"Vegetarian diet helps protect environment". How do u think abt that?

Absolutely nothing!

It's true. You lower your carbon footprint by being a vegetarian (or vegan). Simply being a vegetarian may also prompt you to choose products that are, in general, more environmentally friendly, also.

I just think if you start to think of yourself as an environmentally conscious person (e.g., you're a vegetarian therefore you're helping the environment), that you'll (perhaps unconsciously) start to act in other more environmentally friendly ways, because you want to become a better person and even MORE environmentally friendly.

Have a great day! =)

It is true. It is to do with the way energy and nutrients flow through an ecosystem. All the energy in our food chain comes from the sun, and is converted into usable forms by plants, fungi and algae. Animals eat these to obtain energy they require for metabolic processes, then other animals eat these animals and so on up the food chain. But with every step, energy is lost by the animals as they use it up themselves; so it requires more plants to feed a carnivore indirectly than it does to feed a herbivore directly. Plus larger animals have higher energy requirements, so large herbivores like cattle, deer etc require massive inputs to become meat. As a result, an ecosystem can support fewer carnivores than herbivores.

Here is a diagram outlining energy flow through trophic levels:

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/sci_Ed/grade10/ecology...

Now consider the species you see occurring in large numbers, they are never at the top of the food chain. There are almost 7 billion humans on our planet. There would be very few terrestrial vertebrate species numbering this many, if any. The species that do occur in large numbers are herbivores- rabbits, birds, grazers in africa etc. So because we are not obeying the law of nature by maintaining fewer numbers we put HUGE pressure on ecosystems to support us.

There is so much evidence of this the United Nations has been saying we need to reduce the numbers of livestock which are produced for some years. By the time the UN recommends something like this, the science is well and truly settled. Daisy may not understand it, but the world's top biologists do; and they are who we should be listening to.

UNFAO Livestock's Long Shadow (2006) http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM

UNEP Assessing the environmental impacts of consumption and production (2010) http://www.rona.unep.org/documents/partnerships/SC...

Edit: sorry this is the diagram i meant to post above: http://www.bcb.uwc.ac.za/sci_ed/grade10/ecology/im...

well, even at the most basic level, farming is bad for the environment. when you raise an animal for the purpose of eating you have to feed it something. it uses far less farmland to simply eat vegetable than have an animal eat vegetables and then eat the animal. add to that all the hormones and such that we give to livestock that get in their feces and get into the water supply... yes, a vegetarian diet is much better for the environment.

I think it is a fact. Modern meat production puts a large strain on the environment. It is part of the reason why I am a vegetarian.

A vegetarian driving a Hummer, everything else being equal, has a smaller ecological footprint than a meat eater driving a Prius.

In my view, vegetarian diet helps people healthy and environment clean.

Intensive livestock farming puts a huge burden on the environment. Crops for animal feeds are grown using heavy doses of fertilisers and pesticides. Globally, livestock herds account for 18% of greenhouse gases and 13 billion tonnes of farm waste produced each year leads to high levels of damaging chemical such as ammonium nitrate polluting land, water and air.

I am highly against the corporate production of my food. It is the most unhealthy thing you can put in your body. In saying that, I love meat and chicken and fish. Which is why I buy from locals, it is always cheaper and tastes way better than that packaged crap you buy at Wal-mart. I have my own garden for vegetables. So, I have nothing against vegetarians. But, I like meat too much to give it up so I just refuse to trade them my money for their shitty food.

Well, it depends. You can grow crops responsibly or not no matter what use they will be put to in the end. It's true that it takes many pounds of plant matter to produce one pound of meat-many more people can be fed on a plant food diet for the same cost to the envoronment.

Awww GC is using one of his many clones to ask a question so he can be picked Best Answer!! How cute!!

What's the matter, can't use the voting method anymore because Yahoo is watching?

That's the main reason I went vegan.