Young people like me are going vegan. That’s bad for the environment

Going vegan is all the rage. I always watch it. I’m in my early 20s, and I’ve lost count of how many of my co-workers have switched to a so-called “plant-based” lifestyle.

Young liberals care deeply about the environment and want to do what they can to stop what they see as the “climate crisis.” They think going vegan will help. What they don’t realize is that by ceasing to eat meat, they may actually be harming the planet.

According to polls, veganism has increased significantly in recent years, especially among Millennials and Gen Z, with 1% of all Americans now calling themselves vegan.

This trend correlates with more extreme views on climate change among young liberals. Left-wing environmental groups such as Greenpeace and PETA actively campaign for people to stop eating meat and switch to veganism.

Vegan diet vs. meat-based diet: What happened when identical twins followed different meal plans

The relationship between climate change and animal foods is firmly entrenched in the minds of young people. The story is that since agriculture and meat production cause greenhouse gas emissions, going vegan is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint and, in turn, save the planet.

Unfortunately, the truth is quite different.

While it’s true that the meat and dairy industries emit polluting gases that contribute to climate change, going vegan doesn’t necessarily make things better. Eliminating meat and dairy products from the diet forces young vegans to switch to other products that often cause further damage to the environment.

Let’s take protein as an example. A healthy diet requires an adequate amount of protein. Meat, eggs, and dairy products are all major sources of protein, but are out of bounds for vegans.

‘Vegan’ labels may be pushing consumers away: more people will reach for foods labeled ‘healthy’, study finds

There are plant-based protein sources such as beans and lentils, but even liberal young people need variety in their diets. Who wants to eat beans for every meal, three times a day, seven days a week?

Inevitably, young vegetarians turn to other protein sources, often marketed as “meat substitutes.” These products are a way to make boring but plant-based protein sources like beans more interesting to consumers, including making them look and taste like meat. For example, many meat substitutes such as tofu and tempeh are made from soybeans, which have a high protein content.

Soybean cultivation is a disaster for the planet. Focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, as vegan activists often do, overlooks all the other ways that harmful products like soy can damage the natural world.

Volunteers serve vegan hot dogs at the PETA Congressional Veggie Dog Lunch outside the Longworth House Office Building on July 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Influencer reportedly died of starvation due to raw vegan diet

For example, soy cultivation promotes deforestation. To grow soybean plants, farmers must clear land by cutting down many trees. Soybeans are very inefficient and take up a lot of space. This means that it requires much more deforestation than other similar legume plants.

It goes beyond deforestation. Growing soybeans also causes a phenomenon called soil erosion, which makes it nearly impossible to use the soil in which soybeans are grown to grow other plants in the future.

Soybean cultivation also consumes large amounts of water and is known to cause drought. In fact, soybean cultivation has such a negative impact on the planet that even the environmental NGO WWF opposes it.

Soybeans are destroying the earth little by little. Did young vegans consider this when they ditched beef burgers for soy burgers?

Soybeans are harvested on a farm near Brasilia, Brazil, on March 4, 2022. (Andresa Enhalte/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Reddit user’s fiancé compares eating meat to slavery and says he is raising his children vegan

The problem goes beyond meat substitutes. Going vegan also means giving up dairy products.

Young people on a plant-based diet must make their coffee with something other than milk. Popular ones include almond milk, which caused a drought in California. Also, growing almonds requires so much pollination that it requires 70% of America’s commercial bee population each year, killing about a third each season.

They may choose coconut milk instead, which has dire consequences for soil fertility. Oat milk is another favorite of millennial vegans, even though it often contains glyphosate, a herbicide that is the natural equivalent of kryptonite.

A True Vegan Lifestyle: Exploring Your Journey to Compassionate Eating

Rice milk, a less common milk substitute, emits methane just like dairy cows. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it may also contain arsenic. And, you guessed it, there’s soy milk, which is made from soybeans.

Everywhere you look, vegan alternatives to meat and dairy are proving to be far worse for the planet than the animal products they are intended to replace. Millennials and Gen Z adopt children Plant-based diets have been fooled by the eco-food industry to make a quick buck on environmental consciousness while damaging the natural world.

The simple truth is that what is happening among young vegans has never happened before. For most of human history, our species has been omnivorous, eating food derived from both plants and animals. Never before have millions of people decided to become herbivores and abandon food of animal origin.

For more FOX News opinions, click here

That’s a recipe for disaster. Humans need a balanced diet, and so does the planet. Quitting animal products may seem like a great way to stop climate change, but it actually means creating a host of new problems for nature.

If young liberals really care about the environment, they should think more carefully about their dietary and lifestyle choices, and not take the word of environmental groups like Greenpeace at their word. do not have.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP