Consuming a Vegan Diet Assignmet

Give two reasons (one per each body paragraph), Explaining either the “benefits” OR “detriments” of following a vegan diet. The essay should contain 4 parts 1. Introductory Paragraph, (This paragraph will be about 7-9 sentences in total) 2. Body paragraph 1 (This paragraph should be about 9-12 sentences in length) 3. Body paragraph 2 ( This paragraph should be about 9-12 sentences in length) 4.The Concluding Paragraph. (This paragraph will be about 6-8 sentences in total)The Veganism Effect on the EnvironmentAdapted from an article by Olivier PetterEating a vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce yourenvironmental impact on earth, a new study suggests.Researchers at the University ofOxford found that cutting meat and dairyproducts from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint fromfood by up to 73 percent.Meanwhile, if everyone stopped eating these foods, they found that global farmland use could be reduced by 75 percent, an area equivalent to thesize of the US, China, Australia and the European Union combined.Not only would this result in a significant drop in greenhouse gasemissions, but it would also free up wild land lost to agriculture, one of the primary causes for mass wildlife extinction.The new study, published in the journal Science, is one of the mostcomprehensive analyses to date into the detrimental effects farming can have on the environment and included data on nearly 40,000 farms in 119 countries. The findings reveal that meat and dairy production is responsible for 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, while the products themselves providing just 18 per cent ofcalories and 37 per cent of protein levels around the world.Researchers examined a total of 40 agricultural products in the study,covering 90 percent of all food that is eaten. They looked at how each of these impacted the environment by analyzing climate change emissions, water pollution and air pollution. Lead author Joseph Poore said “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” he explained, which would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions.“Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy,” he added.The research also looked into the different techniques used to produce the same foods and found vast distinctions in terms of environmental impacts.For example, beef cattle reared on natural pastures used 50 times less land than those raised on deforested land. The latter can lead to up to 12 times more greenhouse gas emissions by comparison. This starklycontrasts with emissions of greenhouse gases released as a result of plant-based protein production for items such as tofu and peas.Poore also explained that even production methods which are thought ofas sustainable, such as freshwater fish farming and grass-fed beef, canpose environmental problems.“Converting grass into [meat] is like converting coal to energy. It comeswith an immense cost in emissions,” he told The Guardian.Poore’s research is the result of a five-year-long project, which initiallybegan as an investigation into sustainable meat and dairy production. Hestopped eating animal products altogether himself after the first year.The next step, Poore told The Independent, is to find ways to test hisproposed approach in practice. “The problem is, you can’t just putenvironmental labels on a handful of foods and look to see if there is someeffect on purchasing,” he said.”Consumers take time to become aware ofthings, and then even more to act on them. Furthermore, the labels probably need to be in combination with taxes and subsidies. My view is that communicating information to consumers could tip the entire food system towards sustainability and accountability.”