SUSTAINABILI-DIT

sustain abili-dit

Words by Karim Hassan

Upon reading March’s Sustainabili-Dit article, I found myself rather disappointed by the displayed lack of understanding of how a plant-based diet and environmentalism are strongly correlated. Although they mention the good of it, they seem to completely disregard that in the second half of the article. I felt conflicted as though they were to say that there is no correct answer. But upon further inspection I found some points that were misleading. So, I will be addressing these points. This is not to say that I disliked the entire article, in fact I agreed with many of their points not related to veganism. However, I would like to set the record straight that veganism is without a doubt the best way to decrease your environmental footprint as far as diets go. Even though veganism primarily stands on the moral stance against the exploitation of animals, for the purpose of this article, only the sustainable and environmental aspects will be discussed.

The first issue I had was when they said ‘When [fruit and vegetables] are transported by air, they can contribute more to emissions per kilogram than poultry meat’. This seemed like a valid argument until I found that air travel takes up only 0.16% of total food transport, whereas 58.97% is transported by sea (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). As well as that, transport only makes up for a miniscule number of emissions. Most emissions come from deforestation, machinery, manure, and fertilizers. Needless to say, the animal industry contributes to the vast majority of these areas. The next point I had a problem with was when they mentioned ‘The horrors of mushrooms, avocados and almonds’. I was concerned about this so-called horror, but was relieved to find through research that mushrooms require relatively miniscule amounts of water and farmland to grow. Not to mention they contain a higher protein to emissions ratio than any meat product. In fact, researchers claim that ‘mushrooms could be considered one of the most sustainably produced foods in the United States’ (Jurgensmeyer, et. al, 2021). After intensive research I found nothing about mushrooms or avocados that was concerning enough to mention, especially in comparison to the animal industry. However, I did find that almonds take about ten thousand litres of water per kilogram (Fulton, 2019), which was troubling because that’s almost as much water as one kilogram of lamb requires.

Other environmental impacts: Despite my inability to display it, I have gathered information and made an excel spreadsheet depicting CO2 emissions, water usage, farmland, and protein per kilogram of various vegan and non-vegan food items. The results showed that the plant-based options such as tofu, avocados, almonds and especially mushrooms were significantly more efficient in terms of emissions than meats, especially beef (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). The vegan items had an astronomically smaller environmental impact per kilogram of protein than the animal products. That’s not to mention that the plant-based foods have a greater abundance in other nutrients that are not as concentrated in meats. Considering fibres, healthy fats, and other nutrients, the

results only grow more impressive. Not only will a worldwide vegan diet reduce one’s carbon footprint by 73%, but it will also save lots of resources such as water and farmland. These resources, if utilised to pursue plantbased farming, could produce enough food to not only ‘fight against world hunger in new ways’ (Chalmers, 2021), but to also begin investing more heavily in biodegradable plastics which can play a pivotal role in living more sustainably. Now it’s obvious that solving world hunger is more of an issue of distribution of food rather than the supply of it (Chalmers, 2021), however, there’s no denying that repurposing a draining and inefficient use of resources is better for everyone.

Other ways to eat sustainable: Support local small businesses, no unnecessary processing, no sketchy cheap shortcuts, no intent fuelled by greed. It may be less convenient because you like your lettuce prewashed and prepacked, but is it worth choosing a vegetable packed in plastic packaging? Further, it is also worth noting that there are very few small businesses working with meat production, especially when compared to the crop farming industry. And while transport has a relatively insignificant contribution to emissions when compared to any other factor, shopping with local small businesses is still an instance of where a little can go a long way. It’s always better for the environment to go vegan or at least significantly reduce your meat and dairy consumption, as it is proven to be ‘the single biggest way to reduce your impact on earth’. (Carrington, 2018). To clarify, beef makes up for 2% of total calories consumed, yet takes up almost 60% of the total farming space (Qualman, 2018).

People have a dangerous habit that involves debating, arguing, fighting, and even spreading misinformation about veganism even though it has been proven time and time again to be the way to go. The reason why veganism faces such attacks is often because people would rather do what they’re used to than do the right thing. This inadvertently causes too much uncertainty and mixed messages that only makes progression slower. This has been seen a lot when it comes to bigotry, masks/ vaccines, and even flat earthers cherry picking sources or resorting to strawman arguments.

Now I’m sure that you’re probably disappointed to read that your least favourite diet is the most eco-friendly and sustainable option out there. However, keep in mind that there’s no need to rush into anything (technically there is but that’s got to do with more than just diets). You could just take it one step at a time, choosing plant-based options whenever you get the chance, and keeping the environmentally straining options as an occasional cheat day. Or even cutting off the most unsustainable meats but having others. For example, poultry only contributes to 10% of the emissions that beef does. So, cutting off beef and lamb will make more of a difference than you may think. Some people seem to think that just because certain actions you do are not as promising as you would have hoped, that they are then not worth doing. I disagree. I think every gesture, as small as it is, would be the better choice than contributing to the problem. .

References

https://ourworldindata.org/carbon-footprint-foodmethane https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-per-kgpoore https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eatinglocal https://sentientmedia.org/could-veganism-end-worldhunger/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1470160X17308592 https://www.mushroomcouncil.org/all-aboutmushrooms/sustainability/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/ may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggestway-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth https://www.globalagriculture.org/ fileadmin/files/weltagrarbericht/