If everyone was a vegan the planet would be destroyed?

Completely agree, and why I've always thought being a vegan was silly. We would have to grow such a wide variety of beans, nuts, fruits, and greens in order to get a healthy diet, and yes, that means destroying what is left untouched of the planet. Many nuts and fruits only grow in certain climates, so we would have to quadruple production from those places, and of course whatever grows solely in a cold climate would have to be multiplied as well. We have to do a lot to make sure those things don't get destroyed, and what happens when whether doesn't permit them to grow? We're screwed, is what happens.

All in all, something dies either way... Eat plants: something dies. Eat animals: something dies. I'll stick with balancing out the food chain the way it's always been.

Actually, your FCR ( food conversion ratio) varies drastically depending on what animal you are feeding and what you are feeding it.

Beef does have a higher ratio than say rabbit (1:1) or poultry (2:1) but whether or not it's being raised for market or dairy plays a significant role. Livestock raised for slaughter generally require more food for every pound of product, but for a shorter time than say, a dairy cow. Also, a market beef will require both grass or hay AND a grain of some sort, often a combination pellet or corn, wheat and barley, whereas a dairy cow can produce milk with either hay or grass alone.

As to the comment made that animals take up more water than a plant crop, well, apparently the person who wrote that has no idea how much water it takes to sustain a field of feed corn over a growing season that is a minimum of 90 days and closer to 120 days long. Compare that with 200 cow/calf pairs and you will find the difference significant.

That said, we would have no problem sustaining a mostly vegetarian diet at present and actually already do when you consider the feed already grown right now that goes directly to vegetarian consumers....most of which are poultry, cattle, sheep, goats and for the most part, pigs. They are just not human consumers, but vegetarian consumers, nonetheless. Add in all the wild game like vast herds of elk, deer, antelope, waterfowl and upland birds as well as vermin such as rats, mice, moles, voles, gophers, etc etc and this planet supports far more vegetarian consumers than you first considered and most of that is with land that has not been cultivated for anything outside it's natural use.

So, I find your premise not very well thought out.

EDIT- Not all land and climates are suited for plant growth beyond what it naturally sustains. I live in a semi-arid area of Montana along the Rocky Mountain Front and while it would be nice to gorw pineapples on much of the pasture land around here, it is best suited for the animals that are indigenous as well as domestic ones that are closely related.

In my opinion, being a good steward of the land you live on, includes producing on it what it will produce. It won't produce pineapples here, but it will produce good beef cattle and sheep. Why is is immoral to use it for that?

EDIT to the poster below...actually, most of the beef McDonalds and like restaurants use for their menus is NOT grown in the US. Think Argentina.

I simply don't see how that's feasible. Sure it might be dangerous to domesticated animals, but it might drastically curb pollution and waste. There may be undoubtedly no manner no longer consuming meat/animal byproducts would screw up our planet greater than it is already. The planet is already death, animal and plant species are fitting extinct at an alarming cost and the eco-system is beginning to close down. If that happened i'd just think that us all being vegans wasn't working as well as i'd suggestion it will, even though it's the most drastic step i will think us taking. I believe we would need to ban gas. Fitting a vegan is the quality viable thing you would do to help the environment. I would not stop being one considering the planet saved worsening.

What? Livestock don't eat hay, grass, and seeds. They eat corn and other grains not healthy for them. 70% of U.S. corn goes to feeding animals. 0.027% goes to direct human consumption.

The Amazon rainforest was cleared to let cattle graze. 70% of the deforested land is cattle pasture.

I don't understand why you think that feed fields can't also grow human food. Livestock ARE given things humans can eat.

You also forget that most people in the world get the majority of their calories from plant-sources. The system is already in place for a plant-based diet since that's what almost all humans eat. Humans are only supposed to eat a couple servings of meat a day. There are already an adequate amount of "almond orchards" since almond consumption just wouldn't skyrocket if everyone became vegan.

Animals take many more resources than plants. They take more water, more fuel, and more grain, and pollute much more.

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The majority of chickens eat a corn-based meal. You have a romanticized view of farms. Have you ever seen what animals "munch" on in mainstream farms? And the human diet is ALREADY based on grains. How do you have such little understanding of anything? You're frustrating. This is what happens when people use their own logic to make scientific conclusions instead of relying on experts.

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People already eat a wide variety of nuts and vegetables. Most people in the world don't eat very much meat and already know how to get the nutrients in meat in plant sources.

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Don't respond to William. What he said was just stupid. When the whether is bad, those that rely on animals as their source of energy are ALSO screwed. You've never heard of how droughts effect those that farm livestock in some areas? Of course the majority of our meat comes from factory farms with controlled conditions.

EDIT: The majority of cows don't graze from hay fields. And if you're talking about the Amazon Rainforest, the land is obviously fertile enough to grow human food where it wasn't ruined by cows. We already DO plant all of what we need to survive. You eat the same things as vegans with a little meat. This scenario would NEVER happen ANYWAY.

Actually, for each lb of beef, you need 25 lbs of corn. If the world went vegetarian, we could feed around 12-15 billion people without changing a thing. We just shift the food for feed animals to human food. This has already been studied.

But I'm not for that. I like my bacon too much.

Actually a lot less land would be used up if we all ate veg, the sheer amount of land being used up to graze cows that are used to make your McDonalds burgers is vast.

Answer me this, how come people who eat meat also have to eat veg to stay healthy, yet we can avoid meat and still be healthy?

Gardens taking over massive areas of our earth? How is that any different to the meat industry destroying huge amounts of land in order to build giant factories to slaughter animals?