Below we answer various questions and concerns you may have regarding veganism and the environment and ecology.
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Answers that have already been written may also be modified to make them easier to understand or to add information.
Last updated: November 29th, 2024
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If you have other questions about veganism, please also see the following pages:
Veganism & Health
Veganism & Ethics
Veganism – Way of Life
Responses to Anti-Vegan Criticisms
Replies to Anti-Vegan Memes
If we all go vegan, then animals will overpopulate the earth.
Animals have already overpopulated the earth due to the demand for animal products.
In the European Union in December 2019, 143 million pigs, 77 million cattle, 62 million sheep and 12 million goats were counted.
Reference in English: Livestock population
The animal products industry cannot wait for all these animals to reproduce naturally, as this would result in less production and cause damage, because then they would not be able to meet the demand. For this, they use techniques such as artificial insemination and forced fattening to produce larger amounts of animal derivatives.
The more people go vegan, the less animals will be forcibly bred and thus the population will decrease.
Nature can control itself, but we humans are the ones who cross the line and destroy everything.
The only animal that has overpopulated the earth is man.
165 million years that dinosaurs ruled the earth, they did not destroy it.
65 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs the earth was not destroyed.
But only 300 years have passed since the industrial revolution and we are already talking about irreparable ecological damage.
If we all go vegan then more plants will be wasted and we will run out of food.
More plants are already being wasted than are needed to feed farm animals.
Using land to grow crops for animals is vastly inefficient. It takes almost 80% less land to feed someone on a plant-based diet than it does to feed a person who eats animal products, since the crops are consumed directly instead of being used to feed animals.
According to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, it takes up to 5 kilo of grain to produce just half a kilo of meat, and in the United States alone, 56 million acres of land are used to grow feed for animals, while only 4 million acres are producing plants for humans to eat.
By the words of Greenpeace, this imbalance in production and consumption is driven by a focus on crops for profit, not food for people.
If we think about it, we feed 10x more land animals then there are humans, around 92 billion of them every year, and they eat approximately 7x more plants then we do. By giving this food directly to people, we could end world hunger 2,5 x.
See article in English – Amazon deforestation sets new record as Amazon lands are destroyed to grow crops for farm animals (while the world is starving).
UN Climate Report Urges Shift Away From Meat And Dairy
Less than 400 liters of water are needed for 1 kg of vegetables
For 1 kg of fruit about 1,000
For 1 kilo of cereal over 1,600
But
For 1 kilo of chicken over 4,000
For 1 kg of beef over 15,000 liters
Soy farming causes damage to the environment.
This is true because soybeans are grown in huge quantities as they are also used as feed for farm animals. So even though you may not be eating soy directly, if you eat animal products, you have been eating it indirectly. Namely, almost 80% of the world’s soy is fed to animals we raise for food, like meat, eggs and dairy products. In the US it’s even higher, more than 90%.
And we know that around 99% of all soy is genetically modified, which also means that it’s heavily sprayed with notorious herbicide glyphosate.
In order to produce such large quantities of soy, land around the world is being converted from ancient forests, savannahs and grasslands to toxic GMO soy crops. Millions of hectares of Amazon forest, Cerrado in Brazil, the Atlantic Forest, the Gran Chaco – South America’s second-largest forest, and Chiquitano in South America, or the Northern Great Plains of the U.S. are being destroyed to make room for more soy production.
The easiest way to stop deforestation and eco systems depletion is to move away from animal products and eating plants directly.
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/food_practice/sustainable_production/soy/
https://soygrowers.com/key-issues-initiatives/key-issues/other/animal-ag/
But, if you still feel bad about soy, then you don’t have to eat it to live as a vegan.
Vegans eat a lot of products that come from other countries, and their transport causes pollution.
Indeed, today we have a variety of products available in stores, and many are imported. From shampoos and cell phones, to coffee that comes from the other side of the world and is consumed by the majority of the people on a daily basis, it’s all at our disposal.
You may look at that avocado in your store thinking what a huge pollution you will cause if you buy it (most of our coffee comes from the same region btw). But there is good news.
Even if your plant food is imported, it still causes less pollution than eating animal products.
Multiple studies have shown that up to 20% of global emissions, which is huge, come from animal agriculture, places where around 98% of all animal products come from. To put this into perspective, this industry contributes to more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. One that is very problematic is methane that animals produce, which is the cause of over 25% of global warming.
Methane and nitric oxide are powerful greenhouse gasses, far stronger than carbon dioxide. The animal industry is responsible for 65% of all emissions of nitric oxide, which is 296 times more harmful than carbon dioxide and remains in the atmosphere for 150 years. This also includes the dairy industry. Cows are large animals and produce these gasses in large quantities.
Animal products also use up the majority of our Earth’s water – up to 70% of all available freshwater, and are responsible for about 90% of the world’s water footprint. That means that much more water is needed to produce meat than plant-based foods such as veggies, fruits, grains or beans.
What if I buy local animal products
Most of our food emissions come from processes on the farms, or from land use change, so buying local animal products won’t make much of a difference.
Of course, when it comes to plants, the best thing is to buy local, but since we live in modern times when we have healthy and nutritious herbs and plants available, why not enjoy it and have benefits from it. So you can relax and make that guacamole you ‘ve been wanting to try.
https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/food/animal-agricultures-impact-on-climate-change/
https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/cop26-agricultural-expansion-drives-almost-90-percent-of-global-deforestation/en
https://ourworldindata.org/food-emissions-carbon-budget
Living an ecological lifestyle is enough, even if I'm not vegan.
