During the green revolution, the production of certain foods, mainly rice and wheat, increased. It resulted from better varieties getting introduced in developing countries. Drawbacks concerning long-term environmental sustainability included the increased use of chemicals in relation to the green revolution (Rahman, 2015). The introduced varieties demanded more pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers as compared to the previous varieties (Richard et al., 2016). When used over time, these chemicals pollute the soil by increasing toxicity, reducing its fertility, and contributing to erosion. The greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production take approximately 15 percent of the total global emissions. This percentage is more than the emissions of all automobiles, planes, and trains combined. The second surprising fact is that agriculture is responsible for approximately 70% of freshwater consumption. Cereal crops, fruit, and garden vegetables need 1,600L, 900L, and 300L to make one kilogram of produce. However, to make a kilogram of chicken, you need 4,000L. A kilo of pork needs 6,000L while that of beef requires 15,000L. The third fact is that in calorie-to-calorie comparison, not all vegetarian foods are better than animal products environment-wise. For instance, when comparing a single calorie of lettuce against a single calorie of bacon, the lettuce releases more greenhouse gases and is, therefore, more harmful to the environment. Vegetarian consumption increases land use and displacement of natural resources such as the depletion of rainforest in Mexico for avocado production expansion (Martindale, 2017) . Besides, when a plant is harvested, it comes with all the nutrients gotten from the soil thereby exacerbating soil erosion. This is unlike when an animal is removed from a field in which case the field remains intact. Therefore, fields used for crop production are more soil eroded than those utilized as pastureland ( US Department of Agriculture , 2009) . Adopting a vegetarian diet entirely would increase soil erosion thus increasing environmental destruction. I do not think I have any social or environmental responsibility to change my diet entirely and become a vegetarian. Statistics and research show that vegetarianism has environmental effects. Therefore, changing my diet to being a vegetarian will not necessarily influence the environment since I will be changing from one type of environmental pollution to another. However, I believe that I can do a few changes to my diet such as adopting USDA my plate.
References
Martindale, W. (2017). Non-certificated palm oil is linked to deforestation. Retrieved July 6, 2020, from CNN website: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/06/health/vegetarian-diet-conversation/index.html
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Rahman, S. (2015). Green Revolution in India: Environmental Degradation and Impact on Livestock. Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution , 12 (1). https://doi.org/75-80
Richard_T.Wright_DorothyF.Boorse(2016).Environmental_Science__Toward_A_Sustainable_Future-Pearson_2016.pdf
US Department of Agriculture. (2009). Summary report: 2007 national resources inventory. Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC, and Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (p. 123). Retrieved from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1043209.pdf
