What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
How Plant-Based Diets can Save the World
Many people nowadays eat a lot of beef. Yet, people do not understand how the beef industry is harming the environment. Every year, more and more livestock is being raised also raising the atmospheric methane levels. Many sources say that "The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that livestock production is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions". Therefore, eating a more plant-based diet is not only better for humans and their overall health, by eating less red meat, plant-based diets are better for the whole world because it cuts down greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environme … vironment/
I agree with this and I have even more information to add on. First of all, 51% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture. Animals take a tremendous amount of water for drinking, growing food for them, and cleaning their factory farms. Also, 500 million tons of animal manure is produced each year which in turn pollutes the water surrounding farms from runoff and can contaminate groundwater. Raising animals also takes up a lot of land. Vegans use 20 times less land than a meat-eater does. 56 million acres of land are used for raising animals and only 4 million acres are used for farming plants for humans to eat. Also, farmers have cut down 90% of the Amazon rainforest to have room to raise animals. This is called deforestation and it contributes to the overall carbon dioxide input into the air. As you can see, raising animals is wasteful and unnecessary because it is ruining our environment.
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-use … vironment/
I agree with eating a plant based diet can help the environment in many ways, however I believe that meat is essential to the human body to get its proper nutrients and retain a healthy balance of protein, starch, vegetables, and fruits. According to the American Council of Health and Science "A new study finds that a vegetarian diet likely led to a mutation that may make people more likely to get heart disease and colon cancer." I am not saying that we should eat meat during every meal, however I believe humans could eat a steady balance of protein and vegetables.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/03/29/wh … ad-for-you