1) Going Vegan Isn’t the Most Sustainable Option for Humanity: This article draws from a now rather infamous study in Elementa, which measured all the land we use for grazing animals and for feeding them, then spat out that number as what we’d lose if we all ate vegan. This failed to account for the fact that even if some grazing land isn’t arable (about 2/3 of the world’s arable land is used for grazing) that doesn’t account for why on earth we wouldn’t use the land we now use to grow food for farmed animals to grow food for ourselves. This study has now been widely discredited on that basis.
2) Why being vegan isn’t as environmentally friendly as you might think: I don’t think you’ve actually read this one. The author brings up some classic issues like avacados and quinoa (which a lot of us don’t even eat, and a lot of you do) but then basically argues at the end that veganism would be even more sustainable if we all bought our food locally. Which most of us will agree with?
3) If you want to save the world, veganism isn’t the answer | Isabella Tree: Written by a commercial dairy farmer. Need I say more?
4) Vegetarian And ‘Healthy’ Diets May Actually Be Worse For The Environment, Study Finds You have read this to find a suitable quote and ignored the rest of what is printed here. The second line in: Update: This story received criticism from our readers. Since it was originally published, we’ve updated the article with some new information and context. That context? The researchers did not find that vegetarians or vegetarianism are harmful to the environment, or that producing vegetables is more harmful to the environment than producing meat.
5) How Vegetarianism is Bad for You and the Environment | Paleo Leap An opinion piece from a pro-paleo website with no sources to back up anything being stated. Seriously?
6) Turns out vegan diets aren’t so good for the environment Somehow even less reliable? A clickbait article from indy100, citing the same discredited Elementa study I’ve already dealt with.
7) The Poor Often Lack Access to Healthy Food: This is behind a pay-wall, so not exactly great evidence, but I found a secondary article citing it, and it’s basically just arguing that food deserts exist and fresh fruit and vegetables are hard to accquire in some areas. I agree with that wholeheartedly, but that is not an argument against veganism, it’s an argument against food deserts and government policy.
As for the classics you’ve pulled out on your own to try and discredit veganism, this has been thoroughly debunked on this site several times. Vegans make up less than 1% of the population, and an even smaller number than that actually eat quinoa. So why exactly is this minuscule number of people being held responsible for the demand for quinoa of the entire western world? Are we suddenly the only ones eating it? Quinoa can be sourced ethically just like avacados can, and the whole “quinoa panic” was based on a single piece from NPR, but just like the other articles you’ve cited here, it did not reflect the reality of the situation, and Quinoa was in fact not harming Peruvian farmers and they were not being priced out of accessing their own crop, as The Smithsonian writes here.
Besides, the idea that quinoa is in someway “our crop” is demonstrably false. Look on any seafood menu and you’ll see that quinoa is served as often with lobster as it is with beans. Don’t get me wrong, there are issues with Quinoa, as there are with all staple foods, which are all increasing in price due to a variety of factors including western demand and global warming. Singling out quinoa just because vegans eat it (alongside a great many meat eaters) and using it as a criticism against an entire movement, while conveniently ignoring the massive issues caused by the mono-crops grown to feed farmed animals, is transparently self interested, just like the rest of the cherry-picking you’ve done in this response.
Pretty much every article you’ve selected here is just a blatant example of confirmation bias, you’ve either not read it in it’s entirety, or only selected the sections relevant to your own agenda. Let’s be honest, you don’t eat animals because you’re just super worried about underpaid workers (who also pick your crops and slaughter your animals) you do it because it tastes good. You, like just about everyone else on this website, decided your opinion on veganism first then looked for some “sources” to confirm your existing opinion. So I implore you, please do some actual research on this, rather than just searching “veganism bad for environment” and copying whatever google spits out. I’ll even provide some reliable sources to get you started:
Livestock’s Long Shadow UN Report
World Watch Institute Report on livestock and climate change
The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness
World Bank causes of amazon deforestation report
Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets
CDC Report: Effect of animal agriculture on communities
A Century of Fish Biomass Decline in the Ocean
Chatham House thinktank report on meat and climate change
Animal agriculture water usage report
The Role of Animal Agriculture in World Hunger report
American Dietetic Association report
U.S National Library of medicine on vegan/vegetarian diets
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on vegan diets
Key findings of The China Study
UN report on impact of meat on health
WWF report on biodiversity loss caused by meat based diets
Bioscience report on animal agriculture water resource use
Water Footprint Network comparison of crop and animal products
Global assessment of water footprint of animal products
Science direct report on water footprint of poultry, pork and beef
Environmental impact of food study
National Academy of sciences biomass and gas emissions report
Slaughterhouse workers human rights report
Report on well-being of slaughterhouse workers
