Vegans are here to stay
"I'm a vegan:" a statement that has elicited many an eye-roll since it started becoming more common in the late 2010s. Anthony Bourdain once wrote that vegetarians and vegans "are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit." While it may have seemed like an annoying trend to some at first, the rising percentage of Americans identifying as vegan indicates otherwise.
A quarter of Americans aged 25 to 34 call themselves vegans or vegetarians. Stars like Beyoncé are embracing plant-based diets. Vegans aren't going anywhere, and they may be on to something.
While many adopt vegan diets to avoid supporting animal cruelty or for the health benefits associated with a plant-based diet, there is an increasing number of people going vegan to protect the planet, a pattern connected to the growing public concern surrounding environmental issues.
The livestock industry generates enormous amounts of methane and nitrous dioxide, greenhouse gases that are respectively more than 20 times and 250 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations found that the livestock-raising sector generates more global greenhouse gases than the transportation sector. The main cause of deforestation is the clearing of lands for agricultural fields—most of which are used as grazing lands for cattle.
But swearing off animal products isn't an automatic ticket to a green lifestyle; a 2016 study shows that the environmental impact of some vegan and vegetarian diets can exceed that of omnivorous diets. The key is in the individual diet choices within veganism or vegetarianism, as high-protein and high-fat choices tend to expend more land resources than others. But overall, the study found that omnivorous diets had higher environmental impacts in terms of water, carbon and ecological effects.
"Consuming animals products is simply not what it used to be, and it is has come to the point of bringing our planet more harm than good," said Krista Gutierrez, a senior at Liberty University.
Gutierrez went vegan about year an a half ago and immediately saw an increase in her physical well-being. She hasn't had any meat since, as she says her knowledge of the detrimental effects of the commercialized mass production of animal products has made meat unappealing.
"There are certain things you can’t unsee or 'un-know,' and because of that, it would be difficult for me to willingly consume animal products the way I used to, knowing what I do now," Gutierrez said.
