In order to once again advertise our Support Series — weekly emails from us, The Experts, in which we offer advice, tips, and tricks for navigating a month of veganism — I’d like to bring to your attention the enormous impact you can have by going vegan for just 30 days.
According to Vegan Calculator, a month of veganism saves:
- 33,000 gallons of water
- 1,200 pounds of grain
- 600 pounds of Co2
- 900 square feet of forest
- 30 animals
These are remarkable numbers. Can you even picture what 33,000 gallons of water looks like? It’s about 412 bathtubs full, if that helps at all.
What about 1,200 pounds of grain? Could you lift up a quarter of that? You might wonder whether this is accurate. I don’t eat that much bread!, you’re wondering. Of course you don’t, but farmed animals really do eat that much grain. In order to keep them alive, they need to feed a brain, an immune system, and other costly bodily functions that have nothing to do with producing meat. So only about 1/10th of the calories fed to farmed animals is actually converted into meat calories. By eating grains and other plants directly, instead of filtering them through the bodies of animals, you save an incredible amount of food and other resources.
600 pounds of Co2 is harder to imagine, but it’s a hell of a lot of greenhouse gases. There are different calculations regarding how much animal agriculture contributes to climate change, but researchers agree that it’s significant. By going vegan for just 30 days, you can reduce the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by no small amount.
900 square feet of forest is quite easy to imagine; most of us have seen such an arrangement. You wouldn’t dare cut down those trees yourself, so why should you pay others to do it just so you can consume meat and animal products? You can eat delicious vegan food instead and rest assured that you’re doing your part in reducing deforestation.
Last but of course not least: 30 animals. If you saw these animals stuck in traps or otherwise in a dangerous situation, you’d help them out wouldn’t you? Cows, pigs, chickens (and even fish!) are pretty cute; I think you’d lend a helping hand if they were in trouble. At the very least, you certainly wouldn’t kill them. If you’re like most people, you just couldn’t stomach such an act. 30 animals is a lot of animals. Why pay others to kill them so that you can eat their meat, when you can try many of the wonderful vegan meat substitutes lined up on store shelves?
As you can see, a month of veganism has a significant impact. Even if you’re not planning to go vegan for the long haul, you may find it reasonable to still do a month of veganism once in a while. But if you want to give veganism a real shot to see if you can do it, I suggest starting with our Support Series, where you’ll get the reassurance and encouragement you’ll need to keep going. Hopefully, you’ll find out that veganism is easier than you expected, and you’ll stick with it for good.
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