Contributed by Jaime McKibben.

Veganism and Sustainability continued

In part one I discussed the frightening ways that livestock production destroys our planet. To understand the full situation I suggest reading part one.

Many people are under the false impression that eating fish is not harmful to the environment. For starters, entire coral reefs are blown with dynamite to scare the fish into nets. It is no wonder that we are losing massive amounts of coral reefs to fishing at an alarming rate. Similarly to the way livestock are raised on land, fish farms pump the feed full of chemicals that often spill into open waterways from the submerged cages. According to the Toronto Vegetarian Association, “Disease pathogens spread easily among the high densities of fish, and concentrated fecal wastes and drugs can contaminate adjacent waters.” All of these individual issues amount to one massive problem; Entire ecosystems are being compromised, and sustaining these practices guarantees that our generation will be the last to enjoy such sea life.

Every hour, 3 plant and animal species are becoming extinct. According to the U.N. we are currently enduring the worst phase of extinctions since the dinosaurs. The primary cause? Human activities such as population expansion and farming. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement, “Biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate.” A global study published in the international journal Nature determined that industrial farming has caused 90% of all large fishes to disappear in the past 50 years. Shrimp boats, which drag nets on the bottom of oceans, are also to blame for the useless killing of many sea creatures. For every 1 pound of shrimp, 10 pounds of other marine life are collected. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization have found that 190 breeds of farm animals have become extinct in the last 15 years. The statistics are frightening and never-ending. We are literally destroying what remains of diversity on our planet.

So what can we do? The largest contribution you can make to reverse this situation is to go vegan. If you are already vegan, congrats, you’ve been doing the planet well and not even known it. A vegan saves 3,000 pounds of CO2 a year. In fact, veganism saves more CO2 than a hybrid car ever could. The environmental impact of soybean protein to that of meat protein is 4.4 to 100, to the disadvantage of meat. Fish require 14 times the energy input to vegetables per unit of protein. If the thought of giving up meat, fish, eggs, or dairy is thoroughly terrifying, think about cutting back. Try skipping meat one day a week and see if you can work up to 3 or 4 days per week. Cut down on the amount of these products you eat and buy local. In the end, any steps you can take toward consuming less of these resource-dependent and wasteful foods, is a step in the right direction. Our future generations, not to mention the animals, will thank you.

Special thanks to Jaime for sharing her thoughts and her research with us. Be sure to visit her at the Vegan Bug if this hits your sweet spot! Thanks sis!

References:

“Meat Production’s Environmental Toll” – Toronto Vegetarian Association
State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) reports 1996 – 2006
“Greatest Wave of Extinctions Since the Disappearance of the Dinosaurs” – An Animal Friendly Life.com
“Eat Lesss Meat, Fish and Dairy for the Planet” – 21st Century Girl
“Don’t Have A Cow: About 20 percent of farm-animal breeds are endangered, says FAO” – Grist.org
“Paint it Green” – Wall Street Journal Online
“Quantification of the Environmental Impact of Different Dietary Protein Choices” – American Journal of Clinical Nutrition