By Federica Cardamone
Last Tuesday, the World Wildlife Fund issued its semi-annual report, only this time it delivered a grave message: the population sizes of various types of animals have decreased by 60 percent by human activity in the past 50 years alone. Although devastating to read, this is highly unsurprising given our current rates of consumption and subsequent environmental degradation.
In light of this report, I am issuing a plea to humanity, but more specifically to my NYU DC community: please stop supporting animal agriculture. In other words, go vegan and here are five reasons why:
1. With it being increasingly more mainstream, being vegan is easier than ever.
Veganism has gained a lot of traction within the past few years, with around six percent of Americans identifying as vegan. Although this may sound as if it is an insignificant amount of people, only one percent reported being vegan in 2014. Because of this quick rise to prominence, people and companies alike have capitalized on the increasing popularity of veganism, with a boom in the number of vegan restaurants across the country and the amount of vegan products available in supermarkets. From jackfruit pulled pork to mushroom and ricotta ravioli, anything you enjoy on the Standard American Diet (SAD) now exists in vegan form.
2. You won’t be contributing to animal cruelty.
If you have never seen footage from inside a slaughterhouse, I encourage you to do so. Watching Earthlings, a documentary about factory farming, is what prompted me to go vegan—the torture that we put animals through merely to please our taste buds is incredibly cruel and seeing it firsthand is sickening. Farm animals are sentient beings, meaning that they experience pain, so they feel all of the torture we subject them to with our dollars. I implore you to explore the question: why do we find it acceptable to murder pigs and shun those who murder dogs? If you feel that going vegetarian is enough to stop this cruelty, think again—the male chicks birthed in the egg industry are ground alive as there is no use for them and female cows are raped so we can drink their milk.
3. It’s the most environmentally sustainable diet.
Repeat after me: meat is NOT environmentally friendly. In fact, animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change. Because of the pollution, waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and water and land usage that go into sustaining livestock and producing meat for consumption, eating meat is indirectly paying for environmental degradation. Thus, eliminating meat from your diet and going vegan is the most effective way to individually combat climate change.
4. The claim that vegans can’t get protein is a myth.
The most annoying and far-too-common question a vegan gets is “where do you get your protein?” I usually respond that I get my protein from plants, the same source that the planet’s biggest and strongest animals—hippopotamuses, elephants, rhinoceroses, etc.—do. According to the World Health Organization, the average person should be getting five percent of his/her calories from protein. Thus, as the protein-makeup of most fruits and vegetables is between five and 15 percent protein, and that of beans and legumes is between 18 and 30 percent, it is more than possible to get a sufficient amount of protein on a vegan diet.
Bonus: beans and legumes are among the cheapest foods in the world, while meat is an elite product, so the claim that a vegan diet is expensive is unfounded.
5. You would be aiding in the fight to end global hunger.
Not only is eating animal products harmful for animals but also the world population. As aforementioned, extreme water and land usage are major components of the animal agriculture industry. The land used by the industry is not solely used to house animals but a majority of it is used to grow crops to sustain these animals. Specifically, much of the grain, corn, and soy grown around the world is fed to livestock—all foods that could be given to starving people. Even more aggravating is that a lot of the land used for these crops and animals is in developing countries, while the meat produced is sold in developed ones.
Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of NYU DC Violets or the NYU DC Program, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.
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