Did You Know?
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Many of us recycle paper because we want to save trees. But the number one reason for cutting down trees, including the destruction of the rainforest, is to clear land to grow food for farmed animals. In just one year, a Vegan saves a full acre of trees.
source: “Diet for a New America” by John Robbins (1987)
By simply making Vegan choices, you can save over 1.3 million gallons of water every year! That’s so much water that being Vegan you could leave your shower on 24 hours a day 365 days a year and *still* you couldn’t waste as much water as someone consuming an animal‐based diet.
source: Cattlemen’s Association, Journal Soil and Water (no. 38, fall 1978)., Ecological Integrity: Integrating Environment, Conservation and Health (Island Press, Washington DC, 2001), The Food Revolution by John Robbins, p. 236.
While the human population is growing and growing, the tiny amount of land on which we can grow food is not. Because raising animals for food takes so much land, water and other resources, the Earth would be able to sustain only about 2 Billion people on a meat and dairy based diet2. With a world population of nearly 7 Billion people, it’s easy to see that we need to find a better way.
Vegan choices support a world where ALL may be fed. Vegan choices require only a fraction of the land and far fewer resources than what is needed to produce animal products. The equation is simple: the fewer animal products we consume,
the more people we can feed. If we ignore this simple fact, more and more people will be going hungry as the world population continues to grow.
source:“VEGAN: The New Ethics of Eating” by Erik Marcus, “Food Security and Stability in the Asia‐Pacific Region” Asia‐Pacific Center for Security Studies (September 11, 1998, Honolulu, HI)
via: VeganVideo
Absolutely!!!! Side note: my environmental engineer friend told me that the amount of chemicals used to recycle paper is worse than not recycling. Any thoughts on that?
Yes, thoughts:
a) I think recycling should be a last try. We should attempt first to reduce and reuse, then recycle.
b) Aluminum is the best thing to recycle. It takes no more energy to recycle than to dig it up from the ground.
c) Things like plastic and paper degrade as they are recycled. The various phases to recycle those products take various amounts of energy and produce various amounts of pollution. So… it’s not super simple to determine what’s best when it comes to those products, but…
d) Recycling is a new technology and will improve. Likely, the amount of energy needed and the pollution caused by recycling paper now will decrease in the future as teh technology develops. So in that respect it makes sense. And…
e) Landfills are just terrible. WE can’t continue to dump things into landfills. We simply have to find alternatives, like recycling, but also composting, reusing, reducing, etc.