Animal agriculture is horribly inefficient when it comes to converting the energy of the sun into energy usable by the human body. First plants convert sunlight, air, and water into food, and then animals eat the plants and incorporate a tiny portion into their own bodies — that’s why cows have to eat all day. Eating animals is certainly a concentrated source of energy, but it still only converts a tiny amount of what the herbivore captured into something usable by the carnivore. Almost 90% is lost at every step in the food chain! Fortunately humans can eat nutrient-dense foods like grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and root vegetables, plus energy-packed fruits, in addition to tons of leafy greens. All these foods are far more direct sources of energy than animal products, and they are less taxing on the world’s food supply — allowing everyone to eat their fill.

Intensive animal agriculture also creates tons of waste, which gets dumped — untreated — into streams, even those that feed into our water supplies. This is not to mention that the transportation of animals and their food uses more fossil fuel than all other transportation. Cows themselves produce a lot of methane, a greenhouse gas, which gets released into our atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Vegetarians save as much energy as if they were to stop driving, and they also conserve hundreds of gallons of fresh water otherwise lost to the inefficiencies of raising animals for food — vegans can do even more. Even if you don’t have time to be an activist, simply by being an herbivore you go a long way in preserving the health of our planet and the cleanliness of our environment.

Resources

The Low-Carbon Diet
An article from Audubon magazine that convinced my partner to take vegetarianism seriously by making clear the positive effect it has on the environment.