The Impact of Veganism

by Freya Stevens

(Wiki Commons)

To this day evolution progresses every day. Animals are always adapting to new environments across the world. A lot of scientific research has proven to us as humans, that animals feel just as much as we do, therefore we should take this into account and do something about it. Veganism is a huge and growing lifestyle, worldwide it is 8% of the world's population meaning there are approximately 624 million vegans. Parental references, religions or other beliefs and health issues are among the most common reasons for going vegan. However, many people have decided to go vegan out of concern for animal rights or the environment. Veganism is a huge influence on animal lovers. Vast amounts of animals die each year. It is estimated that over 150 million animals are killed everyday around the world for humans to eat. In the United States alone it is estimated that 56 billion land animals are killed per year. 

For humans to survive, one of the key things needed is food. Many people who do eat meat have it in at least one meal per day. Therefore a lot of meat is consumed, globally it is estimated that we consume 315 million tonnes. Animals die in many different ways, whether it's for humans to eat or if it’s natural disasters for example the recent bushfires in Australia have lost a staggering 1 billion animals. However, the amount of people who died was only 34. So how is that right? So much is being done to save the people living there. Many people think of animals being equal to humans. So, we should do  just as much to save animals as humans. As equality is such a big thing worldwide there is lots of discussion about how we as humans can stop killing animals and preserve them. Animals are like us, they eat, breath, feel, just like us so why should they be any different to us. There are now so many varied ways of replacing meat, for example, eating meals with quorn instead of mincemeat. This is an industry that could potentially grow into a huge company and hopefully make replacing meat ten times easier for the world.

Veganism can’t always be good for everyone. Many people look at it to be something people do to have a healthy lifestyle or vegans do it to save the animals. This is correct, however, soy along with tofu are a huge part of veganism as it’s used as a popular replacement for dairy (Mainly milk and meat). Soybeans are being grown in the rainforest and have started to show signs of it emitting a huge carbon footprint. Many environmentalists have started to be anti vegan, according to a very keen environmentalist she said, “plantations of soybeans are ruining the rainforest”. Scientists have looked into this and have proven that the expansion of soybean plantations into the rainforest is also contributing to climate change.

Deforestation is responsible for about 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by people. Conversion of forests to soy plantations in the Amazon particularly threatens the climate. Along with palm oil. Palm oil is used in extreme amounts of food. it will be found in cleaning products to chocolate. It is thought that over 50% of our food that we buy from the supermarket is made out of palm oil. The rainforest is home to thousands of animals, popularly the orangutans. Due to palm oil, their homes are getting destroyed in vast amounts. Because of this it is thought to be the equivalent of 300 soccer fields being cut down every hour. Although there are many problems with veganism and the effects of plants like soya and palm oil, our world is discovering new things everyday, so, with all the new technology maybe soon enough there might be another new discovery on what the perfect solution might be.