that raising various livestock has on the environment and concluded that livestock-based food production causes about twenty percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions and effects biodiversity. However, it is beef that is the biggest culprit, as one pond of beef takes about one thousand eight hundred gallons of water to produce. Compared to raising chicken, pork, eggs and dairy, beef requires twenty eight times more land, six times more fertilizer, resulting in five times as much greenhouse …show more content…
A recent study published in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition found that people who were vegetarian saved an average of $750 each year on their grocery bills compared to their meat eating counterparts. Researchers from the Miriam Hospital and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank compared the costs of one vegetarian seven day meal plan and one meat seven day plan from the United states Department of Agriculture’s My plate meal plan and concluded that the vegetation plan cost $38.75 each week and $53.11 for the meat based meal plan. Consequently a vegetarian diet could save a person $746.46 a year compared to a meat based diet. In conclusion, Health and the environment would be aided by the United States shifting to a beef free diet. Ideally moving to a livestock free diet does the most overall good for the planet and puts money in a person’s pocket, as Paul McCartney says, “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology,