What we put on our plates determines how much we destroy our planet’s future. Our meat consumption is one of the biggest contributing factors to the greenhouse effect and the leading factor for pandemics. Due to these reasons, what we are doing now is wrong and needs to be changed. Meat consumption can easily be reduced, and our problem could be fixed. This essay will be discussing why we must reduce precisely that, our meat consumption.
In order to understand why we must scale down our meat consumption, we first need to understand how it affects the environment. Cows’ burps are high in methane compared with cars and airplanes’ emissions. The emission from agriculture makes more than 10% of today’s environmental gasses (Usda.gov, 2017), a big part of that is livestock. the particles of methane will end up in the atmosphere and keep the heat. That can lead to other problems, for instance, the polar ice melting. Scientists have proven that the meat industry leads to more greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. That is why we must reduce the production of it.
In addition, not only will greenhouse gasses keep the heat, but also crave more space. Beef production is becoming more efficient. Having that said, more trees being cut down for pasture and cows. It has been shown that 50% of the worlds’ habitable land is used for agriculture and 77% of that is solely for livestock (Our World in Data, 2019). It is therefore essential to decrease our meat consumption considering the more meat we eat the more space it requires.
Some people might argue that plants do not contain the right amount of protein and vitamins, but that is incorrect. For instance, leguminous plants such as beans, have a high protein count. Thus, if we eat the right vegetables, then the sources of protein and vitamins can be easily obtained in the right amount and that is why it is possible to be a vegetarian. We all need to at least try to cut down on our meat consumption since it is not a threat to our health.
Lastly, not only does the consumption of meat causes global warming and take more space, but it will also contribute to increasing the risk of getting diseases like Salmonella, Sars, and Covid19. Livestock, such as cows, pigs, and goats can spread zoonotic diseases (diseases that are transferable from animals to humans) This has been shown by the past occurrences, looking back at Covid19 and Ebola. This is another example of why it is better to eat plants since they do not transfer viruses to humans.
In conclusion, we all must try to reduce our meat consumption. It is possible to do that since plants have the right amount of nutrients that are necessary for our body to function. If we continue to eat at the amount as we do today, it will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, space being taken up by animals, and making it a higher probability for diseases like Covid19 to be more common. For these reasons, I urge the readers to gather their senses and try to reduce their meat consumption, thereby making our planet better.