Billions of farm animals would no longer be destined for our dinner plates and if we couldn't return them to the wild, they might be slaughtered, abandoned, or taken care of in sanctuaries. Or, more realistically, farmers might slow down breeding as demand for meat falls.
Healthier Animal Populations
If humankind went vegan, animal cruelty would become less common — not just in industries where animals are killed for meat but also within the egg and dairy industries where animals experience overcrowding, inhumane treatment, poor hygiene, disease, and a lack of medical care.
In a more vegetarian world, the diversity of life on Earth would probably also improve. In fact, the use of land for livestock farming, either for direct grazing or for producing animal feed, is one of the main causes of loss of habitat and a threat to biodiversity.
If everyone were vegan, agriculture would need just a quarter of the land it uses today. Even a diet avoiding only meat from cattle and sheep would cut land use in half. What might that surplus space be used for? Quadrupling food production is not a viable option.
If we were to just chow down on steaks on their own, you would lose out on some of the vital nutrients the human body requires to function. Just as people get their nutrients from lots of different foods, you need to add in a few more varieties of meats.
In Leviticus 11, the Lord speaks to Moses and Aaron and sets out which animals can be eaten and which cannot: “You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, but you must not eat them.
One of the earliest known vegans was the Arab poet al-Maʿarri, famous for his poem "I No Longer Steal From Nature". (c. 973 – c. 1057).
Likewise, Prof Andrew Smith, the author of A Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism and a dedicated vegan himself, would probably concur that it is impossible to be 100% vegan, not least because plants get their nutrients from the soil, which is partly composed of decayed animal remains.
Reduce ecological footprint
By choosing a vegetarian diet instead of one loaded with animal products, individuals can dramatically reduce the amount of land, water, and oil resources that they consume and the amount of pollution they otherwise might cause.
Are we herbivores, then? No; our guts aren't long enough, and our teeth don't quite fit the bill. We are, it seems, omnivores; our bodies can handle both meat and plant matter pretty well.
Humans now derive about 20 percent of their daily protein intake from animal-based products, reports London's Guardian. But a new report published by the institute says the world's population will have to cut that figure to 5 percent by 2050 to accommodate the planet's "considerable regional water deficits."
Neal Barnard, talks about humans' early diet, explaining that we “had diets very much like other great apes, which is to say a largely plant-based diet …. [M]eat-eating probably began by scavenging—eating the leftovers that carnivores had left behind. However, our bodies have never adapted to it.
Some research has linked that there are certain health benefits to vegan diets with lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer. Going vegan is a great opportunity to learn more about nutrition and cooking, and improve your diet.
Some people are lucky enough to have never eaten an animal product. I was raised vegan from birth and have often been under the impression that there aren't many others like me.
It's estimated that going vegan saves on average one animal per day (many of these being smaller animals such as fishes). If that's the difference a vegan makes in one day, imagine the number of animals that are saved every month, every year, or over the course of a lifetime simply by choosing a vegan diet.
Yes, Millions are very much vegan! They contain no animal products and are approved by the Vegetarian Society. So the next time you want a trip down memory lane or a sweet kick of nostalgia, simply pick your favourite flavour.
"Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives." is a four-part docu-series following the criminal case of Sarma Melngailis, co-founder of celebrity-favorite Pure Food and Wine as well as the "it" girl of New York's early-aughts food scene.
Einstein was a vegetarian during the last year of his life, although he had supported the idea for a long time. In a letter to Max Kariel he said, "I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience," and soon after became a vegetarian.
Meet the world's strongest vegan Patrik Baboumian who set incredible 1200lbs world record while on plant-based diet. PATRIK Baboumian has only gotten stronger since giving up eating animal products, the protein source for most of his fellow weightlifters.
Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians. Some religious orders of various Christian Churches practice pescatarianism, including the Benedictines, Franciscans, Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians.
WE LEARN in the New Testament that Jesus ate fish from the Sea of Galilee, and, after the resurrection, that he even cooked fish and bread over coals for himself and his disciples (John 21.9). “We certainly know that Jesus ate clean unpolluted fish almost every day of his life,” Colbert concludes.
No, they're not here for the purpose of being our food, and it's made abundantly clear throughout scripture that God shows displeasure at animals being killed (Isaiah 1: 11- 17; 11:6-9; 66:3; Daniel 1:8-17; Psalms 50:8-13).
If you could only select five foods to survive on, potatoes, kale, trail mix, grains, and beans would get you pretty far.
Fruits, green leafy parts of plants, shoots, seeds, nuts, roots and tubers are the fundamental components of the primate eating pattern – and common sense tells us that these foods should be the foods that humans eat, too.