Celine Steen - The Best Vegan Dinner Recipes

From an environmental standpoint, the vegan diet is undoubtedly a sustainable way to eat. Each year the United States imports about 200 million pounds (90 million kg) of beef from Central America. Fuel costs and pollution aside, where does this beef come from? The grazing land needed to raise these cattle is often found by clear-cutting dense forests and rainforest land. Studies estimate that the necessity for more grazing land means that for every minute of every day, a land area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet (16.8 m) of forest have been destroyed. Its not just the rainforest. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been clear-cut for animal agriculture. With increased per capita meat consumption, and an ever-growing population, we can only expect to see more deforestation in the future.

In addition to needing land for raising meat, animal agriculture also requires water. In the United States, the amount of water needed for animal consumption is almost equivalent to all other uses of water combined. To grow 1 pound (0.45 kg) of beef requires about 2,500 gallons (9,463 L) of water. Compare that to 1 pound (0.45 kg) of soy, which only requires 250 gallons (946 L), or a pound (0.45 kg) of wheat, which requires only 25 gallons (94.6 L). In addition, it is an inefficient use of resources because it takes years to grow that single pound of beef. Think about it: the amount of water needed to produce just one hamburger is enough to take a nice long, hot shower every day for two and a half weeks. With numbers like these, eating vegan is surely the green way to go.

Beyond the waste is the pollution: agricultural pesticides and manure seep into the groundwater, eventually finding their way to the rivers and oceans. In addition to water pollution, the effect of animal agriculture on fossil fuels is tremendous. Each animal grown and slaughtered for food must be fed. The feed ranges from grain to soy products. The production of this feed requires energy to grow and transport. Imagine the amount of people that could be fed if we focused our agriculture on wheat and grain grown for human consumption rather than growing food for livestock.

A report in the New Scientist estimated that driving a hybrid car rather than an average vehicle would conserve a little over one ton of carbon dioxide per year. A vegan diet, however, consumes one and a half tons fewer than the average American diet. Adopting a vegan diet actually does more to reduce emissions than driving a hybrid car!