Why be a vegetarian?
Keeping it green:
If we really want to reduce the human impact on the environment, one of the simplest and cheapest things we can do is stop eating meat. We mainly bread four species of meat, these are chickens, cows, sheep and pigs, all of which need vast amounts of food and water, emit methane and other greenhouse gases. The UN calculated, in 2006, that the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 16% of the global total. This is more than all forms of transport such as cars and planes, put together.
There are plenty of things contributing to the negative effects on the environment with regards to eating meat such as emissions. These include emissions from foresting trees in order to make space for cattle, sheep, pigs etc. but also emissions from the steel needed for ships to transport cattle.
Land is another factor to consider. Vegetarians need way less land to provide them with food then meat-eaters.
Nearly 30% of the planet is now used by life stock, or for growing food for those animals. It has been calculated that if the grain fed to animals, we could feed at least twice as many people as we do now, if not more.
Breeding animals also has an effect on our water supply. Such a high demand in water for animals on a farm leaves less water for crops and human consumption. Vegetarian author John Robbins calculates it takes between 60 and 229 pounds of water to produce one pound of potatoes, wheat, maize and rice respectively however a pound of beef needs around 9,000 litres. Raising and eating meat leaves behind an environmental toll that generations to come will be forced to forced to pay.
Saving the animals:
The main reason why someone would become a vegetarian is because they don't believed that animals should be killed or treated poorly for our own food. As people who care about and respect animals, we believe that, like humans, they have rights and deserve to be treated respectively regardless of whether or not they are useful to humans.
The animals that we breed for meat and produce such as cows, sheep, lambs, and pigs aren’t treated with respect. Modern high-pressure agriculture commonly keeps these animals in overcrowded stalls, cages, crates or sheds. They are often unable to turn around or even take a single step for their entire lives. These animals are being deprived of veterinary care, exercise and sunlight. These living, breathing, thinking beings suffer and die at the rate of millions per day just so we can eat their meat.
More than 25 billion animals are killed just for meat each year. In modern factory farms, animals are routinely injected with hormones and stimulants to make them grow bigger and faster. The conditions the animals are kept in, in most farms, are so horrific that if it wasn't for the fact that they are fed a huge amount of antibiotics they simply wouldn't survive.
We are the only ones to blame for such animal cruelty therefore we are the only ones who can stop it. We can do this by eating a much more beneficial, vegetarian diet.