Vegans harm the environment

Observation 1: DefinitionsVegan: not eating or using animal products.Vegitarian: not eating meat.Harm: physical injury, especially that which is deliberately inflicted.Environment: the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.Observation 2: BurdensAs Pro is bringing the only affirmative statement, that vegans harm the environment, the burden of proof lies solely upon him. Con has burden of rebbutal, or to disprove Pro's points. This means that if I am able to show that it is less or equaly likely that vegans do not harm the enivironment, then you must find for Con. Observation 3: Rebbutal of Pro's points1) [Vegans harm the environment] Cause they eat more plants than normal humans, therefore they harm the environment more.Plants are a sustanable and easy to maintain food source, compared to meat. Meat requires even more plants to maintain than simply eating the plants themselves. s://lh6.googleusercontent.com...; alt="" width="502" height="360" />As you can see, the most energy efficent group of consumers are those that eat plants, or the primary producers, and even they loose 90% of the energy from a primary producer. However, eating primary consumers instead of primary producers wastes 10 times the amount of energy. It's clear that it is more efficent to eat primary producers.2) In fact, the chicken eats up plants and gives co2, eating it should be environment friendlyLet's examine the chicken market's environmental impact. First, chickens produce huge amounts of manure. This manure has tremendous negative effects on the environment. The manure's byproduct is a carcogenic, lethal poision known by arsenic that can seep into groundwater and soil, poluting it (1). And this isn't just a little bit of poision either. "In the 1990s, poultry production in 5 West Virginia counties at the headwaters of the Potomac River, which nourishes the Chesapeake Bay, grew from 7 million birds a year to 100 million birds, now producing enough manure to cover "all 160 miles of Los Angeles freeways ankle deep (2)."Second, chicken slaughter houses are literaly breeding grounds for pollutants and diseases. Many different dangerous chemicals that are detrimental to human health can be found in the air at a slaughter house. "Airborne contaminants in poultry confinement units include the mixture of agents comprising organic poultry dust--skin debris, broken feather barbules, insect parts, aerosolized feed, and poultry excreta--and a variety of immunogenic agents, such as viable bacteria and Gram-negative bacterial endotoxins. Industrial hygiene surveys in the chicken processing industry have demonstrated that poultry confinement workers are exposed to high concentrations of such respiratory toxicants. Excretory ammonia fumes from the nitrogen in decomposing droppings damages the systems of both humans and birds (3)." It is not only the manure and urine that can harm the einvironment, but the "155,000 tons of annual waste from the more than 90 million birds confined in 870 poultry sheds have polluted local streams with poisonous coliform bacteria. These small creeks and rivers enter the Potomac River, which provides drinking water for metropolitan Washington D.C. (4)." And that is just West Virginia's chicken industry!Finaly, the chicken industy's aid in producing greenhouse gasses is enourmous. The nitrogen emitted from these slaughterhouses can • decrease species diversity and acidification of non-agricultural soils, due to nitrogen deposition related to ammonia and nitrous oxide emission; • eutrophication of surface waters, including excess algal growth and a decrease in natural diversity due to runoff of nitrogen from agricultural soils; • pollution of groundwater due to nitrate leaching from agricultural soils and nonagricultural soils; and • greenhouse gas emissions in the form of nitrous oxide (5).If you are vegan, you do not participate in or support this industry, thereby making your food choices the more environmentaly friendly one. Observation 4: ConclusionIn conclusion, I havea) shown how eating from a lower trophic level is more energy efficent, b) shown how the environmental impact of the chicken industry alone far oughtweighs the impact of a vegan's diet, therebyc) disproving Pro's main contentions.Pro?Sources:(1) http://www.upc-online.org...(2) Gerstenzang, J. Poultry Production Threatens Potomac River's Health. San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 1997.(3) Morris, P. et al. Respiratory Symptoms & Pulmonary Function in Chicken Catchers in Poultry Confinement Units. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 19:195-204, 1991.(4) Lipton, E. Poultry Poses Growing Potomac Hazard. The Washington Post, June 1, 1997.(5) http://www.fao.org...