Vegetarianism: Why and Why Not

A growing trend in environmentalism and the green movement is becoming a vegetarian. Vegetarianism, as many people know, is a diet in which meat, poultry, and fish are not consumed due to various reasons, including, but not limited to: social, religious, moral, cultural, ethical, environmental, or economical.

The people who do it for environmental reasons usually do so because the meat industry (more specifically cattle) is said to be responsible for 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. By comparison, all of the world's transportation (including all cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships, and planes) emits 13.5 percent of the CO2. Animal farming produces 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide and 37 percent of all human-induced methane. Now, to a person who believes in the effects of Global Climate Change this is a very disturbing fact.

However, another environmental reson for a person to go Vegetarianism is that animal agriculture can be (and usually is) environmentally unsustainable. According to the United Nations, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a massive scale to deforestation, air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change, the overuse of resources including oil and water, and loss of biodiversity. The important fact here is that this includes the harvesting of animal feed. That is where a lot of these problems originate.

Types of Vegetarianism

There are several types of vegetarianism, and you probably know one of them already, Veganism. The others are: Lacto, Ovo, and Lacto-ovo Vegetariansim. Here's the breakdown:

• Lacto Vegetarianism - no to meat, poultry, fish, or eggs; yes to dairy and honey products.


• Ovo Vegetarianism - no to meat, poultry, fish, or dairy products; yes to eggs and honey products.


• Lacto-Ovo Vegetarianism - no to meat, poultry, and fish; yes to eggs, and dairy and honey products.


• Veganism - no to meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy and honey products; also, no animal products or clothing/accessories (i.e. leather, animal-tested shampoo, etc.).
  

Cons

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