Veganism is the Best Lifestyle for the Planet, Animals, and Human Health

Hello, thank you for taking the time to read my position on veganism. Living a vegan lifestyle is the best way to ensure your own personal health, as well as the stability of the environment, and the health and happiness of sentient beings. ENVIRONMENT: Animal agriculture is an absolute disaster for our planet for many reasons. It is a major cause of deforestation and ocean dead zones. There is a constant demand for more land to keep livestock and grow crops to feed said livestock and most of the time, the only available land is covered by forest. Forests are an extremely important part of keeping the planet's climate in check and provide habitats for wildlife. The waste from the animals ends up in our fresh water and in the oceans, which creates incredible amounts of pollution, which create dead zones in the oceans. Factory farms majorly contribute to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In fact, animal agriculture adds at least 32 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere EVERY YEAR. There is also the ridiculous amount of methane produced by cattle. In addition to all of this, animal agriculture is a massive waste of water. Think about it, there are millions of animals that drink many, many gallons of water every day. Agriculture uses around 70% of the world's fresh water. That water could be going towards humans who need it and towards sustainable crops to feed humans. The land used by animal agriculture could also go towards growing sustainable crops for human consumption, which would result in diminishing world hunger. HEALTH: Consuming animal products increases our chances of serious diseases and shortens our lifespans. Proteins in animal products can not be properly and fully digested in our systems. Consumption of animal products contributes to cancer, heart diseases, and strokes, among other issues. Animal products also change the pH in our bodies, creating a great environment for bacteria and cancer cells to thrive. This pH change in combination with the proteins and hormones (particularly from dairy) also decreases our bone density, which ultimately results in osteoporosis. Animal products are also dangerously high in saturated fats and cholesterol, which are common knowledge awful for our health, and are the main causes of the health issues from animal products. ETHICAL Humans exploit and enslave animals in a multitude of ways, but here, I will focus on the food aspect. I will start this with dairy. Humans are the only animals on the planet that not only continue to consume milk after they are weaned from their mothers, but we are also the only ones to take the milk from mothers of different species. Dairy cattle are forcefully bred each year, and within a couple days of a cow's calf being born, her calf is ripped away from her and forced into a veal crate. If you are against veal, you are also against dairy, because without dairy, there is no veal. These cows live in unforgivable conditions. More often than not, they don't even have room to even turn around and they spend their days up to their ankles in their own waste. They are hooked up to milking machines which hurt the cattle and create open sores on their udders. Keep in mind that the blood and pus from these open sores ends up in your milk, along with traces of feces and urine. Beef cattle are packed like sardines into holding pens and live (and die) in extremely stressful, traumatizing conditions. Killers attempt to knock the cattle unconscious before hanging them upside down and slitting their throats, but more often than not, the cattle are still alive throughout the entire process until they eventually bleed to death or choke to death on their own blood. Both egg and meat chickens live either in tiny cages or packed warehouses. These chickens are packed with hormones to grow faster and to produce more eggs. The chickens endure debeaking (having the tips of their beaks burned off) while fully conscious with no painkillers or aftercare. Once chicks hatch from eggs, if they are male, they are typically ground up alive, and if they are female, they are forced to live the miserable life of an egg laying hen. Pigs also live in very confined spaces and up to their bellies in their own waste. There are so many atrocities, I can not list them here. If you take the time to watch Earthlings (link is in my sources) you will see just how cruel humans are to animals. Animals are sentient, self-aware creatures who want to live and be healthy just like the rest of us. They feel fear and pain their entire lives up until the very moment they are brutally murdered. FINAL THOUGHTS Human beings were never supposed to consume animal products on the scale we do today. It is unsustainable for our planet and our own well being. If we were meant to eat it, we would be able to eat it raw without worries and we wouldn't have to season and marinate it in order for it to taste good to us. Animal agriculture is unnecessary and detrimental. You can get the same exact flavors from plant based items and far more health benefits. VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR AND YOUR LIFESTYLE. SOURCES Environment https://news.mongabay.com... https://www.mission-blue.org... http://www.independent.co.uk... http://www.ibtimes.com... https://academic.oup.com... http://www.cowspiracy.com... Health https://www.hsph.harvard.edu... http://www.pcrm.org... Ethical