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Allie Herrmann

English 1101

Prof. Dunham

27 July, 2021

Why More People Need to Practice Vegetarianism

Have you ever thought about how your own diet can impact the world? If you’re

like me you have probably never had too many second thoughts about eating the

hamburger your parents made for dinner. However, I recently had a friend of mine

decide to become a vegetarian. Admittingly I thought she was out of her mind because I

love eating meat, but I decided to put in some research on why someone would want to

be vegetarian. Beyond making the decision based on morals I discovered that the meat

we all consume makes a huge difference in our health and the environment. Meat

production releases harmful greenhouse gases through animals by methane, and

through the chopping down of trees for more pasture space, releasing carbon dioxide.

Only 8% of the world’s population say they are vegetarian while the other 92% of us are

contributing to problems like global warming and deforestation. Due to the fact that plant

based diets are proven to be efficient and healthy for most people it is necessary that

more people switch to a vegetarian diet in order to preserve our environment.

It is important to start out by understanding where the meat we eat comes from.

In her article “People Must Eat Less Meat” Laurie Tuffrey explains the problems with

animal farming. She says that, “One major problem with animal farming is the

production of their feed. The crops are grown on a vast scale and combined with the
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space needed for cattle ranching, it accounts for the majority of the 14,826,322 acres of

forest felled a year, according to Friends of the Earth.” Tuffrey goes on to explain how

this process is not only harmful because of trees' emission of carbon dioxide, but also

inefficient because many crops such as soya that we can eat are instead grown for

animal feed (Tuffrey par 4). It’s easy to forget about the process that unfolds in order to

get meat from the farm to your kitchen table, but it’s important that more people are

aware of it. Like this author mentioned, when these animal farms cut down millions of

acres of forest they release all the carbon dioxide from the trees which contributes

largely to global warming. And, when we have such a high demand for meat people

often do not put consideration into how the process of getting people the product is

harmful and overall not even efficient enough to justify it.

Another thing to consider is how eating less meat could make a positive

difference in people’s health. Co-authors Winston J. Craig and Ann Reed Mangels

wrote about health benefits vegetarians have to gain in their essay titled “Vegetarian

Diets Help Prevent Disease”. In this essay they explained how being a vegetarian has

shown to not only be healthy and efficient but even possibly be healthier than a non

vegetarian diet. Craig and Mangels said that people who follow vegetarian diets more

typically have lower blood pressure, cancer rates than those who don’t. They went on to

say this observation is a result of beneficial compounds found in plant based foods such

as potassium, magnesium, antioxidants, dietary fat, and fiber (Craig, Mangel par 6).

Plants provide people with a more direct energy source that includes all the things

people need to be healthy. In accordance with the studies mentioned in this essay

people who are vegetarians experience better health in many places than do people
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who regularly eat meat. So, if the environment wasn’t enough reason to quit eating meat

products, it’s possible the biggest motive for people would be to naturally improve their

own health. Beyond personal health, a world shift to vegetarianism would improve the

health of people around the world by providing them with food. In another article

“Vegetarianism is the Right Moral Choice for Many Reasons” written by Brian Solomon,

he says, “There are estimates that the world currently produces enough vegetarian

food to feed 15 billion people. 1.4 billion people could be fed with the grain and

soybeans we feed US cattle alone. 40,000 children die of hunger every day.” It is made

very clear here that the world can live on plants, the only thing stopping us is our own

selfishness. Becoming a vegetarian would ensure your own health and the health of

thousands of other people.

On the other hand, there are without a doubt many people who would not want to

sacrifice eating meat for anything. A lot of those people would like to use the argument

that a plant based diet cannot be healthy for a person, in Kris Gunnars article

“Vegetarian Diets are Not Healthy” she explains that humans are healthiest when eating

both plants and animals. She also adds that we can only derive certain vitamins from

animal products and should not eliminate them from our diets (Gunnars par 9). While

you can certainly make this argument it would be more fitting to say that people can

function eating both meat and plants just as they can eat solely plants. The University of

Chicago News Office has a differing opinion on the subject in their article “A Vegetarian

Diet is More Energy Efficient Than a Meat Diet”. In a conducted study referenced in

their article comparing the energy efficiency of 5 different diets (average American, red

meat, fish, poultry and vegetarian (including eggs and dairy). As it turned out the
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vegetarian diet proved to be more energy efficient than all the others. As long as your

diet is fueling your body to the maximum potential your health will follow is really good

shape. Therefore, you do not need to eat meat to be the healthiest version of yourself.

In conclusion, while the majority of people do not currently practice vegetarianism

they may want to consider making the small sacrifice of switching. Eating more plants

can make a big difference in lowering the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute

directly to global warming, and it can drastically reduce deforestation from animal

farming. Contrary to many beliefs, being a vegetarian is far from a bad thing, you can

benefit from it and so can thousands of people and animals. Moving forward, more

people need to adopt vegetarianism for the preservation of our environment, and the

betterment of health for people all around the world.

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Works Cited

Craig, Winston J., and Ann Reed Mangels. "Vegetarian Diets Help Prevent Disease." Can Diets

Be Harmful?, edited by Christine Watkins, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010463223/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=a18c1da2. Accessed 13 July 2021. Originally

published as "Position of the American

Gunnars, Kris. "Vegetarian Diets Are Not Healthy." Vegetarianism, edited by Amy Francis,

Greenhaven Press, 2015. Current Controversies. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010705258/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=639a670e. Accessed 9 July 2021. Originally published as "The Top 5

Reasons Why Vegan Diets Are a Terrible Idea," authoritynutrition.com, 26 Aug. 2013.

Solomon, Brian. "Vegetarianism Is the Right Moral Choice for Many Reasons." Vegetarianism,

edited by Debra A. Miller, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current Controversies. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010705214/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=888a7249. Accessed 9 July 2021. Originally

published as "Ethics and Vegetarianism: Why What We Eat Matters," Progressive

Cogitation, Mar. 2006.

Tuffrey, Laurie. "People Must Eat Less Meat." Factory Farming, edited by Debra A. Miller,

Greenhaven Press, 2013. Current Controversies. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010701252/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-
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OVIC&xid=55f697e0. Accessed 13 July 2021. Originally published as "Can Becoming a

Vegetarian Help Save the Planet?" www.theecologist.org, 4 Jan. 2012.

University of Chicago News Office. "A Vegetarian Diet Is More Energy Efficient Than a Meat

Diet." Vegetarianism, edited by Debra A. Miller, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Current

Controversies. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010705220/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=583564b4. Accessed 13 July 2021. Originally published as "Study: Vegan

Diets Healthier for Planet, People Than Meat Diets," 2006.