Are you wondering right now what would happen if the whole world vegan would be? From a vegan's point of view, of course, this scenario is great - but it should also interest everyone who eats animal products, for good reasons. Maybe "this veganism" does have something deeper to offer than simply a plant-based diet 😉.
The world will not be vegan overnight, that's for sure! Nevertheless, with this article I would like to show you the Reasons for veganism and show how life on earth would change positively if all people lived vegan.
Notice: I try to keep the future scenarios short and have linked you to further articles on each topic.
10 things that would happen if everyone went vegan
As a vegan, you become the solution to many ethical, social and ecological problems of our time contribute. The motives for a vegan life are present in such an incredible variety that I cannot even go into all aspects. Nevertheless, I dare here to paint a scenario of the most important changes in a completely vegan world, which will most likely become reality for mankind at some point.
The following things would happen if the entire world went vegan.
1. no one goes hungry
Don't you find it strange that we have enough food to feed 56 billion farm animals every year₁ - but that at the same time more than 800 million people in the world have to starve?₂ To produce one animal calorie, an average of seven plant calories are consumed.₃ If we were to consume the plants directly - and not feed them to billions of "farm animals", we could - scientifically proven - reduce the Stop world hunger.₄
A completely vegan world would therefore be an extremely resource-saving and not only animal-friendly but also people-friendly world.
Tip: More about the global famine can be found in the detailed linked article.
2. no animal suffers or dies for human pleasure
The Factory farming is a brutal system. Not only when you see it through the eyes of the animals, but also when you see it through the eyes of the employees of slaughterhouses. In a completely vegan world, slaughterhouses would only remind us of the acts we humans have done to animals in our evolutionary history.
However, one must in a vegan world not be afraid that cows, pigs and co. are completely threatened with extinction, when the Factory farming stopped was. They are preserved on life farms - in the care of people who do not exploit them, but love them.
Some further articles for you:
- Do animals have to die for milk?
- Why Do Vegans Not Drink Dairy Milk? The Best Reasons to Stop Drinking Cow's Milk
- Animals must die for eggs
- Documentation "Dominion (be sure to check it out!)
3. man-made climate change is end accelerated
Animal products such as meat and milk cover only 18 percent of calories - and about 37 percent of protein - in human consumption. But their production generates around 60 percent of all greenhouse gases from agriculture.₅ This is due not only to the transport of animals and feed, but also to methane emissions from cows. Raising animals for our consumption is therefore a major accelerator of the Climate change.
A completely vegan society would therefore be a society that would have to suffer significantly less or, in the best case, not at all from man-made, climatic changes.
Some further articles for you:
- Connection climate and nutrition
- Stop climate change - What everyone can do
- Will veganism solve the climate problem?
Tip: If you haven't read it yet, you should definitely take a look at my Book "Kochen fürs Klima" throw! There you will learn everything about a fundamentally sustainable diet.
4. deforestation of the rainforests is slowed down
Animal foods take up 83 percent of the land area - but produce only 18 percent of the calories we consume.₆ Therefore, it is not surprising that the increasing demand for animal foods can only be met if additional Natural areas destroyed become. More than 80 percent of the land-intensive soy meal imported into Germany for animal feed, for example, comes from South America₇, where large parts of the Amazon are cultivated every day. Rainforest cut down.
So if the whole world were vegan, the species-rich rainforest would no longer have to give way to our way of life.
Some further articles for you:
5. we enjoy an incredible, new variety of meals
And this applies not only to our own cuisine, but also to food in restaurants. In a vegan world we must not even give up typical meat products, such as burgers, steak, schnitzel or a salami pizza with cheese. The products are only plant-based. For example, the burger patty is made from chickpeas and amaranth, the steak from sides, the schnitzel from soy protein and the salami and cheese on the pizza peas and from coconut oil.
The cuisine of vegan food already holds so many new creations. What might the variety of dishes be like when the whole world is vegan?
Look with pleasure in the Blog with vegan recipes stop by to get inspired.
