Translator: Thomas Prigent Reviewer: Denise RQ
Hey, my name is Christian, some buds call me Big C,
and I'm here to discuss my topic about veganism.
Vegan - when a person hears this word,
they tend to think of this guy, a stereotypical hippie,
the "Save the animals, man!",
or these girls, those dumb, air-headed valley girls, on a strict diet,
and can only have water if it is zero calories.
Actually, vegans are just like you and me,
the only difference is their eating habits.
But yet, some people think they are stupid for choosing upon themselves
to not eat bacon and eggs, In-N-Out burger, or ice-cream.
Like who chooses to not eat ice cream?
Actually, these vegan diets are brilliant
in the way they benefit the environment.
I wanted to know how can a vegan diet benefit the environment,
and by environment, I mean
the climate, the water use, the land use, and the community.
So first, let's go with the climate.
Quote by Kirk R. Smith,
an environmental professor from California Berkeley,
who is interviewed in a documentary called Cowspiracy,
that if everybody were to stop using oil and gas entirely,
we would see these effects in 100 years or so.
But if everybody on Earth were go vegan,
we would see these effects within decades.
He's right when he says this
because animal agriculture is completely screwing over our world,
and nobody is aware.
When I first looked up greenhouse gas emissions,
this picture, along with several other similar to this one
were the first things that came up.
But it is not the leading cause;
as a matter of fact, the leading cause is animal agriculture.
Right now, animal agriculture is responsible
for 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The reason behind this
is because the billions of animals in the industries today are pooping.
As a matter of fact, in the United States,
7 million pounds of excrement
produced by animals in the industry
are produced every minute.
I personally find that disgusting,
but not only is it super gross it's also terrible
on how it affects the environment
because this poop contains nitrous oxide.
Although nitrous oxide is only 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions,
it's 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide.
Next is water;
in a book I read, "The diet for a new America,"
the author John Robbins stated
5% of all water use in the US is domestic
- meaning showers, laundering machines, dish washers, etc. -
while 55% of the United States water use goes to animal agriculture.
He's right when he says this,
because not only are these animals drinking water
but they are eating plants that are given water, as well.
This explains also
why 1/3 of Earth's entire fresh water is going to animal agriculture.
Our global rainforests are basically our Earth's lungs
taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.
It's a shame that an acre a second is being destroyed,
and the leading cause is - You guessed it - animal agriculture.
Animal agriculture is also responsible for 91% of Amazon's destruction
because of the amount of land they all need to survive.
Let's take one and a half acres:
that's enough for 37,000 pounds of plant-based food,
or just 375 pounds of meat.
Let's also have a situation
in which a vegan were to only have a certain amount of land
to live off of for an entire year.
They would only need one sixth of an acre to use food.
Give the same situation for a meat-eater,
and they would need 18 times more acres than a vegan would.
So my friend did a project on world hunger,
and she didn't really find any ties with animal agriculture,
but I personally find it important,
because right now, we have enough food to feed 10 billion people.
Why are we not able to feed this amount of people?
First of all, because there is only 7 billions, obviously,
but also because 50% of grains worldwide
are being eaten by the animals in the industries.
Also, 82% of children
living right next to these animals,
- who are starving -
these 82% of children starving are living right next to these animals
that are being shipped off to more well-off places
like the United States, the UK, and Europe.
Every year,
the human population eats 21 billion pounds of food,
while the world's 1.5 billion cows alone
are eating 135 billion pounds of food.
After hearing all these statistics,
I challenge you to not go vegan - if you can, that's the best -
but rather be like me
and eat less meat and animal products less often,
and go for something that will help our world and help it change;
by eating plants - or as an article in The Guardian says -
- meat alternatives.
So don't be some disgusting pig or some lazy, fat cow,
because you are what you eat.
Thank you.
(Applause)