The Advantages to Becoming Vegetarian

The advantages to becoming Vegetarian

I recommend that anyone looking for more ways to incorporate environmentally-friendly practices in their everyday life should consider cutting meat out of their diet. I have been a vegetarian for 11 years and have found many ways to get the same nutrition and protein out of my food, and it also tastes great!

Vegetarian Foods

For protein, obvious sources are dairy and eggs. The production of these items also pollutes more than farming plants, but they pollute far less than meat products. Another great source of protein is beans. There are a huge variety of beans, and they can be made with almost any dish; tossing garbanzos into a salad or making a refried bean burrito are a few of these options. An additional option for meals is tofu and other soy products. Most grocery stores sell great frozen vegetarian products that are also easy to make. Nuts are also a great way to get protein, and serve as a great affordable snack if you’re on the go. Eating vegetarian is also a great way to save money; meat options are almost always more expensive than vegetarian ones.

I am a vegetarian not because I empathize with animals; I understand that animals eating each other is part of life. I am a vegetarian because I know that by abstaining from meat, I am contributing less methane and other pollutants into the air, and helping maintain the ocean in its natural state. Popular fish and shellfish such as salmon, tuna, and abalone are nearing extinction because of overfishing. Rules and regulations have begun to outlaw brutal fishing tactics that ravage the ocean floor and all of its inhabitants, but there is still a long way to go. But the bottom line is that no matter how many regulations there are, eating fish, especially fish in risk of becoming extinct, is a detriment to the ocean and our world. I used to eat fish until I watched the documentary Farming the Seas in one of my classes. This film informed me on the severity of the situation of our oceans. I had never realized that the exact fish I ate were becoming scarce, that this was then affecting every other link in the ocean food chain. Becoming informed immediately changed how I behaved, and I urge others to inform themselves too.

Ideally, we would all be vegan and there would be no more global warming. But this is not the case. It is hard to give up the foods you love, and I am not expecting that of you. Simply reducing your meat intake will help us take better care of the environment we live in. I am not vegan, but I try to eat dairy and eggs sparingly, knowing they come at a higher cost. We must be more mindful of what we buy and how it was made and delivered to us, otherwise we will never be able to attain sustainability.

Farming the Seas documentary http://www.pbs.org/emptyoceans/fts/tuna/viewpoints.html