Why take up a plant-based diet? Concern for the environment, for animals, for personal health?
Another reason that is not often appreciated is because of the beneficial impact on other people.
Here are some of the ways in which taking up a plant-based diet can be one of the tools to improve the lives of others, here in the UK and around the world
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are some of the most powerful drugs in modern medicine. But any antibiotic use, in people, animals, or crops, can lead to antibiotic resistance in bacteria which reduces the effectiveness of the drugs. Therefore it is important to use antibiotics only when necessary. However it estimated that two thirds of all antibiotics are given to animals mainly to stimulate growth for food production, not to cure disease. Currently the race between resistance and the development of next-generation antibiotics is not looking good with grim implications for humanity.
Antibiotic resistance is likely to be the cause of the next global pandemic
Cheap meat has hidden costs, and the NHS is paying the price [1]
Therefore it is imperative that the use of antibiotics on livestock is dramatically reduced.
Vegan diets help this by reducing demand. Everyone will benefit. [2]
Human Rights
Research by The University of Nottingham describes a culture of exploitation and violence on UK fishing boats. A third of migrant workers on UK fishing vessels who responded to a research survey work 20-hour shifts, and 35% reported regular physical violence [4]
Compounding this, many migrants are forced into these jobs because their own fishing stocks have been wiped out by foreign mega-trawlers which supply cheap fish and feed for livestock to British markets. [5]
Unsustainable exploitation of fish stocks by UK and overseas businesses lies at the heart of these situations. Improved monitoring and enforcement of regulations is part of the answer. But a wider take up of plant-based diets is necessary to drive down demand, and relieve pressure on these countries and their coastal communities.
Indigenous Land Evictions
Europe’s meat industry is driving human rights abuses in Paraguay as indigenous communities are being driven from their land to make way for farms to grow feed for chicken and beef. [6]
Obviously vegans consume soy, and vegans should certainly consider where their food is coming from, but in this case 80% of the global soy harvest is used in animal feed. When people move to a vegan diet they will dramatically reduce their consumption of soy because feeding soy to cattle and other livestock is a very inefficient way to produce our calories and protein.
Mental Health
A paper on the Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment, published in 2021, found that slaughterhouse workers have a higher prevalence rate of mental health issues, in particular depression and anxiety [7],[8].
Another reason to avoid the products of the meat industry, and to support other forms of employment.
Health – NHS
Diet-related diseases are at an all time high.
Dr Shireen Kassam, a haematologist at King’s College Hospital in London has estimated that the NHS could save £30 Billion per year, if the UK went vegan.
These savings could be used to resource other areas of the overstretched NHS [9]
Tax
Do we want our taxes to pay for essential services such as the NHS, social care, public transport, healthy food?
Or to promote ill health and environmental destruction?
Meat and dairy gobble up farming subsidies worldwide; it’s bad for our health and the planet [10]
In the case of the U.S. according to recent studies, the government spends up to $38 billion each year to subsidise the meat and dairy industries, with less than one percent of that sum allocated to aiding the production of fruits and vegetables [11]
In essence, huge amounts of government expenditure are being used to prop up industries that are both harmful and not economically viable.
A taxation system supporting plant-based diets is better for citizens and society
IPPC Climate Change
Earlier this year, The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) published a new report on the impacts, adaptation and vulnerability of countries to climate change, [12]
Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people living in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change, so all possible steps should be taken to address climate change.
The report is clear that this must include changes to diet.
In Butchery of the Planet, George Monbiot points out that Climate Change is an area where the future of humanity is at stake: “We can cut our consumption of everything else close to zero and still drive living systems to collapse, unless we change our diets. All the evidence now points in one direction: the crucial shift is from an animal- to a plant-based diet” [13]
When plant based diets are taken up on a large scale, then everyone will benefit.
References
[1] https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/nhs-paying-costs-of-cheap-meat
[2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/global/2022/may/17/migrant-workers-exploited-and-beaten-on-uk-fishing-boats
[5] https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/press/13347/greenpeace-condemns-massive-plundering-of-mauritanian-fish-stocks-vital-to-food-security
[6] https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/toxic-takeaways
[7] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15248380211030243
[8] https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-slaughterhouse-abattoir-spread-infection-ptsd-mental-health-a9593511.html
[9] https://plantbasednews.org/news/economics/nhs-save-money-vegan-doctor
[10] https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/blog/meat-and-dairy-gobble-up-farming-subsidies
[11] https://www.surgeactivism.org/animalagsubsidiesexplained
[12] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii
[13] https://www.monbiot.com/2018/06/13/butchery-of-the-planet
