Food Sustainibility
Food based vs. Meat Based Diets
Meat Based Diets
A meat based diet is a diet that is made up off primarily meat products. Many people in the United States run off of a meat based diet. An estimated 2 billion live off of a meat based diet. To accomplish these diets vast amounts of environmental resources are used. There are more than 17 billion livestock in the world. That is almost triple the amount of people in the world. In California it takes nearly 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. This is the same amount of water if you took a 7-minute shower everyday for 6 months.
Plant Based Diets
A plant based diet is a diet that is made up off of primarily fruit and vegetables. An estimated 4 billion people eat a plant based diet. These diets use lots of the earth's resources but not nearly as much as meat. Lettuce, for example, only uses 15 gallons of water to produce. Compared to 2500 gallons that isn't a lot .
Which Diet Is More Sustainible?
When compared to each other the more sustainible diet is the plant based diet. This is because it uses a lot less resources than the meat based diet. The meat based diet is bad for the environment because it takes many resources that are limited and uses them for smaller amounts of whatever it is producing.