Is it better for the environment if I choose to be a vegetarian?

[epaulet]

Technically yes it is. The animals you eat have to consume resources for a certain amount of time before they are slaughtered and you eat them. Taking energy from plants directly is MUCH more efficient and would require less consumption of plants and use less soil.

Though you'd have to live in a city like Santa Cruz or Berkeley to get that much vegetarian friendly stuff without it being too much of a hassle. Although most places do serve salads I suppose.

 

[BBQ Platypus]

I would think it would depend on where you got your vegetables from and where you got your meat. The farther it has to be shipped, the worse it is from the environment.

I don't know. I'm not a scientist.

 

[Shadow5]

The amount of energy required to grow meat is much higher than the amount of energy required to grow plants.

Also emissions from livestock contribute 1/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions.

So yes, being vegitarian is better for the environment

Also greenhouse gasses also include things like methane. CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas

 

[Shadow5]

Probably the best thoughtout argument has been presented by nekolux.

I checked and his facts are all highly accurate. (I did use sites other than Wikipedia)

 

[bikeninja]

I'm just going to leave these here...

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html
Just the first and last 5 minutes of this provides enough information about meat to CUT BACK (not necessarily become vegetarian).

http://earthfirst.com/why-youre-a-global-warming-denier/
This one is a bit more funny then anything.

 

[JonasBrothersSuck]

Well you basically choose what you buy as a vegitarian. So the slab of beef can either rot on a store shelf or be eaten, and it's more beneficial to the human race if someone eats it.

 

[traceur_]

I highly doubt it. I can see no reason why.

Well meat processing plants produce gagantuan ammounts of grenhouse gases, so it does actually effect the environment, I know some people who became vegetarians just because of that, though I think the whole thing is ultimately futile dspite the fact I used to be one.

Actually cows burp A LOT and they produce heaps of methane, so kill the cows and save the planet

 

[Weaver]

I eat the cows to stop them from producing methane.

 

[Aschenkatza]

I highly doubt it. I can see no reason why.

Well meat processing plants produce gargantuan amounts of greenhouse gases, so it does actually effect the environment, I know some people who became vegetarians just because of that, though I think the whole thing is ultimately futile despite the fact I used to be one.

Then technically it should be how we obtain the meat that we need to change. If we went all primitive and hunted our own meat I'm sure we'd cut down drastically on greenhouse gases. We'd also have more home-made cloths or ornaments from the remains of the beasts.

 

[SmilingKitsune]

I highly doubt it. I can see no reason why.

Well meat processing plants produce gargantuan amounts of greenhouse gases, so it does actually effect the environment, I know some people who became vegetarians just because of that, though I think the whole thing is ultimately futile despite the fact I used to be one.

Then technically it should be how we obtain the meat that we need to change. If we went all primitive and hunted our own meat I'm sure we'd cut down drastically on greenhouse gases. We'd also have more home-made cloths or ornaments from the remains of the beasts.

In all honesty I think we just need to eat less, fast-food chains like McDonalds use huge ammounts of meat, but yeah hunting your own meat would be better.

 

[Beefcakes]

Well, I, speaking as a vegetarian, believe that being a vegetarian has no effect, or a negligible affect on the environment
One person, and I believe that you are indeed one person, not eating meat will mean absolutely nothing in the long run.
It really comes down to personal beliefs, morals, and in my case, taste.

 

[PersianLlama]

Cows produce a ton of methane which does adversely affect the environment, and anyone who says otherwise has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Sourcey [http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/methane-cow.htm]

But will one person going veggie help? No, that's way too small of movement to have an impact. Would everyone going veggie help? You bet it would, but not everyone is willing to do that because they're too busy justifying what they're doing so that they can continue eating meat. By continuing to eat meat you're still being part of the problem. Sure, the meat industry isn't dying out because little old you stopped eating meat, but as more people do it, it does have an impact. You can say that it makes no difference what you do by the time it's in the store, but by continuing to purchase the meat and support the industry, guess how much you're doing to solve anything? Absolutely fucking nothing.

This is what I wanted to say. Also though, if the whole world was vegetarian you can feed more people from an ecological point of view. Every time something passes in the food chain/is eaten (For Example: Cow eating grass) about 10% (Just an average, not always this) of the energy is passed on. So if a human eats that cow that ate the grass, the human gets 1% of the energy, rather than the 10% a human gets from eating a plant himself/herself. So more plants = more energy = feeding more people. I'm a bit fuzzy on this, but I remember there was a question on one of my biology tests last year asking how more vegetarians would be better. Of course, this isn't really related to the environment, but it's still a valid point, I guess.

And to the people above saying you need protein from meat. There's nuts and beans along with tofu.

