Vegetarian Statistics Regarding The Environment

Oftentimes, it is wise to consult some hard numbers when considering whether or not you should take a certain course of action. In this article, we will relay some statistics to you regarding a vegetarian diet’s effects on the environment so that you can easily see the benefits that the diet can have for you and the world.
- Raising animals in order to use them for their meats is a very resource-intensive process. Studies have shown that only twenty percent of the corn that is made in the United States is eaten by humans, with the other eighty percent given to animals. Consequently, a full fifty percent of the water in the United States is used to raise livestock. On one single acre of land, twenty thousand pounds of potatoes can be created. Raising cattle on one acre of land, by comparison, would result in only one hundred and sixty five pounds of meat. Consequently, the amount of land that it would take to feed one person exclusively meat would be equivalent to the amount of land it would take to feed twenty vegetarians. It is easy to see how wasteful raising livestock for their meat can be. If mankind were to adopt a more plant-based diet, many problems with world hunger would be solved. Studies have shown that if Americans were to decrease their meat consumption by merely ten percent, sixty million people could be fed by the resulting grain. With a child in the world dying of starvation every two seconds, you can clearly tell how important it can be to maintain a plant-based diet.
- Another thing to consider when considering the implications of raising livestock for their meat is the soil depletion that it can cause. Historically, many nations have fallen due to a depletion of their topsoil, and studies have shown that the United States has already lost approximately seventy five percent of its original topsoil. Every year, four million acres of crop land in the United States is lost due to soil erosion. Consequently, many forests are cleared in order to make room for more crop land, resulting in an acre of trees disappearing in the United States every eight seconds. By switching to a vegetarian diet, an individual conserves roughly one acre of forest per year.
- Global warming is becoming more and more of a concern in our world today. You may be shocked to realize that one of the most significant factors in global warming is the raising of livestock. The carbon dioxide produced by livestock raised for meat contributes to approximately eighteen percent of the global warming effect. Automobiles, by contrast, only account for fifteen percent of humanity’s carbon dioxide output.
Clearly, the implications that your diet can have on the world are far-reaching. Not only is being a vegetarian a great move to make for your own health, but it is also a significant measure to take when it comes to saving the environment, a fact that you should definitely consider.