6. the oceans have recovered
It is not only the Marine animals that we humans eat, which leads to the Environmental problem of overfishing of the seas have led to. Each year, about 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises also die, as well as tens of thousands of sharks, seabirds and turtles as accidental by-catch of industrial fishing.₈ At the same time, fishing techniques such as trawling destroy the seabed or the habitat of the animals.
In a vegan world, the oceans and all their creatures can recover. Because people would simply stop taking the animals out of the sea for consumption or human entertainment in dolphinariums.
Some further articles for you:
7. the unique biodiversity on earth is preserved
Climate change, deforestation of the rainforests, the Land consumption, overfishing of the oceans, big game hunting - our behavior on the planet inevitably results in the Environmental problem of species extinctionthat is currently taking place. About 500,000 species of animals and plants have already Habitat necessary for long-term survival would be necessary, lost to us humans.₉
In a vegan world, wild species reclaim their habitat as we humans leave alone. At Stop species extinction you can now find out what you can do to help preserve global biodiversity.
8. people no longer suffer from water shortage
Every year, each person consumes an average of about 1 million liters of water.₁₀ We Germans alone use about 4000 liters of "virtual water" per capita every day.₁₁ That is the Amount of water required for the entire production of a product.. To make the Environmental problem of water scarcity we must be aware that, for example, more than 15,000 liters of water are used to produce one kilogram of beef.₁₂
If the whole world were vegan, this would not automatically ensure eternally clean drinking water either - but the consumption of water and the Groundwater pollution with antibiotics, Liquid manure and other pollutants from factory farming would be much lower.
9. we humans have less diseases
On average, vegans are slimmer than vegetarians, who in turn are slimmer than meat eaters.₁₃ And vegans are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.₁₄ At the same time, a balanced vegan diet is, according to the American Dietetic Association suitable for all phases of a person's life - including pregnancy.₁₅
We must not expect to remain healthy in a sick environment as the only living beings. In a vegan world, we humans would definitely be healthier. Also pandemics like Corona or animal diseases like BSE would probably not exist.
Tip: I elaborated in a separate article, what we humans can learn from the Corona pandemic. Look gladly times purely!
10. we humans treat each other more considerately
How do you think it will affect our coexistence if we stop artificially impregnating cows, cutting the throats of pigs, or making little Shred chicks? If we consciously decide to stop the exploitation of animals and the cruelty to animals generally, automatically creates an even more greater hurdle to do something bad to other people.
In a completely vegan world, human values such as Mercy, respect, compassion, love and Equality absolutely in the foreground. At the same time, causes of flight such as climate change or water scarcity are also reduced.
Some further articles for you:
"The whole world will never become vegan".
You have now learned ten essential, positive consequences of veganism. But not everyone knows them. And therefore you get also times a saying like "The whole world will never become vegan". to hear. It primarily serves to justify the fact that one continues to be meat. Really sense makes the argument however not. With the following answer you can make your counterpart understand and completely besides advertisement for the Veganismus operate.
A logical response to this argument
I used to think that, too. But at some point I realized that veganism is more than just a passing trend. It's a matter of the heart that you don't suddenly stop. It's a way of life that eliminates so many injustices in the world - but it takes time.
You don't become a vegan because meat tastes so bad, but because your heart says that it is wrong to exploit, torture and kill animals for your own pleasure. The fact that 800 million people have to go hungry₁₆ while at the same time we feed 56 billion farm animals is also an injustice.₁₇ And what do you think about the fact that soy cultivation for animal feed, for example, is responsible for about 88 percent of the deforestation of the climate-protecting Amazon rainforest₁₈, thus depriving the majority of all animal and plant species living on earth of their habitat?
In addition, the livestock industry generates more greenhouse gas emissions each year than all ships, planes, trucks and cars combined.₁₉ We live at the expense of the planet, other people and animals.
