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vegan a word champion by some as a
cure-all for the world's environmental
ethical and health issues in critiques
by others who see it as an arrow viewed
approach of food systems it has quickly
moved into the spotlight as a
contentious issue across a broad range
of communities even so variations on
vegan diets such as meatless Mondays
have become more widespread as the
negative impact of the way we raise
livestock has become clear with vegan
eaters being cast as finger-wagging
activists and those that subscribe to a
meet have a diet as heartless animal
killers it's important to understand
where veganism is going and how we can
bridge the ideological gap between these
groups and caught up and all this is the
issue of climate change so when talking
about veganism we need to interrogate
whether or not veganism is truly the
answer to mitigating climate change as
movies like cowspiracy claim this makes
animal agriculture the number one
contributor to human caused climate
change eaters are drawn to veganism or a
herbivorous diet void of any animal
products for a number of reasons among
them are cruelty towards animals and
health benefits but today I'm going to
solely focus on the environmental
effects of veganism as a driver for
eating plant-based foods in terms of
environmentalism and climate change
mitigation veganism is effective in
lowering one's personal carbon footprint
part of the reason for this is the large
amount of emissions produced by the
media industry according to the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations livestock emissions account for
a 14.5 percent of total global
greenhouse gas emissions a majority of
these emissions come from ruminants
like cows who often require more feed
produce more waste and need higher
amounts of energy input than smaller
animals like chickens in addition the
meat industry has led to deforestation
in the name of more land to raise cattle
and as a result this has led to a
decrease in the Earth's capacity to
capture and sequester
but despite the high impact of meat
production on the environment going
meatless has not been embraced by all
strictly from an environmental
standpoint
some argue that veganism is not
appropriate in some parts of the world
because it fails to use the available
land efficiently in Peters atolls study
in the elementa Journal for example they
revealed that a strict plant-based diet
would feed less people than other diets
like a dairy friendly vegetarian diet in
the United States because it would fail
to make use of perennial grasslands
typically used for grazing perhaps even
more importantly being vegan is not a
possibility for everyone through the 20
3.5 million people living in food
deserts in the United States alone fresh
produce and a wide variety of
plant-based proteins are simply not
available for low income people buying
specialty vegan products is often not an
option for some people of color food
traditions including those that involve
meat are an important connection with
heritage and a means of resisting
assimilation and oppression despite
these challenges of maintaining a fully
vegan diet veganism is not framed as a
form of activism or an aspirational diet
but as an identity you know do vegan you
are vegan this means that any
consumption of animal products relegate
speal to a non vegan status which tends
to push many from any kind of vegan
movement and deters others from
attempting a vegan diet as the vice
president of the Humane Society farm
animal welfare department points out
getting people to eat less meat may be
easier than getting people to eat no me
and you could probably spare more
animals doing that from an environmental
standpoint this means eating less meat
from places like feed Lots
and instead investing in the occasional
meal of meat raised from ranchers that
employ practices like restorative grazie
which by mimicking the grazing patterns
of other large grass heaters like
Buffalo are helping to restore perennial
grasslands globally ultimately returning
the ability for grasslands to capture
carbon
by healing the land and the soil but
this also means understanding what is
appropriate for your local food system
for some there are just too many
barriers in place to follow a strict
plant-based diet in terms of the
environment going vegan then doesn't
necessarily have to mean giving up meat
for the rest of your life that could be
a reality for a few but for others who
lack access to viable produce and meat
alternatives it could instead be an
aspiration a goal to work towards just
because you ate a piece of chicken
doesn't mean that you now have to revert
back to constantly eating meat which
means that instead of a blanket no meat
approach we need to unpack the concepts
of veganism and apply them in
contextually appropriate ways ones that
recognize the strengths and obstacles of
vocal food systems in order to
ultimately benefit both its people and
its environment
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watching and I'll see you next Friday