How being Vegan makes a Difference

[Miranda [TerraFire]]

I'm sorry, I know you were hoping I'd explain this, but actually I'm looking for you all to help me. I'm constantly confronted by my boyfriend that being vegan is a stupid choice because it makes no difference and therefore all the reasons to become vegan, like for the animals or for the environment, are b.s.

I know this isn't true, but I need something that shows hard evidence to prove my point. For instance, maybe something that just explains basic laws of supply and demand and how every person who becomes vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian lowers the supply for meat, or maybe something show rising numbers of vegetarians/vegans to show that there's significant numbers to make a difference... or something? I'm not really sure what I'm asking for exactly, because it's never mattered to me. I do it for me, but he wants to know what the impact is.

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

[Costya]

well, I'm not a vegan, but, say, if you do yourself fancy trying it, what else may you need?

[Brett]

Well, I don't think you need concrete examples and statistics to "prove" how being vegan makes a difference, because the very beginning statement that it doesn't make a difference is faulty.

When doing anything that affects a large population, focussing on 1 component of a complex system isn't going to make or break anything. An example would be voting. Any one person's vote by itself doesn't matter. But if you band together and make your vote matter with a population of people, the combined effort is what matters.

So in Veganism, no one person avoiding animal products is going to save the animals. But that person working with others of the same cause can make a large impact. The fact that you belong to a group of people bound by the belief that animals should not be used for Humans' means, is important, and is making a difference.

[Chris Tinney]

ONE HUNDRED & ONE REASONS TO GO VEGETARIAN (from vegan Outreach)
People
Land
Air
Water
Efficiency
Animals
Health


PEOPLE
Every year in the UK we feed our livestock enough food to feed 250,000,000 people while in the world 30,000,000 people die of starvation
20 vegetarians can live off the land required by one meat eater
Every 3 seconds a child dies of starvation somewhere in the world
If Americans reduced their meat consumption by 10% it would free 12,000,000 tons of grain - enough to feed 60,000,000 people (the population of Great Britain)
If all Americans became vegetarian, it would free enough grain to feed 600,000,000 people (the population of India)
Intensification in animal farming has displaced 1,000,000's of people from their traditional lands - eg. indigenous people in south & central america, native americans in north america & crofters in Great Britain - this is continuing today
People displaced from their lands into cities succumb to dietary deficiency, diseases, parasites & opportunistic diseases
In third world countries 1 in 10 babies die before their first birthday
The UK imports ｣46,000,000 worth of grain from third world countries to feed our livestock
Due to overgrazing 850,000,000 people live on land threatened by desertification & over 230,000,000 already live on land so severely desertified that they are unable to sustain their existence & face imminent starvation
1,000,000,000 people in the west gorging on meat & dairy leave 1,000,000,000 to waste away & 3,500,000,000 teeter on the brink

LAND
If they continue to clear American forests to raise cattle at the present rate, in 50 years there will be none left
1 acre yields 165 lbs of beef or 20,000 lbs of potatoes
8/10 of cultivated land in the UK is used to grow food for animals (14,732,000 hectares)
It takes 16lbs of high protein soya to produce 1 lb of beef
Since 1945 in the UK we have lost 95% of flower meadows, 50% of ancient woodlands, 40% of heathlands, 50% of wet lands & 224,000 km of hedgerows all due to animal farming
Pressure on land due to meat farming leads to soil erosion 6billion tons/year in the USA
If everyone went vegetarian upto 90% of land used for animal farming could be taken out of production & used to replant woodlands, leisure activities etc.
25% of Central america's forests have been destroyed for cattle grazing since 1960
Between 1966-1983 38% of the Amazon rain forest was destroyed for cattle grazing
90% of cattle ranches established on cleared forest land go bankrupt in less than 8 years as the land becomes barren due to nutrient loss & overgrazing
Overgrazing by cattle is destroying the land & increasing desertification, nearly 430 million acres in the USA alone has suffered a 25-50% reduction in yield since first grazed
An inch of topsoil takes 200-1000 years to develop - yet in the USA they have lost around 1/3 of their prime topsoil in 200 years (around 7 inches) due to animal farming
Land will be lost due to rises in sea level due to global warming due to animal farming

AIR
The destruction of the rainforest by cattle farmers is destroying the lungs of the planet & reducing the worlds capacity to replenish our oxygen supply
The 1,300,000,000 cattle in the world emit 60,000,000 tons of methane per year (methane is a greenhouse gas & leads to global warming)
Burning of forests, grasslands & agricultural waste associated with animal farming releases 50-100,000,000 tons of methane per year
Combining these figures, 25% of methane emissions are due to animal farming (not including the billions of sheep, pigs & poultry so the real figure is much higher)
Fertilizer used to grow crops to feed to animals releases nitrous oxide - thought to account for 6% of the greenhouse effect
Fertilizer, weedkiller & pesticides sprayed on crops enter the atmosphere creating a noxious carcinogenic cocktail
CFCs are released into the air