So veganism actually counteracts several injustices at once - that's the reason that at some point in the future, everyone will eat vegan. The change in our eating habits is already noticeable. There are more and more purely vegan restaurants and enterprises with larger vegan offer. The variety of meat substitutes and other plant-based foods in supermarkets is growing. In addition, the number of vegans and vegetarians is steadily increasing. Veganism is the largest lifestyle movement in the world and is bringing our values back in line with our actions.
Will we live to see a completely vegan world?
A world in which no one exploits animals for their own meals, entertainment, cosmetics or clothing sounds pretty utopian. Nevertheless, we are heading straight for it.
But how long will it be before our global society is vegan? Looking at other, fundamental injustices in our society can at least help give a rough idea of the approximate duration of change. For example, it took about 400 years for slavery to be outlawed.₂₀ Even though racism is still part of our society, the injustice of slavery has been eliminated.
Speciesism - i.e. the unequal treatment of animals (some we pet, others we slaughter) - could come to an end much more quickly due to digitalization, for example. We will have no choice but to encourage this development and wait for the passage of time.
Do you think there will ever be a vegan world? I am curious about your views and your questions about this article.
Stay compassionate,
PS.: In the animal welfare blog you can learn many more things. For example, learn how to Protect animals in everyday life simply by following your heart.
References:
₁,₁₇ M. P. Rowland: 11 Facts About Your Food That Will Shock You (accessed Jan. 03, 2017), available at https://t1p.de/2sr1. [14.07.2020].
₂,₁₆ Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V.: Hunger: prevalence, causes & consequences (as of 04.05.2020). https://www.welthungerhilfe.de/hunger/. [07.05.2020].
₃ S. Weick; Brot für die Welt; Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V.. (2010): Meat consumption (as of March 2010). https://t1p.de/mav0. [07.05.2020].
₄ M. Berners-Lee, C. Kennelly, R. Watson; et al. (2018) Current global food production is sufficient to meet human nutritional needs in 2050 provided there is radical societal adaptation, available at https://t1p.de/3phy. [07.05.2020].
₅ J. Poore; T. Nemecek (2018): Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers, available at https://t1p.de/3s9t. [14.12.2020].
₆ Earthday.org: Footprints for the future - our foods impact, available at https://www.earthday.org/our-foods-impact. [14.12.2020].
₇ Umwelthelden e.V.: Fleisch und Soja: Warum Massentierhaltung den Regenwald bedroht, available athttps://www.abenteuer-regenwald.de/bedrohungen/fleisch-soja. [07.05.2020].
₈ WWF Germany: Unwanted bycatch (as of 17.09.2018), available at https://t1p.de/9opg. [26.10.2020].
₉ Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, 06.05.2019, p.13.
₁₀ L. Jovanovic: Each person needs 1,000,000 liters of water per year (as of Aug. 15, 2007), available at https://t1p.de/q3ch. [14.12.2020].
₁₁ G+J Medien GmbH; Stern: Water consumption - 4000 liters - every person, every day (as of Feb. 13, 2012), available at https://t1p.de/caxs. [14.12.2020].
₁₂ Federal Environment Agency (2017): Hidden water (as of 22.03.2017), available at https://t1p.de/ddfg. [07.05.2020].
₁₃ E. A. Spencer, P. N. Appleby, G. K. Davey; et al. (2003): Diet and body mass index in 38000 EPIC-Oxford meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans, available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12833118 [14.12.2020].
₁₄ S. Tonstand, T. Butler, G. Fraser; et al. (2009): Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19351712. [12/14/2020].
₁₅ American Dietetic Association; W. J. Craig; A. R. Mangels: Position of the American Dietetic Association: vegetarian diets (as of July 2009), available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864 [24.07.2020].
₁₈ DEUTSCHER TIERSCHUTZBUND e.V.: du und das tier, Rinter als Klimasünder (offprint), available at https://t1p.de/zpkd. [07.05.2020].
₁₉ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): livestock's long shadow environmental issues and options, available at http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e00.pdf. [07.05.2020].
₂₀ A. Mendgen: 400 Years of Bondage (Accessed 22 Aug. 2019), Available from: https://t1p.de/6jqa. [14.12.2020].
