If Everyone Was a Vegetarian

By Boris Pavic

A CSU Fresno Honors 102 Project

4-5% of Population is Vegetarian

30% of Population is Vegetarian

These numbers are going up,

but these are going down

Effects of Current Diet

20 billion

1.5 billion

>1 billion

<1 billion

All these are using land, land, energy, and of course, they are polluting!!

33 million km2

Not counting the amount of land used to grow the crops used to feed these animals, meat production covers about the size of Africa!

With a vegetarian diet most of this land would not be used, with only a small portion being allocated to growing new crops for human consumption and not restoration.

Much of the land currently used as pasture is too dry to grow crops without humans adding artificial nutrients so it needs to be restored.

If not properly managed, this land could turn to desert instead of returning to its natural state. This natural state of grassland & forests would help counter act climate change by absorbing CO2

Livestock production ≈15% of global greenhouse emission

>Cows and other grazers also affect our climate through large amounts of methane production, which is 25x more potent that CO2

Combined with the loss of forests and other effects, livestock production is responsible for about 15% of global greenhouse emission which is more than the entire transportation sector (planes, trains, and cars)

Scientist believe that managing meat consumption may be the best way to managing climate change.

A vegetarian diet would also greatly reduce water consumption; around 70% of global freshwater is used in agriculture!

15,000L of water used to produce 1kg of beef6,000L of water for 1kg of pork4,000L of water for 1kg of chicken

20 times more water per calorie than

7 times more water per calorie than

1,600L of water per kg

900L of water per kg

300L of water per kg

5 times more water per calorie than

Of course a kg of meat packs many more calories than an equivalent weight of fruit but even if you compare the ratio of water usage per calorie of available food energy, beef is still more water intensive!

One issue is the lost source of many livestock byproducts. However, vegetable based alternatives do exist and their production would need to increase. A portion of the 33 million km2 would become dedicated to growing these crops.

A more complicated fact is that raising animals is a fulltime job for 1 billion people and many would

have to switch to either producing eggs, milk or growing vegetable

crops as their current job becomes obsolete.

However, any change to a vegetarian diet will be a gradual process rather than a sudden cut-off giving people time to adjust.

In countries such as India and China, people are becoming wealthier and consuming more meat which effectively cancels out the declines we might see in other countries

We as a society are eating twice as much meat as we did in the 1950s.

<Health is wealth, and the number one killer in the USA is heart disease, which is directly related to what’s on our plates

With a vegetarian diet:• You are 32% less likely to

develop heart disease• Your BMI is 20% lower than

meat eaters (~30lbs)• You are 62% less likely to

develop diabetes

These dietary changes could save about $1 trillion

annually in health care costs and loss in

productivity due to health related issues

Switching to a diet free of meat saves more carbon emissions (about 50%) than driving a Prius and by just eating a local omnivore diet!

Truth is that you can get all the protein you need from plants and you are getting vitamins and minerals that are not present in any animal based products.

In addition, the production of plant protein is much less land, energy, and water intensive.

Production of meat protein uses:• 12x as much land• 13x as much fossil

fuels• 15x as much water

A healthy vegetarian diet is less expensive!

2015 study in Time Magazine, showed that a healthy 2000 calorie vegetarian diet saved $750 annually when compared to a government recommended, healthy omnivore meal plan

Cost about $14 less per week and has more nutritional value for the price

Per week:• 25 additional servings of vegetables• 14 additional servings of whole grains• 8 additional servings of fruit

Allows for splurges:• Olive oil in place of canola oil

Solutions

According to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, we realistically need to eat 50% less beef and animal products

Easy way to start is Meatless Mondays – if all Americans participated, it would have the same effect as removing 7.6 million cars from the road for a year!

SolutionsGreat way to begin transitioning to a more plant based diet is Weekday Veg

The name says it all: nothing with a face Monday through Friday and on the weekend its your choice!

It’s structured and easy to remember and it’s okay to break here and there.

After all, cutting five days of meat is cutting 70% of your meat intake!!!

So, please ask yourselves, for your health, for your wallet, for the environment, and for the animals:What's stopping you from giving at least Weekday Veg a shot?

You wouldn’t be worried about having your last hamburger and after all, if all of us ate half as much meat, it would be like half of us were vegetarians.

Thank You