Research has shown that animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, biodiversity loss, wildlife extinction, and ocean dead zones. For example, every couple of seconds 36 000 square meters of forest have been cut down because of animal agriculture.
The food sector alone is enough to push global warming past the 1,5°C limit.
Multiple studies have shown that up to 20% of global emissions, which is huge, come from animal agriculture, places where around 98% of all our dairy, meat and eggs come from.
To put this into perspective, this world wide industry contributes to more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. One that is very problematic is methane that animals produce, which is the cause of over 25% of global warming.
This means that what we eat has more impact on the environment than anything else.
Animal agriculture also uses up the majority of our Earth’s water – up to 70% of all available freshwater, and is responsible for about 90% of the world’s water footprint. That means that much more water is needed to produce meat than plant-based foods such as veggies, fruits, grains, or beans.
So going to work by bicycle or taking short showers is beneficial, but you can make a greater difference by ordering a veggie burger.
When we are on the topic of burgers, here are some cool facts. Plant-based burgers alone require 75 – 99% less water, 93 – 95 % less land, and generate 87 – 90 % fewer emissions than regular beef burgers. All that from simply eating burgers made from plants, instead of meat.
“A plant based diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce our impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gasses, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.
It is far bigger than cutting down on our flights or buying an electric car,” said University of Oxford’s Joseph Poore, who led the most comprehensive analysis of the damage farming does to the planet.
https://ourworldindata.org/food-emissions-carbon-budget
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/whats-your-burger-more-you-think
https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/cop26-agricultural-expansion-drives-almost-90-percent-of-global-deforestation/en
https://climatenexus.org/climate-issues/food/animal-agricultures-impact-on-climate-change/
https://sentientmedia.org/sustainable-diet/
So living an ecological lifestyle, such as recycling, minimizing the use of plastic products, not smoking, etc. is indeed a very good direction, but it is not enough.
Driving an eco car or using public transport and emitting less CO2 into the atmosphere helps, but it’s not enough when you support livestock farming which emits more CO2.
Using less plastic or even helping to clean up beaches is commendable, but unfortunately not enough when you support livestock farming that pollutes the water.
It’s like helping to build something good with one hand, but the other hand causing double damage. Of course no one is perfect and no matter what we do we will always produce some garbage, but going vegan is the least good thing each of us can do to save our planet.
Whales eat a lot of fish, so if the Japanese don't kill them, then the fish population will decrease. But now that they eat both whales and fish, they have more food.
Whales do not threaten fish populations as people once thought and there is not as much demand for whale meat as it is toxic.
Now it is more important to save the remaining whales (as they are an endangered species). Whale tourism generates more profits and can support the local tourism industry, but also provide environmental education and research.
Whales preserve the ocean against climate change. They help transport nutrients to the ocean. When they feed, they go down to the depths, but when they need to excrete, they come to the surface.
In this way, they bring the nutrients from the ocean depths, where there is no sunlight for photosynthesis, to the surface waters where there is phytoplankton, which needs these nutrients. By excreting, the whales fertilize the phytoplankton, making it a rich food source for krill and fish.
People in Greenland don’t have any vegan foods to eat.
First of all, you probably don’t live in Greenland, so this is not an argument that could stop you from going vegan.
We understand that you may be tired of the pollution in your city, but we don’t suggest you move to Greenland or any other super cold place.
Anyways, maybe that was the case a hundred years ago, but today things are different. You can buy fresh produce, frozen veggies and fruits as well as whole foods like rice, pasta and beans in stores even in such remote places. You can also buy imported personal body care products like face creams, body lotions, hair styling products, as well as cell phones, laptops and all the other tech goodies we use to check our instagram and facebook, even there.
Vegan traveler Melissa Cherry spent several months living in Greenland back in 2019. By her words, “in Nuuk, you will be able to eat really well as a vegan. Most of the restaurants and cafés have great vegan/vegetarian menus, and it’s also easy to cook exciting vegan dishes for yourself. The supermarkets have a vast variety of vegan foods and you can even find vegan cheese, yogurt, chocolate and ice cream!”
Vegan activists that visited Greenland even found fresh green lettuce, carrots and potatoes thrown in the garbage behind the store. I guess they weren’t fresh enough, or maybe people preferred to buy meat instead.
Smaller villages in the country might be a challenge. You can still find whole foods in stores, but you would have to make your own vegan milk, yogurt and burgers.
Melissa even provided a very useful list of vegan foods you can find in Greenland.
https://northtrotter.com/2019/02/28/how-to-survive-as-a-vegan-on-greenland/
As you can see, there are a variety of foods one can eat. As for vegan dairy and meat substitutes, as we said, people can always make them at home from simple ingredients, and for a much cheaper price. So if a person wants to go vegan, there is always a way.
But why all the hassle to eat more plants?
Traditional diet in such cold, remote places consisted of pretty much only meat. And one might think that we should simply respect that and continue doing so.
But these harsh conditions that were forcing people in ancient times to rely only on animal products came with a high cost. Namely, the Inuit had the shortest lifespan of 43,5 years on average. Their bone density was around 12% lower than in people in the West, and they suffered from advanced stages of arteriosclerosis and osteoporosis. Even their mummies had the same issues.
That tells us that our bodies haven’t adapted to the high meat diet, even after doing it for centuries. Our ancestors maybe didn’t have a choice, but we now do. Even if it sometimes takes a bit of creativity and a slightly higher budget, it will be worth it in the end. After all, there is no greater wealth than health.
https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)33582-2/abstract
I've found research online that debunks everything vegans say.
You don’t need surveys to show you that we are destroying the planet.
You can go outside a slaughterhouse and see what waste they produce.