How is a vegan diet better for the environment
Is being vegan REALLY better for the environment? - BBC News
hey I'm Frankie and we're gonna be
talking about vegans and the environment
now people go vegan for so many
different reasons I love being vegan I
want to be vegan I feel great I lost 30
pounds at that point it could help the
animals our planet and it's the impact
on our planet that we're gonna be
talking about in the US there's been a
600 percent increase in the last three
years over in the UK numbers have risen
by 350 percent compared to a decade ago
take the vegan cheese industry for
example that's expected to be worth 4
billion dollars by 2020 looking on
Instagram there's like 92 million posts
when it comes to vegans
it's popular now but it's not exactly a
new thing back in 18-49 that's when one
of the first vegan recipes was published
and that was when someone used oil
instead of butter eggs then we had to
wait hundred years for the word vegan to
be coined and that was done by this guy
called Ronald Watson he created it and
became a vegan after he heard and saw a
pig being slaughtered on his uncle's
farm we're gonna talk about meat and
dairy in a bit but let's first focus on
some of those vegan alternatives that
provide you with things like calcium and
protein
first up quinoa it's a huge source of
protein grown in the Bolivian Andes
because quinoa was getting so popular
farmers were trying to grow it
constantly and they weren't given the
soil arrest some of the soil was losing
its fertility which was really bad for
the environment where quinoa is grown is
where llamas graze some reports out of
Bolivia were saying that because there's
so much quinoa being grown Lamas are
losing their homes and then farmers were
selling the llamas to make room for
quinoa Palo llamas
next take the soybean it's packed full
of vitamins and it's the foundation of
loads of vegan foods it's also one of
the big ingredients when it comes to
animal feed so it beans a grown on big
massive open fields and some agro next
to the Amazon rainforest and because
demand for the soybeans increased that
means some of the Amazon rainforest has
had to be cut down some question though
because soybeans go into animal feeds
and they go into so many vegan products
whether actually if people stop eating
animals and they turn to more vegan
products is that really going to have a
difference because the demand might
still be there we should actually get
some expert advice on this I got in
touch with a little mate of mine well
thank you Frank you for interrupting my
holiday in Sicily
I'm Victoria Gill science an environment
correspondent for the BBC and let me
take just a moment to tell you about how
if we all turned vegan it could
dramatically reduce the impact we have
on planet earth that's according to a
new study by scientists at the
University of Oxford you crunched the
numbers on meat and dairy production and
found that while these animal products
provide less than 20% of our calories
they use the vast majority of farmlands
about 80% now there are other things
that individuals can do to make a
difference to the environmental impact
of what they eat thinking about how far
your food is transported for example but
even in terms of greenhouse gas
emissions its production rather than
transportation that's really significant
thanks big so let's take a look at the
production of meat and dairy that she
was talking about loads of the fields
that we make and clear for animals
there's loads of deforestation even when
were growing food for animals that takes
up loads of water and lots of people say
that you know all this water could be
sending to countries that are in
desperate need of water and what the UN
says is the farming industry as a whole
creates 15 percent of greenhouse
emissions across the world we did kind
of fish out this advice from the UN so
Phoebe who's gonna kindly agree to read
this statement out for us the UN
suggests having a mostly plant-based
diet focusing on seasonal and local
foods the reduction of food waste
consumption of fish from sustainable
stocks only and the reduction of red and
processed meat
thanks BB so is becoming a vegan in
mentally sustainable well we picked out
a couple of items just to show you how
complex that issue is and as we all try
to do our little bit to save the
environment here's just one little
thought to leave you with we already
produce one and a half times the amount
of food to feed everyone on this planet
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