Vegetarianism simply put is a diet which abstains from the consumption of meat and sometimes animal biproducts (dairy and eggs) and only consumes food derived from plants such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains. There are a number of variations to a vegetarian diets where some people consume eggs and dairy (ovo-lacto vegetarians) and others do not consume any animal products and use products derived from animals (vegan).
 
Due to the increase in meat consumption, almost a third of all the land on Earth is used for livestock production. Livestock production uses about a quarter of the world’s grains as it can take up to 12kg of grain to product 1kg of beef. This leads to rising grain prices and makes it more difficult for the impoverished people to obtain food and nutrition.
 
The Worldwatch Institute estimates that 70% of the world’s freshwater supplies goes towards agriculture; a third (23.3%) of this is to grow crops for animal feed.
 
Not only is livestock production taking away grains from the impoverished and depleting clean water, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that livestock production is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while other organisations have estimated it could be as much as 51%.
 
A further study in 2020 by the Oxford University study found that, even if harmful greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels were stopped immediately, it would be impossible to keep global heating to the lowest safe limit without a shift to a more plant-based diet.
 
Therefore we have reached a stage of the Earth’s life where we need to do more to save our planet and the future of our descendants. If we do not do something to lower the carbon and greenhouse gases emissions we will soon ran out of clean fresh water and food together with the extinction of biodiversity of animals and plants.