benefits of veganism. part 3 - James Bowden PT
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21 Apr benefits of veganism. part 3

Posted at 16:16h in Lifestyle, Nutrition by

Here we go…the final part of this mini series! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading so far and maybe you’ve managed to try and be a little more plant-based since! For those coming across this for the first time, part 1 was all about the health benefits of veganism, part 2 was all about the benefits of veganism for sport and exercise, and this third and final part is all about the environmental benefits of a plant-based/vegan diet.

I have chopped and changed this post many times! This topic can be quite controversial to talk about and I don’t want to come across as completely laying into the meat and fish industry but if we really want to make a significant difference when it comes to climate change and the environment we can’t shy away from the facts anymore!

My main motivation behind changing to a plant-based diet was purely health related but the more I’ve learnt about the impact on the environment it has become a bigger motivation for me to stick with it.

‘As individuals, the single biggest and most important thing we can do to reduce climate change is to cut down our meat and dairy intake.’ (Professor Mike Berners-Lee, 2019).

That’s a pretty bold statement right?! But it is pretty clear that the most powerful thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is to reduce our intake; if everyone in the UK dropped meat from one meal a week we could slash emissions by 8% which is equivalent to taking 16 million cars off the road. And if everyone in the US replaced chicken in one meal per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the road!

Human civilisation has been around for about 12,000 years and the addition of excess carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, such as methane, into the atmosphere has all happened in the last 30 years. A global switch to a more plant-based diet could reduce emissions by two thirds and save 8 million lives by 2050.

In MY OPINION there is no such thing as sustainable farming or fishing. Our population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050 and to increase meat production would require more land, more deforestation, more climate change and more loss of biodiversity.

Animal farming already uses 83% of global agricultural land, 83% of wild mammals have been lost with 25,000 species threatened with extinction. Fishing is also massively inefficient; with every 1lb of fish caught, 5lb of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill. Half of all marine life has been lost with 87% of fish populations are fully or over-exploited, and it is predicted that will we run out of saltwater fish by 2048! (THIS IS IN OUR LIFETIME!! We can’t sit back and not do anything anymore!)

If this land was used to regrow trees it could reduce greenhouse gasses by as much as 30-50%. And if all the grain used to feed animals was used to feed humans we could feed an extra 3.5 billion people!

I think we sit at a really pivotal moment in time where we must all share responsibility both for our present wellbeing and for the future of life on Earth.

One person can’t do everything but everyone can do something!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and my other posts! My goal when writing this mini series was only ever to educate! I hope you have enjoyed reading and have found at least one thing that you can take away and implement in your everyday life.

If you have any further questions about anything I have spoken about…please don’t hesitate to ask!