Becoming Vegetarian Research Paper

Firstly, becoming vegetarian will reduce deforestation/ land destruction. Our earth can only provide a certain amount of space, which is used by ocean, forest, mountains etc. These areas are home to many different kinds of species that live off of these areas. How much food we grow is not just limited by the amount of available land, but meat eaters need far more space than vegetarians. In the article in the Guardian stated that an average Bangladeshi lives off rice, beans, vegetables, and fruit may live on an acre of land or less, while the average American, who consumes around 270 pounds of meat a year, needs 20 times that. Huge amounts on land are being taken up for consumable animals to live. Nearly 40% of the earth's landmass is growing livestock and food for those animals. In the amazon nearly 80% of the land is being destroyed to be used as cattle pasture. 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are lost each year all around the world due to the meat industry, which is equivalent to 48 football fields every minute stated from the WWF. Therefore, becoming
Picture this, you are ordering a burger from your favorite fast food place. Have you ever wondered how much water was used to produce that burger? An article by the Guardian stated that 20,000 pounds of water are used to produce one pound of beef. Alternatively, 60-108 pounds of water are used to produce one pound of potatoes, wheat, corn and rice. This shows that there is a significant difference between how much water is used for crops compared to meat. Taking into consideration that 1lb of beef requires upwards to 2500 gallons of water to produce compared to only 25 gallons for 1lb of wheat, the water footprint of a person consuming a high meat diet could be 100x greater than that of a person consuming only plant foods. Therefore, all people should become vegetarian because it will stop the amount of water that is wasted for the meat