According to my student teacher for Biology last year (I don't remember if my actual teacher verified this), human teeth aren't made for eating meat.

 

[Spudgun Man]

THe whole vegetarian aspect really pisses me off, a 'freind' of mine once verbally assaulted me because I was eating a bacon sandwich and went on the whole 'it's cruel' aspect. I was swift to remind him of how humans have been scraping by for the last couple of years. Cause we cartainly didn't live of lentils in medieval times.

 

[Shivari]

This is what I wanted to say. Also though, if the whole world was vegetarian you can feed more people from an ecological point of view. Every time something passes in the food chain/is eaten (For Example: Cow eating grass) about 10% (Just an average, not always this) of the energy is passed on. So if a human eats that cow that ate the grass, the human gets 1% of the energy, rather than the 10% a human gets from eating a plant himself/herself. So more plants = more energy = feeding more people. I'm a bit fuzzy on this, but I remember there was a question on one of my biology tests last year asking how more vegetarians would be better. Of course, this isn't really related to the environment, but it's still a valid point, I guess.

And to the people above saying you need protein from meat. There's nuts and beans along with tofu.

You're right about the energy perspective, as it would be more efficient if we devoted all of our resources to growing plants because of A. the amount of energy that is lost by going through the animals and B. the fact that producing plants and then feeding those to the animals takes more work, time, and land than just producing the plants by themselves. And if people didn't support the industry, there wouldn't be so many cows producing methane. Please people, don't act like that by eating meat that you're solving a single thing, you're making the problem worse.

Also, big yes to the point about protein being available elsewhere. Seriously, I think some people think that cows and chickens just magically produce protein in some crazy manner and that without them we'd be totally screwed. Here's a little quiz, guess where those animals get their protein from. That's right, the food that they eat, plants. So that means you can get protein from sources other than meat. What an astounding revelation, hopefully I'm not too much of a heretic for saying this, because it is a really radical assertion after all.

 

[hamster mk 4]

Becoming vegetarian is probably good for the environment as the calories you get from meat require way more effort and resources to produce than equivalent calories from non meat. However if you are worried about the environment there are far better things you can do than change your eating habits. Don't drive as much, recycle more, buy and use less packaging, for example.

 

[oktalist]

Food chain and eating animals is a natural thing.

No, as eating meat is a natural part of the food chain.

Just because it's "natural" doesn't necessarily mean it's not bad for the environment.

Only 10% of the energy in the food something eats ends up 'building' the animal. So eating 1 kg of meat consumes 10 times more resources than eating vegetables, fruit etc.

So while it does not help the environment directly, it would help the earth's growing food shortages. That again, would probably indirectly help with a lot of problems...

Quoted for truth, and because you beat me to it (as did a few others).

The only diet that I can see adversly affectin the planet, would be if everyone went to strict vegetarianism. Think about all the chemicals they use to keep bugs off the plants etc.
If they had to increase the amount of crops, they'd have to increase the use of the chemicals. When they do that, the watershed becomes saturated, making drinking water unfit for consumption (think well water) and then we have to spend more money, resources, and fuel building places that can clean the water.

Also, growing too much vegetation for the use of cultivating it (I think the term is overfarming?) strips the soil of it's natural resources like vitamins and minerals. These are the things that make vegetables healthy to begin with.

You can see where i'm going with all of this...
Eat meat.

No because you are eating all the fucking plants.

No because vegetation produces a large amount of CO2 in the early stages of it's development. Only when plants reach a certain stage (which varies on the plant) do they begin to reduce our CO2 content. Sadly if your eating them, most generally don't reach that stage.

Haha. What do you think the animals eat?

If you're going to become vegetarian it's a huge commitment, so think carefully about the choice you're about to make and don't base it on a flimsy reason such as 'the environment'. Do it because you really believe in it and nothing else.

I disagree in the strongest possible terms. It's not a huge commitment; it's easy. And you don't need to "really believe in it," whatever that means.

BTW I'm a part-time vegetarian, not out of some foolhardy love of the cute prancing bunnies and lambies or bogus worries about cruelty, but out of concern for my fellow humans. I hate animals, and I want them to die (not strictly true, but funny nonetheless

Also fish doesn't count.

 

[oktalist]

I have an idea! How about we all eat vegetarians? LAWS OF NATURE, MY FRIENDS. LAWS. OF. NATURE. If this idea comes to fruition, bagsy I get John Prescott!

Surely he can't be a vegetarian!

Also, all that fat and gristle? Ewww...

 

[PersianLlama]

What an astounding revelation, hopefully I'm not too much of a heretic for saying this, because it is a really radical assertion after all.

Blasphemy against the Church of Meat! You will be burned at the stake for providing a logical assertion.