How Much Difference Have Vegans Made
Tags - #Vegan_Blog
As a vegan, I always wanted to know the kind of difference someone like me can make in the world. So this is all the research Iโve done to show how much can Vegans have made a difference as a whole and also on an individual level.
Not only are we saving animal lives but there is so much more in terms of resources, So letโs see what all I could find and how it affects the planet.
How much difference can one person make?
People often say that one person canโt make a lot of difference but, hereโs where people are gravely wrong! Even a single person can make a huge difference if that change is long-lasting.
So, letโs say you go Vegan for a year and maintain a healthy diet that is full of vegetables, starches, and healthy legumes, grains, etc. What sort of difference can one make with that kind of change.
Number of animal lives
On average any meat-eater is the cause of at least one animal life a day. The number is far more considering we humans slaughter around 70 billion land animals and trillions of fish each year for food. So letโs just consider 1 life a day. That means going Vegan would save 365 lives a year.
If youโre someone like me and do value life then youโd understand what it even means to save one life now, imagine saving 365! That in itself is a lot for the animals that you potentially didnโt create a demand for in the market as meat.
Agricultural Land saved
Do you have the biggest reason for deforestation in the world? Yes, thatโs right itโs for animal agriculture and for the production of animal feed. These forests are razed to the ground to make way for farmed animals.
The amazon basin and many other forests and being wiped down by 1 hectare/second. Imagine that for a second. At this rate, weโll lose all our major forests in about 78 years creating mass extinction of wildlife and resources. Tipping the environmental balance.
According to the experts at oxford university, you can save 10,956 square feet of forest land by going vegan for a year.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
With animal farming and deforestation come greenhouse emissions that affect the environment in a very bad way. Just how bad? An average meat-eating person contributes to 3,037kgs of CO2 Emissions per year.
To put it into perspective, Of all the liveable land on earth, a whopping 77% is used for animal agriculture which includes grazing and feed production. We are already producing the amount of food that is enough to feed 10 billion people but we use most of the land to grow animal feed. Even if we use part of this land to cultivate crops and grains for humans we can potentially feed all of the people on earth without any issues. Animal agriculture contributes to over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all of the transportation sector combined. If you thought our vehicles caused more pollution than agriculture, you should think again.
Data From Agrilife
The reason why animal agriculture continues to grow is due to heavy subsidies by the government, which are linked directly to the demand for meat. In the past few decades, we have seen a huge rise in the amount of meat in the diets, partly due to fast food restaurants adding a variety of meats that were subsidized by the government. This is creating a loop that continues to grow as we as a society start consuming more and more meat with time. Eventually, weโll make this cycle so unsustainable that itโll make an irreversible impact on our planet beyond any measures.
Save Water
We are told to save water as this is one of the most limited resources that we have today. As a child, we are always taught to save water. We usually end up doing so by installing low-flowing faucets, keeping the showers short, etc. Even after doing all that how much water can you save?!
Do you know that you can save incredible amounts of water just by going vegan? Yes, by going vegan for a year you can save 1,520,851 liters of water, Thatโs 4,166 liters each day. Thereโs no way you can save that much water every day by taking short showers or using low-flowing faucets.
As discussed animal agriculture causes immense damage to the environment, it is already an unsustainable business, the only reason it continues to grow and work is due to governmental subsidies. The amount of water used to grow animals is through the roof.
It takes 4,546 liters of water to produce one liter of milk. Producing one kilogram of beef takes 18,184 liters of water and producing an equivalent amount of vegetables just takes 386 liters of water. You can save 47 times the water when you compare vegetables with beef.
The results are similar to other animal products too. Saving water has never been as easy as going vegan.
Spend Less On Groceries
The one thing people think about when going vegan is that it will be more expensive. This is one of the biggest misconceptions. Actually going vegan is cheaper than the meat-eating counterpart.
In the U.S an average person spends around $250 on groceries in a month, This number can be reduced by $100 to just $150 when you go vegan. Remember here that Iโm talking about healthy vegan groceries and not vegan junk food that you can find everywhere which is expensive.
What can a small group of people do?
Alright, so we have already seen the kind of number just one vegan can change. Now letโs see how much a small group of people can do when it comes to the numbers.
For this example letโs take a group of five friends who decided to go vegan for a year, Just how much will they save the planet?
Animals saved 1,825
CO2 saved 15,185 Kgs
Grains saved 37,275 Kgs
Water saved 7,604,255 Litres
Money saved $6,000
Remember the more groceries that you buy in bulk the more money you can save, So a family of five or a group of five will be able to save a bit more money.
How much global impact have vegans made already?
As more and more people become vegan we start to see a bigger impact on the world. There are about 50,000,000 vegan people in the world and we are already able to see a shift in more vegan options that restaurants and fast food joints offer.
Vegans are already saving a significant amount of animal slaughter. Like 50,000,000 per day that is not consumed by vegans. About 151,850,000,000Kgs of CO2 is saved in a year which is a big change. A huge reduction in deforestation is caused by the demand of 372,750,000,000 Kg of grains in a year. How about reducing the consumption of 76,042,550,000,000 liters of water in a year.
These numbers will only grow as more people become vegan and the scale tips even more.
If you still think about what one vegan can do alone, you should think again. There is plenty one can do when one realizes their own potential.
How can you help the movement?
There are quite a few ways you can help with the movement, If youโre new you can try going vegan for a day in a week, or a few days in a week. Any number of days that you decide to be vegan just helps the animals, the planet, and also your own health.
Veganuary
In January as people decide to add new better habits to their lives some also decide to go vegan. This is where Veganuary comes in, a platform that helps people try the vegan lifestyle easily and effortlessly.
In 2021 over 580,000 people joined the vaganuary campaign, from 209 countries and helped launch 825 vegan products and menus around the globe but, you donโt have to wait for January to join this campaign. You can still go to the website and try the vegan lifestyle with recipes, shopping guides, etc
Any step that you take toward saving the animals and the planet is a step worth taking. Although transitioning towards a healthy vegan diet takes time and effort especially if youโre used to meat and animal products but, it is not impossible to do so.
You can make a huge difference in your life as well as the lives of others. If you just start!
Links
https://josephpoore.com/Science%20360%206392%20987%20-%20Accepted%20Manuscript.pdf
https://sentientmedia.org/animal-agriculture-climate-change/
https://www.peta.org/blog/how-to-save-219000-gallons-water-year/