Vegetarianism and the environment

If you enjoy eating vegetarian recipes your health is not the only thing that will benefit. If you choose to become a vegetarian you’ll not only be sparing many animals from a potentially painful death, you’ll also be helping the environment.

Unbeknownst to many, the meat industry is having a detrimental effect on the natural world. Feeding animals we then eat uses up valuable resources. Vast swathes of rainforest in Brazil and pine forests in China are being decimated to make way for grazing land and to grow crops that will support animals until they're slaughtered.

In the US, cattle, pigs and poultry drink more water than people, while the animal and chemical by-products of raising animals pollute waterways. Another worrying contributing factor are the noxious, global-warming gases such as methane that are generated by mammoth numbers of cattle. Eating less meat means you’re helping to combat global warming.

There is one more motive to opt for a vegetarian recipe over a meat one and that's famine. The huge amount of grain that goes towards feeding animals we eat is better off nourishing the millions of people afflicted by food shortages. In the current global economic crisis it’s an important factor to take into consideration.

There have never been so many reasons to become vegetarian. Switching to vegetarian recipes will not only help to reduce your ecological footprint and save the planet: you’ll be working towards eliminating animal cruelty; you’ll feel better and you’ll live longer.