Reasons To Become Vegetarianism

Introduction I have always been interested in vegetarianism and reasons for it since I live in a country where meat is consumed vastly and I`m worried about it. Before starting my research work, I had known factors such as to reduce cruelty to animals, to avoid health problems and to keep fit. Afterwards, I read an interesting article about the hazardous effects of eating meat and started looking for more information. Then I found another reason for reducing the amount of consumed meat, which is to save the environment. At school, my teacher gave me a list of topics for research work where I found the reasons to become vegetarian, which I had been thinking about a lot. According to United Nations, one of the most crucial contributors to the significant environmental problems like biodiversity loss, water and air pollution, climate change is the cattle sector (Steinfeld et al, 2011).In the USA, the rate of meat production is noticeably high , on average every American eating approximately 200 pounds of meat each year (The Campaign for safe food).

Context

High leveled meat consumption is an act of consuming meat in high amounts so that it can affect the environment. The global meat production reached its peak at 308.5 million tons in 2013 (World Watch Report,

Big amounts of water are needed for animals and the crops the animals feed. The quantity of water needed for a pound of meat is absolutely greater than the volume needed for a pound of seed and vegetables for human consumption. It was estimated that it needs 2,500 gallons of water to gain one pound of meat which is about 6-9 portions (R. Philip Hammond, 1965). Irrigation for feed crops affects significantly the overuse of water. Soy and corn are highly irrigated crops in the U.S. and are used widely for livestock feed ( Danielle Nierenberg, n.d)