What would the world be like if everyone was forced to become a vegan?

It'd be kind of like prohibition. Everyone would be keeping pigs and cows and chickens and whatever other animals as pets, and gall ding it! Those crafty animals just keep escapin into them thar woods! What's this on my grill, you ask officer? Oh that's just the finest tofu steak you've ever seen! No, really! It's complete coincidence at all that I happen to have come upon these soy miracles just after our dearest Bessie escaped. Yeah, like that, only probably with more organized crime activity and a little less hilarious truth fabricating.

Also, if you could prevent that, there would be a goodly number of people who really and truly would end up malnourished and possibly dead as a direct result. Some people just can't get the nutrients they need without meat in their diet. It's not common, but it does happen.

Aaaaand.... well, collapse of the leather industry. And, really, most other industries as well. Very few consumer products are vegan. None really, if you want to get super strict about it.

There would be a LOT less meat, dairy, and eggs on grocery store shelves. There would be much more stringent government regulation and oversight of the processing of grains, peanut butter, and the like to ensure that no insect parts, rodent hairs, and other treats end up in the food supply. And demand for Vitamin B12, A, D, EFA, and certain amino acid supplements would skyrocket, making their manufacturers among the wealthiest people in the world. Goosestepping and toothbrush moustaches might also come back into style......

How would this happen?

--Government forces everyone?

--We somehow become herbivores?

Open revolt against the government in most areas. Illegal animal trading. Destruction of many traditional lifestyles. Some areas would die due to economic and/or dietary dependance on animals. Famine, economic problems, millions of farm animals left to die. Eventually things would restructure and balance out again.

The bad effects would be lessened the slower the forcing happens.

Forced?

For how long, under what type of forcing?

For the sake of argument, IF everyone became vegan, the world would be a lot nicer. There would be fewer senseless acts of violence, towards people and animals alike. A vegan is concerned with all animals being traeted without harm or exploitation- they are to be left doing what it is they want to do, their own free will to be practices NOT the will of any human taking bits and pieces out of them for food or clothing. So if the humans were doing this, I don't believe war would be in the cards anywhere in the world NOR the senseless razing of rainforests.

LEss damage to the envirronment would occur, as the vegans would figure out ways to grow food harmlessly, and they'd let forests grow once again, using already chopped and recycled wood to make houses and structures.

But you said "forced" , so I'm thinking of a scenario where aliens came to earth and pistol whipped the people into a huge pen, tying them up with ropes and forcing them to eat non animal foods and wear cotton fibres with man made materials.

All said and done, this wouldn't be the same as all those people adopting the vegan lifestyle of their own accord.

If they did, the world would be kind of groovy. BEcause nobody would butcher animals for food anymore. The livestock remaining ( 600 billion) would be let out, presumably would have some kind of food given to them by the people they came across and over the next 30 years would die off slowly. Some might become subject to bears and tigers eating them as would happen in a natural setting. But the rest, say the ones in EUrope in non-bear and tiger countries, would make some areas a little more crowded. People wouldn't mind too much- they're vegans, and cows tend to like bog fields for grazing in.

I'm still on the fence about the "forced" thing.

Healthwise, if everyone was vegan and ate the optimal diet regardless of why they did, the population of planet earth would be 10X healthier.

why is everyone saying there would be too many animals?!?! you ever heard of factory farming? food would be cheaper so less people would starve, the environment problems would pretty much end and people would rebel because they are doing something they would consider terrible and pointless though they would get used to it after a few days, weeks, or month's. it depends on the person.

The hunting section and the general Food and Drinks section would disappear. We would all be "friends of chips", be vegan biologists, be on Yahoo!Answers 24/7 to gain the all important "points" and make things up as we go along to appear smart.

Vegans make up less than 1% of the population. It would be much more practical to force THEM into eating milk/dairy/eggs. Besides it's only a matter of time before vegans make a new "rule" that they won't breath because the air may have at one time touched meat or an animal.

@Everyone saying that animals would overpopulate, etc: You do realize that humans breed those animals for the sole purpose of meat production, and that without our constant interference, they would simply die off.

@Those who say people wouldn't get enough protein: Human life only needs approximately 10% of calories to come from protein, a quota which is reached by all fruit and vegetables, save for those that are completely devoid of any nutrients, such as iceberg lettuce and certain strains of corn.

As for how the world would be, I have a few things:

1) There would be less starvation worldwide. Meat farming is incredibly inefficient, because animals eat large amounts of grain, etc, and produce only small amounts of meat. For each 16 lbs of grain consumed (25000 calories), only 1 lb of meat is produced (~1250 calories). By this logic, if the grain that was used to feed livestock was used to feed humans, we could feed approximately 20x as many people, most likely ending world hunger. Not to mention the fact that livestock also consume an amazing amount of water (2,400 gallons of water per pound of beef, vs 25 per pound of wheat), so that would help even more.

2) There would be less pollution. Calorie-per-calorie, meat farming also generates an incredible amount of waste (11 times that of grain farming). Meat farming alone contributes approximately 20% of greenhouse gases worldwide. Instantaneously stopping meat production would cut out 720,000,000,000,000 lbs (360 billion tons) of greenhouse gases each year.

3) People would be healthier. As long as you don't go out of your way to eat "vegan junk food" (chips, etc), eating vegan is just all-around healthier than eating a rich, meat-filled diet. Read the China Study, by Dr. Colin T. Campbell for more information (some of the book's information can be found here: http://webarchive.human.cornell.edu/chinaproject/i... ).

I could go on for hours, but I'm quite tired. Send me an email at argyletuba@gmail.com, or message me on this site if you have questions. Honestly, though, Google is the best tutor.

Remember prohibition? There would be organized crime and "eat easies" where you could eat blackmarket meat. Oh and cows and chickens would go nearly extinct.

Forced is such a strong word dealing with ppl in general. It will never happen as long there are still ppl like me that only eat food that had a face. My food sh!ts on vegans food :)

If it weren't for primal instinct, and meat wasn't to be consumed it more smell more like a pile of $hit than something tasty. Tho there are those peculiar fetishes, generally speaking humans aren't drawn to turds like flies and there is a reason for that but meat on the other hand is meant to be eaten by humans. I think living a vegan lifestyle is a bit absurd if it's only because you think animals have feelings. It's all a bunch of media hype and really, who gives a damn. They all die eventually whether it's quick and painless as preformed in slaughter houses or quite grueling as seen on the Serengeti. You should make your argument about treatment of animals in front of lions tigers and bears since they too are adapted to eating meat, but they don't give a $hit about the gazelles feelings any more than I care about the animal stun gun that's more "humane" if u ask me.

It wont happen happen because there will always be plenty of people who will resist being "forced" to change to a lifestyle they don't agree with. It is called rebellion!!!