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Juni 06, 2022

Have you noticed how trendy sustainability has become?

“Sustainable” seems to be a buzzword that is added to all kinds of products and projects. But unfortunately, often that is all it is, just a word.

Our perceived care for the planet and all the talk of sustainability has not stopped the leading cause of environmental destruction:

 

Animal agriculture

Here are a few not-so-fun facts about the effects of animal agriculture on our planet:

• Animal agriculture operates a massively unbalanced land to food ratio. The production of meat products, dairy products and eggs take up about 83% of all agricultural land worldwide, but provide only 18% of all calories and 37% of all proteins.
• Animal agriculture is responsible for over 90% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. This destroys ecosystems and habitats for animals – animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, species extinction and ocean dead zones.
• Animal agriculture is polluting our air and water. It is responsible for 57% of water pollution and 56% of air pollution. Forests which store carbon are slashed and burned, causing the CO2 content in the atmosphere to continue to rise as the rainforest disappears. There are 1.5 billion cows worldwide producing vast amounts of methane. The majority of the world's agricultural land is covered in eco-damaging monocultures to feed livestock. The fertilisers used on farms produce nitrous oxide (N2O) which is nearly 300 times more harmful than CO2.
• Most of us take our clean water for granted. Yet 1.2 billion people live in areas with water scarcity. Did you know that a third of the world's water consumption is used in the production of meat and dairy products? As fresh water becomes a more and more precious resource, this hoarding of water for animal agriculture is even less sustainable.
• The production of meat and dairy is starving the world. Forty percent of the world's grain is fed to farm animals while nearly one billion people go hungry every night.
• Animal agriculture is one of the planet’s heaviest users of transportation, and the transport sector seems to be the only thing politicians are talking about.

 

These are just a few examples of the devastating effects of animal factory farming.

But regardless of what country you live in, politicians are not talking about the widespread harm that animal agriculture or doing anything about it.

Instead, we are actually supporting these industries with tax money. We are even paying for commercials and campaigns that motivate us to eat more meat, dairy and eggs!

To me, this all smells rotten.

And to state the obvious, it’s not sustainable.

Plant-based eating and living is better for EVERYONE! Including the planet that we all say that we are concerned about.

If we truly want a healthy planet, we need to steer away from anything made from animals: food, textiles, fish, leather…everything!

Local sourcing, low-waste living, and re-use of materials are all very important ways to improve sustainability. But the most important way to save the planet is to stay away from animal products.

We often complain our excuse ourselves with that there isn’t more we can do to help the earth, but eliminating animal products is something we actually CAN do.

And it is a HUGE help to our planet.

And not just the planet, but also billions and billions of animals, both enslaved and wild. And, believe it or not, we will also reap the benefits in our own health.

 

So now what?

Now that you know that going vegan is the single most significant way to reduce our negative impact on the planet, you can find fun ideas, tips and tricks on how to go vegan right here.

Wishing you an animal-product free + (truly) sustainable life!

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