7 Reasons to Choose a Vegan Diet

Faced with the devastating consequences of climate change — from extreme drought to surging floods — becoming a vegan is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your personal environmental impact. Here are seven reasons Australians should go vegan on Earth Day. Climate. Livestock farming is a major source of greenhouse-gas emissions. In Australia, livestock farming accounts for about 50% of all greenhouse-gas emissions over a 20-year period. Biodiversity. Livestock farming is the biggest driver of habitat loss and species extinction. 54% of the Australian continent is used for livestock farming. Water. In Australia, producing 1 kg of beef requires more than 20 times the water needed for rice, grains, legumes, fruit and vegetables. Vegans use less than one-third of the water of the average Australian. The Great Barrier Reef. Runoff from land cleared for grazing is destroying the Great Barrier Reef. Beef production accounts for 75% of the sediment in reef waters. Inefficiency. In Australia, more grain is fed to animals than to humans. This is an extremely inefficient use of land and resources. If we ate plant-based foods directly, we could produce 7 to 10 times more protein and calories than by feeding them to animals. Health. Using animals as food is a root cause of many infectious diseases (including coronaviruses), and eating animal products is a cause of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Animals. Each year Australia raises, rears and slaughters 500 million animals for food (not including trillions of fish). If Australia went vegan, all of this unimaginable suffering would be unnecessary.