I'm here to educate the high school populace on the reasons to omit any use of animal products. The road to vegan-ism is not as hard as one might think, and can contribute to the overall health of yourself, the environment, and humanity. I'm a vegan, and I'm here to tell you how the change to vegan-ism will help not only you, but the world. Peter Singer said -“[T]hose who claim to care about the well-being of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone.” He adds: “They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests.… He speaks further: “[W]hen nonvegetarians say that ‘human problems come first’ I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals.” End quote. I have not been vegan for very long, but I have studied research and statistics thoroughly. Veganism helps the environment by reducing greenhouse gases, saving topsoil, and fossil fuels. Veganism also improves the overall health of humanity by not wasting food in the inefficient production of meat. I will also show how you can drastically improve your bone and heart health. I will begin by talking about the environmental reasons to go vegan.
By simply changing your diet, you can help save the world. Did you know that farm animals are major contributors to greenhouse gases? They produce methane, the second-most important greenhouse gas after Carbon Dioxide. Livestock account for about one-quarter of the methane emissions from human activities, totaling some 100 million tonnes a year. A United Nations report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that the livestock sector is "responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions". The production of cattle to feed and clothe humans stresses ecosystems around the world, and is assessed to be one of the top three environmental problems in the world on a local to global scale. Aside from methane, the transport of food to animals, instead of bringing food straight to humans, uses fossil fuels that contribute to greenhouse gases as well. It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein. Raising animals for food gobbles up precious energy. Greenhouse gases aren't the only concern on our list, huge amounts of topsoil are lost due to the grazing of farm animals. Grasses are essential to anchoring arid topsoil in a dryland region. When animals are allowed to graze recklessly, they remove all of the native grasses, exposing the topsoil to destructive erosion forces like winds and sudden thunderstorms. Topsoil isn't a simple thing to simply replace. As Professor Pimentel explains, "erosion is one of those problems that nickels and dimes you to death.” For an example: if a rainstorm removes 2/5 of an inch of soil, it would take natural processes 20 years to replace the 13 tons of topsoil that were lost. So we can see that large amounts of soil erosion is extremely problematic, especially given that 99.7% of human food comes from cropland. Pimentel’s study found losses of more than 37,000 square miles of cropland per year due to soil erosion. With more than 3.7 billion people already malnourished worldwide, addressing this issue should be a top priority. Along with environmental factors, which greatly affect humanity already, there are some direct problems caused from the consumption of animal on humanity. Domesticated animals consume vast amounts of food and water. Have you heard of the energy pyramid? Approximately 16 pounds of grain, corn, soy beans, and other foods fed to animals will only produce 1 pound of meat. Logically this is extremely inefficient, and it's estimated that if all food from domesticated animals were fed to humans, there would be enough food to feed 12 billion people. Obviously world hunger cannot be solved by simply changing everyone's diets, as there are several political and economical problems that contribute to world hunger, but making the switch to vegetarianism or veganism would drastically improve the efficiency of food production, and hopefully in turn improve the welfare of the world.
If these reasons aren't enough to sway your opinion there are also various health benefits from going vegan. The Food and Drug Administration prefers the Vegetarian Food Pyramid over the normal one. Additionally, going vegan results in zero cholesterol intake, and improves your bone and heart health. Cholesterol, a major contributor to strokes, heart attacks, and poor overall artery health, is only found through animal sources. Elevated cholesterol (anything above 150) promotes atherosclerosis—the build-up of cholesterol, fat, and cells in the arteries that feed the heart muscle. Incidentally, while the average cholesterol level in the U.S. Is 210, the average vegan's cholesterol level is 133. People with cholesterol levels below 150 virtually never have heart attacks, while nearly one-third of meat-eaters will die from one. Is it worth the risk of heart attacks to continue to eat meat? Heart researchers have found that a low-fat vegan diet is the best diet for lowering cholesterol levels. Plant foods contain no cholesterol, whereas meat, eggs, and dairy products contain large amounts of cholesterol and saturated fats, which can cause arteries to become hard and clogged. Plus, the high fibre content of a vegetarian diet helps eliminate excess cholesterol from the digestive tract. Did you know meat, dairy and egg products contain zero fibre? Dr. William Castelli, says about heart disease, "If Americans adopted a vegetarian diet, the whole thing would disappear." You may be sitting there thinking that such a drastic change would impact your health in negative ways, such as bad bone health from not drinking milk or not getting enough protein in your diet. Did you know that milk is detrimental to your bone health? First of all, calcium appears to be ultimately pulled from bones to escort digested animal protein from any source -- not just dairy products -- on its trek through the body. Since the average American's diet is protein-heavy to begin with, some experts say that eating lots of dairy foods may actually cause people to lose calcium. Donna Herlock, MD says: "When you eat a protein food, such as milk, you may be swallowing calcium, but you turn around and excrete calcium in your urine.” Although protein is certainly an essential nutrient which plays many key roles in the way our bodies function, we do not need huge quantities of it. In reality, we only need small amounts of protein. Only one calorie out of every ten we intake needs to come from protein. You athletes out there may be thinking “an athlete needs a much higher amount of protein.” While this assumption is not completely wrong, athletes do not need much more protein than the general public. So how much protein do we really need? We need only 1/10 of our calories to come from protein. If we look at what vegans are eating, we find that between 10-12% of calories come from protein . By contrast, non-vegetarians consume protein close to 14-18% of their calories. There are no conclusive health studies that advise a high intake of protein. Actually, diets that are high in protein may even increase the risk of osteoporosis and kidney disease. The things that you may fear from a vegan diet are actually no cause for alarm, all of the nutrients that a human needs are available through plant sources. There are many more reasons to go vegan, but these are some of the most major and I hope you see now that the road to veganism can contribute to the overall health of yourself, the environment, and humanity. By making the switch to veganism your heart and bones will thank you, and vegans are estimated to live 3-6 years longer on average than meat eaters. You will also save the environment through reduced greenhouse gases, and saving topsoil. You will also be contributing to solving world hunger, and preserving our natural resources. I ask each one of you to try a vegan or vegetarian diet, not just for me but for the world. As Albert Einstein put it: “Nothing will benefit human health and increase [our] chances for survival as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet” Thanks for being a great audience.
Thorough, compelling and well structured.
ReplyDeleteYou brilliant fool.