What is a vegan diet?
Vegetables, grains, nuts, and fruits, as well as products made from plants, make up the foundation of a vegan diet. Vegans refrain from consuming foods derived from animals, such as dairy, meat and eggs.
Adopting a vegan diet slows climate change and safeguards the world’s food supply by preventing soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation that come with the production of meat.
Why should you consider the vegan option?
Methane is responsible for up to 30% of the increase in global temperature from pre-industrial times and is 80% more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Human-induced methane emissions are mostly created by animal agriculture, with cattle digestion and waste accounting for 32% of total emissions. This is because methane is belched forth by cows when they digest their food.
The UN estimates that adopting a plant-based diet can lower methane emissions by up to 45%. Before it is ready for human consumption, meat must undergo substantial processing, which uses up a lot of energy. Approximately 31.5 kilowatt-hours of energy are needed to produce one pound of beef.
Since beef requires much less processing than meat, plant-based protein sources, like beans and nuts, are significantly more energy-efficient.
Veganism not only saves water (since much of it is needed to generate animal feed for the meat industry), but it also protects forests and other natural places. The meat industry clears millions of acres of forest to make way for cattle grazing and crop planting for animal feed. Deforestation is a process that releases carbon from trees into the atmosphere, exacerbating the climate catastrophe. If everyone switched to a plant-based diet, we could free up 75 percent of the world’s farmland that is currently used to graze animals and produce animal feed. That area may be used to develop nutritious, plant-based protein to feed more people and end world hunger.
Are you missing out on food choices?
Every supermarket carries a wide variety of vegan goods. If you think you’ll never be able to live without cheese, you’ll be relieved to learn that there are dozens of wonderful vegan cheese brands. Baskin Robbins, a well-known Indian ice cream company, has also provided vegan choices. And if you enjoy meat, plant-based meat is designed to taste similar to animal-based meat, so you won’t be missing out on anything! As more people adopt a vegan diet, more businesses will offer vegan options.
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