Kip Andersen is one of those cool people, engaged in saving the planet. A few years ago he would do everything he could attempting to reduce the emission of pollutants in the air and the amount of garbage out there: go back and forth all over the place by bike until recycling all his garbage and taking quick baths. However, one day he got intrigued by a report released by ONU, which presented, in fact, that agribusiness and the meat industry were the greatest villains of history, accounting for almost 20% of the greenhouse effect.
That was when Andersen launched Cowspiracy, a documentary – available on Netflix and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio – where he takes data and makes several interviews pointing out the fact that, if part of humanity stopped – or at least reduced – the meat consumption, everyone would profit, a fact that is held by many experts in addition to the director.
In this sense, we have prepared this post with three reasons to become vegetarian. Keep reading and find out which are they!
The meat industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world
Many people laugh when discover that cow gases are responsible for increasing the amount of methane in the atmosphere, worsening even more the greenhouse effect. However, this scatological humor was slightly uncomfortable when people discovered other facts that revolve around it. For example:
- If there were a certain number of cows in the world, there would be no problems associated with their gases. However, only in the United States there is approximately one cow for every 3.5 inhabitants, a surreal amount that only reached such a level due to the meat industry.
- Furthermore, each one of the slaughtered cows usually consumes 200 to 300 liters of water per day. That is, until its last day on earth, this animal will have consumed 10 thousand liters of water to produce 1kg of meat. Now think about it: where does this water come from? From the rivers that are diverted from natural beds to supply farms – which often pollutes rivers with other production waste.
There cannot be meat and earth for everyone
Another alarming fact about the meat industry relates to the land extension spent in the world to keep this market functioning.
According to a report by the US Department of Agriculture, about 3-5 acres of land are used to produce the inputs to be used in the meat production, involving the pasture and food growing area for animals. One area that in other countries may be even greater, as in Brazil, where the space used for soybean cultivation, which will be used in the cow feed production, tend to be even more extensive.
The vegetarian diet has all the nutrients needed by the body
With so much information about the meat industry, it might be easy to understand why so many people have decided to become vegetarian. Nevertheless, there is one additional detail: the myths about the lack of nutrients of such a diet.
Well, if you have not become vegetarian for fear of losing any nutritional item, you can be carefree because with this kind of nutrition you will have all the nutrients traditional diets have. Take a look:
B12 vitamin
If you won’t consume this vitamin found in meat, an output is to get it in milk and eggs.
Iron
It can be found in nuts and seeds (walnuts, hazelnuts, brown-nut, cashews, and sunflower seed) and even in legumes (beans, lentils, peas, chickpea).
Proteins
Here, the idea is to eat peas, beans, chia, among others.
Did you see how you can become vegetarian, get rid of the meat industry claws and still maintain or even enhance your life quality? Therefore, if you are looking this way, here is your chance to put it into practice and to help saving the planet, as well as Kip Andersen did.
If you thought about becoming a vegetarian and do not know how to prepare a good recipe, discover the vegetarian menu from appetizers to dessert course. You will learn new versions of typical Brazilian dishes with vegetarian ingredients.
