Why We Should Reduce Our Meat Consumption -An Essay

     Soon, I will be making a persuasive speech in my English class on a topic that has risen to more and more importance in my mind: The reason why the world's population should reduce their meat consumption.

     Now, this is the thesis for my speech, so it's going to be structured as followed: A short introduction, my three main arguments, and a final conclusion.

Introduction

     Meat is defined as the flesh of an animal as food. Put that way, it doesn't seem to be the most appetising thing, but many people support that it is a delicacy. It has gained popularity as more and more have money to pay for it, notably in China where the meat eating comunity has doubled in size in almost twenty years. There are however some people on this planet who are against the eating of meat, otherwise known as vegetarians. Many vegetarians support that eating of animals is inhumane. Vegetarianism is a difficult life choice, but one that does have many benefits. 

      Today, once I explain to you how illogical eating meat is, I'm sure you'll agree that we must reduce our meat consumption. 

Indivual Health

     People who eat only plant-based foods — aka vegetarians — generally eat fewer calories and less fat, weigh less, and have a lower risk of heart disease than nonvegetarians do.

     A study, done by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2012, show that every extra daily serving of unprocessed red meat increased the risk of dying prematurely by 13%. Processed red meat (hot dogs, sausage, bacon, and the like) upped the risk by 20%.

      It is interesting to note that everyday, on average, we eat nearly double the amount of meat we should otherwise be eating. 

Environmental Issues

     The cultivating of meat is a horrible hit to the environment.

     A simple aid to the environment would be a meal of meatlessness per week. For your average household, that would result in a saved amount of greenhouse gases equivalent to 1160 miles driven in a car. Since this is not the case, here is how our average meat eating is affecting the environment:

     A study done in 2012 showed that livestock is accountable for up to one third of all human caused greehouse gas emmissions, a study done by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

    We all know that water is a rapidly diminishing natural resource, but did you know that it takes around 100 times more water to produce a pound of beef, than it does to produce a pound of grain. And to raise that a kilogram of beef, it requires 8 kilograms of corn.

Global Issue

      On this planet, we have 7 billion people. It's been projected that we'll have over 9 billion by 2050 so it raises the question: How will we feed them? Now, at 7 billion, we are unable to feed about a billion people.

     Well a study done in 2009, led by McGill University's Navin Ramankutt, shows that we could double the global output of food if we turned the agricultural land that is dedicated to raising and feeding animals into land to grow crops.

      On current trends, by 2050 about 1.45 billion tonnes of cereals a year will be used for animal feed - enough to meet the calorie needs of about 4.5 billion people, estimated  UN special rapporteur on the right to food Oliver De Schutter.

Conclusion

     I believe that if we can feed a billion hungry people by reducing our meat intake, we should do it. I believe that if we can cut reduce our carbon footprint, we should. I believe that if, doing both of those things can help us help ourselves survive, then we should do it.
 
     Reducing the amount of meat we eat isn't a hard task, just a rational one.

Just another essay from me,
-Kimzy

Links:
http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS09-05.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/13/too-much-protein-diets-_n_1772987.html