Milligan 1

Reilly Milligan

Matthew Garrett

ENG.1101.5B2 English Composition 1

11 November 2020

Should More People Go Vegan?

More than 200 million animals are killed every day all around the world for a food

source. These animals are often put through torture their whole lives and then killed. To stop

these animal’s suffering, should more people go vegan? Quite possibly, yes. Going vegan does

not just stop at helping animal cruelty but it also improves one’s health and benefits the

environment.

Being vegan ends up benefiting and helping the environment a lot, actually. Tiffany

Francis wrote, “You don’t need a science degree to understand why veganism is one of the

easiest steps we can take towards healing our planet, but the benefits extend even further than

you might think.” In Tiffany Francis’s article, she talks about the environmental benefits

veganism has on Earth. Francis explains “Every second, an area of rainforest equivalent to a

football field is cleared to rear and graze animals for the meat and dairy industries. Contrary to

claims that vegans are driving deforestation through the demand for soybeans, in reality up to

70% of global soy production is destined for animal feed, not humans.” This statement shows

that more people going vegan would be better for Earth’s environment. Tiffany Francis also

proves that going vegan stabilizes and replenishes oceans and seas by lessening the acidity in the

ocean and lowering the number of nets used to catch fish in the sea that other innocent sea

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creatures are being caught on. A study conducted at Oxford University found that a person’s

carbon footprint can be reduced by up to seventy-three-percent if they go vegan. All these

reasons and more are why more people should go vegan to save the environment and stop animal

cruelty.

Animal cruelty is not just the awful slaughtering of animals for their meat and

by-products, it is the life these animals are forced to suffer through before they killed for humans

to have a meal when there are other options out there. For some, when learning about and seeing

exactly what tragedies these animals are put through just to feed people, it turns them vegan.

Some might ask, “Are these animals’ lives really that bad?”, and the answer to this question is

undoubtedly, yes! These animals are put through absolute torture. For example, in the

documentary Dominion, directed by Chris Delforce and Lissy Jayne, the viewer is shown

graphic images of male chicks and deformed female chicks on a conveyor belt being dropped

into a macerator, which is an industrial blender. These baby chicks, which are only one day old,

are being ground up into almost nothing because they can not produce eggs and are not the

specific breed of chicken that is killed for its meat. Therefore, these baby chicks are marked as

‘worthless’ to the industry and massacred. The female chicks that do survive this blender are sent

to housing farms where they are put into small cages with four to twenty other hens in there with

them. These hens lay so many eggs they lose their feathers due to the physical stress they are put

through and it destroys these hens’ health. After eighteen months of these chickens’ living in

poor conditions, they are either suffocated or slaughtered. This is just one of the many examples

of the ways animals are tortured for their products. The way these animals are treated is not

right! Carrying on about the morally ethical reasons to become vegan, causing suffering to

animals through essentially imprisoning them in non-ideal conditions before slaughtering them

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undoubtedly causes suffering to the animals no matter how you look at it. The moral argument

against vegans is wrong. Animals are put through so much torture, it not right! This furthers my

point that more people should go vegan so fewer animals will be forced to suffer for humans’

consumption when there are other options that avoid this torture and suffering.

Having a vegan diet also has a lot of health benefits that go along with it that could even

save lives. An article written by Chrissy Matthies, explains some of the many benefits that come

with a vegan diet. The writer explains that having a vegan diet can help prevent type two

diabetes and also reduce your risk of cancer as well as many other diseases. The writer also

mentions that a vegan diet can promote weight loss. Another article titled, “Health Benefits of a

Vegan Diet”, also mentions that a vegan diet lowers the chances of getting certain types of

cancer, such as colon cancer and that it helps “manage diabetes by lowering A1C levels.” In

addition, the writer states that this diet can “Reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering

cholesterol levels.”. The writer of this article goes on to explain the ways to make a vegan diet

healthy with all the nutrition a person needs. Protein, vitamin B12, essential fatty acids, iron, and

vitamin D are all talked about in the article and explains the ways to obtain these nutrients

without consuming animals and avoiding their suffering. These articles are very useful in

showing how to have a healthy diet as well as a more healthy life because of the benefits behind

a vegan diet. This proves that more people should go vegan to help a person’s overall health.

Some might say that veganism is bad for the environment; people like Charlie Parker.

Parker explains “The spread of veganism will not solve climate problems linked to the farming

sector and could even harm the environment, scientists have warned.” he continues to say that if

the whole planet went vegan then it would destroy the planet. However, this is not about the

whole world going vegan. It is about educating more people about the benefits of going vegan.

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Parker, earlier in his paper, conveys the environmental benefits of more people going vegan.

Tiffany Francis explained in her article that people who are vegan actually help the environment.

Francis stated that being vegan helps rainforests, oceans, seas, and carbon emissions get better

and stabilize. This easily proves that vegans actually help the environment more than they hurt it.

After looking at all the facts and benefits of going vegan, it is safe to say that more

people should go vegan. It is clear that even though some might say that going vegan is bad for

the environment it is actually more helpful to the environment than anything. It can also be said

that the torture animals are put through their whole life for their products is not right and should

not be tolerated. More people going vegan could ultimately help animals live a proper, happy,

and healthy life. Going vegan can still give a person the same nutrition as a meat eater and will

also benefit one’s health by reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and type two diabetes,

which gives people all the more reason to go vegan. Ultimately, these are all wonderful examples

of why more people should go vegan.

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Work Cited

Francis, Tiffaney. “6 Surprising Ways Veganism Helps the Environment.” Vegan Food & Living,

3 Mar. 2020,

www.veganfoodandliving.com/features/6-surprising-way-veganism-helps-the-environme

nt/.

Matthies, Chrissy. “7 Fantastic Health Benefits of Eating Vegan.” PETA UK, 27 Dec. 2019,

www.peta.org.uk/living/vegan-health-benefits/.

Monson, Shaun, and Earthlings Creator. Dominion, 2018,

www.farmtransparency.org/videos?id=90cf4bb762.

Parker, Charlie. “Vegans Could Be Bad for Environment, Say Scientists.” News | The Times, The

Times, 29 Nov. 2019,

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vegans-could-be-bad-for-environment-say-scientists-k55s7ck

Soble, Jeffery. “Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet.” Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet | Rush System,

20 Sept. 2017, www.rush.edu/news/health-benefits-vegan-diet.