Being vegan isn’t as good for humanity as you think

55 点作者 linhmtran168将近 9 年前

12 条评论

cryodesign将近 9 年前

A pretty weak article and omits any new developments in the future of food production.The main argument of the article appears to be that some farm land won't be used (perennial cropland) when people are on a vegan diet. Well, then use that space to build some aeroponic or hydroponic farms [1]. You'll get produce all year around.Other studies have shown that it's not sustainable if we'd have to rely on meat to feed the world. The only reason why we keep eating meat is because it's cultural, traditional and pleasurable. Our society doesn't need meat anymore to survive, plenty of other protein sources available that doesn't involve killing other sentient beings en masse. Even some high performance athletes are relying on a plant-based diet only - making the argument 'you need animal protein to be strong' moot [2]The future of food is going to be plant based [3].[1] <a href="http://aerofarms.com/" rel="nofollow">http://aerofarms.com/</a> [2] <a href="http://thediscerningbrute.com/more-vegan-athletes-rise-to-the-top/" rel="nofollow">http://thediscerningbrute.com/more-vegan-athletes-rise-to-th...</a> [3] <a href="http://beyondmeat.com/" rel="nofollow">http://beyondmeat.com/</a>

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DominikPeters将近 9 年前

Going vegan isn't supposed to be as good for humanity as possible -- it is supposed to be as good as possible for all conscious beings, including non-human animals. It would be rather surprising if the best diet for humans would also be the best diet for humans and animals taken together. On the other hand, it is encouraging that these two goals do not conflict for the most part: The paper only finds pretty minimal land-use efficiency gains if one mixes some animal products into a plant-based diet.

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watchtheworld将近 9 年前

The idea of the vegan diet being "good for humanity" isn't solely about land use which this article focuses on. It's mostly about use of energy.Vegan diet: food from land -> truck -> grocery store -> my mouth.Meat/dairy/what have you: food from land -> truck -> animal's mouth -> truck -> grocery store -> my mouth.And when it comes to meat it means years feeding and water etc. until the product can actually be sent to the store. That's the idea behind it being "good for humanity". A lot of energy/pollution/water use is going into something we simply do not need in such large portions. If we ate less meat (like humans have been doing for most of our history) things would be a lot better for the environment and therefore humanity.

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wlesieutre将近 9 年前

The main point of the article appears to be that the vegan diet doesn't use the perennial cropland. Would be nice if they bothered to mention why. Are the perennial crops 100% feed crops and not something that humans can use, even in crazy reprocessed vegan food substitutes?

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reflexive将近 9 年前

There is an implicit assumption that maximizing the number of people who can be squeezed on to the planet is "good" for humanity. I have never heard a reasonable justification for this. Anyone who's taken a long car trip in an automobile packed to maximum passenger capacity will intuitively understand the counterargument.I'm more sympathetic to the idea of maintaining a population level within which people can live with some amount of dignity e.g. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones#Inscriptions" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones#Inscriptio...</a>

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astigsen将近 9 年前

One thing that is often overlooked is the impact on biodiversity. Nothing kills off as many species as converting an area to cropland. Turning it into an enforced monoculture destroys the habitat for all the other plants and animals that would usually live there.Grazing animals can co-exist with other life, and some cases like forest grazing [1] (which used to be the standard way of grazing animals in europe and is slowly gaining traction again), has been shown to actually increase biodiversity.So paradoxically enough, if what you care about is biodiversity and the livelihood of animals, you might consider reducing your consumption of cropland produced products like vegetables and grains in favor of meats from grazing animals.[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvopasture" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvopasture</a>

johnnybowman将近 9 年前

Don't know why land use would be the determining factor for food access. If the goal is to maximize access to food, that seems like a food distribution problem, and not a production problem. Hungry people need cheap markets, not farms.

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Yenrabbit将近 9 年前

Interesting article. I have long been of the opinion that a little meat is no big deal. However, the argument that we can feed more people with a mostly vegetarian diet vs a full vegan one doesn't mean going vegan is less efficient. If we want the average diet to have less animal products, then if some people completely give up meat it will be better than if they just cut down - they are in a sense making up for everyone else still eating their daily KFC bucket. Until most people are mostly vegetarian, we can still thank the vegans for taking one for the team.

dgax将近 9 年前

The article seems to focus more on instances where food production is a limiting factor. Land use is less of a problem in places where we have (collectively) enough food and people tend to focus more on the very serious environmental impact of large-scale agriculture. In the latter case, I would except a diet lower in meat to fare much better than the alternatives simply because it requires fewer acres to be farmed (or the same acres less often as the article points out) and thus has lower pollution output.

sova将近 9 年前

Rather misinformed. Also, if farmland is the issue, has nobody in the science world noticed the magic of hydroponic cultivation? Vertical gardening is possible, a skyscraper has the footprint of a huge field when you use every floor to grow food. Can't do that with cows.

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mixonic将近 9 年前

Interesting, if a bit vegan shaming :-p According to the research referenced a vegan diet is about 1.8x as efficient as a normal american diet. Seems pretty good for humanity.Limiting meat consumption by ~50% would have a similar sustainability impact to a vegan diet.W.K. Kellogg funded the research. Their grant: <a href="http://www.wkkf.org/grants/grant/2009/02/foodprints-and-foodsheds-tools-for-evaluating-the-sustainability-of-dietary-patterns-and-the-geograp" rel="nofollow">http://www.wkkf.org/grants/grant/2009/02/foodprints-and-food...</a>

solipsism将近 9 年前

Talk about a strawman. The world is no where near 100% vegan. The fact that all of humanity being vegan isn't the most efficient use of our resources has no bearing whether it's better for you, today, to be vegan.100% of humans being cops is bad for humanity. Does that imply being a cop is not good for humanity?