How does a Vegetarian/Vegan diet help the Environment?

I'm 15 years old and I made my first new years Resolution this year. I want to be more Environmental. Which I plan to keep for years to come.

I've been on a Vegetarian diet since the 1st of January this year and I understand that it's helpful to the Environment, but can someone tell me how it helps?How does a Vegetarian/Vegan diet help the Environment?
Definitely continue your research after this; I hope this is just a jumping off point for you.



Sometimes these diets are not more environmentally friendly if they are not properly researched. Part of your dietary change should be rooted in your environmental perspective, and some of it should be based on what is practical to eat where you live. But always try to learn more.



There are so many complex parts of the food system that make it challenging to have an environmentally friendly diet. But it really comes down to how and where everything is grown and how it is processed. For example, a lot of soy is produced in China and in the Amazon rain forest. But if you have wild game or beef being raised, processed, and packaged in your community, maybe meat isn't such a bad thing. I have been a vegetarian for two years and I try to avoid soy unless I know where it was grown. Sometimes I eat grass-fed beef (which is different than the majority of beef that Americans eat, corn-fed beef), and I will eat wild game if I have the opportunity, because that is what is available in Montana.



Most meat products come from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO's), where animals have to live in very close quarters, often in unsanitary conditions, eating corn to be fattened and help America dispose of its insane corn surplus (have you ever wondered why you see high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING? it is for the same purpose). These CAFO's often contribute a great deal of waste to local groundwater systems, and cattle CAFO's in particular are a large source of methane, which is a greenhouse gas several times stronger than carbon dioxide. Cows will always produce methane when they eat, but eating corn makes cows sick, and they produce even more.



For more on CAFO's, I highly recommend Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.



Meat production in general is responsible for a great deal of pollution to aquatic ecosystems, to groundwater, to the atmosphere, and to the soil. When cattle are not managed properly they can destroy range land. There has also been a huge problem with cattle being raised on cleared land that was once the Amazon rain forest. When forests are cleared for agricultural use, the land absorbs much less carbon dioxide. A forest eats CO2, and a farm or range only consumes a portion of that.



Eating locally helps. Health food stores often carry more local foods than supermarkets, but in some places supermarkets are starting to increase the amount of local foods they carry.



Also, eating organic can be helpful, but again, you have to do your research. Sometimes you will have to choose, a conventional (non-organic) apple from my home state, or an organic apple from halfway across the world? Also, the USDA organic label only prohibits farmers from using pesticides (which include herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc--these things are highly toxic and can be harmful to humans, and they are very polluting) and synthetic fertilizers to the crops. Synthetic fertilizers used in the US are nitrogen based and require a great deal of fossil fuel to synthesize. Fertilizers used in the tropics are phosphorous based and have to be mined. So banning these things is a start, it's not bad. But it's not enough.



USDA organic standards do not require farms to plant diverse crops and mange their farm in a way that protects the health of the soil. Some farms do go above and beyond the standards, so it's up to you to learn about different companies and brands. Some places in the US have local labels that do have these higher standards. In Montana there is a label called "MT Homegrown." This label guarantees the food was grown on a western Montana farm that practices sustainable agriculture even more strict than organic standards. The label also guarantees that the workers that helped grow and provide the produce were paid a living wage and work in healthy conditions. I encourage you to do some research to find similar labels in your area.



Fair trade labels like transfair USA are another way to find foods that are grown under standards similar to the ones in MT Homegrown, but it applies to food that comes from another country.How does a Vegetarian/Vegan diet help the Environment?
Keeping and feeding animals for meat and products takes up a huge amount of land, lots of food resources, and produces tons of pollution. Of course, commercial crop farming also does the same. If you want to help the environment, try eating locally grown organic foods. Or even try cultivating some of your own.



Make sure you carefully research vegetarian/vegan diets. You will need to make sure you are getting enough protein and Omega fatty acids or you will become malnourished.
It does not help. Whether it鈥檚 because of its acclaimed nutritional value or because of the compassion it shows to animals, vegans often develop a prejudice against meat-eaters. This in turn leads to social isolation or the tendency to befriend only vegans. In a way it is similar to the ethnic separation seen in metropolitan areas. People with similar lifestyles are drawn to each other. This is not good for the environment, especially yours.How does a Vegetarian/Vegan diet help the Environment?
Stop killing the vegetables! They turn CO2 into oxygen!!! All you vegetarians are killing the earth by eating all of the vegetables! I will save this planet by eating nothing BUT red meat to make up for all of you plant killers!
No it doesn't because cows pollute the earth producing methane gases which adds to the greenhouse gases so by me eating beef i am basically saving the world.How does a Vegetarian/Vegan diet help the Environment?
You're not funding the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, factory farms.
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