Being a vegetarian is bad??

Question

okay so i have been a vegetarian for 3 years. My friend just told me that she heard vegetarians are ruining the environment because cows farts have some bad chemical in it that ruins the environment. haha it sounds funny but she said it was true. and by eating the cows they were acutally helping them out. Well i told her that even if we did have to eat cows to prevent this, we could at least kill them humanely and not slaughter/abuse them. So we were kind of in this debate. can you tell me which side your on and who you believe is right about this?? thanks =].

Answer 1

Yes, it's true about the farts.  It's the methane gas that is released when ANY ANIMAL farts (including humans).  The methane gas has already burned a hole in the ozone layer.

Answer 2

Read this article and decide for yourself:

http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp

"Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air.9 And meat-eaters are responsible for the production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per second!10 Give up animal products, and you'll be responsible for none of it."

Answer 3

I'm ruining the environment because cows f**t?   The production of beef is what is horrible for the environment.    The amount of energy used just to make 2 lbs. of beef is like leaving a 100 watt lightbulb on for 20 hours.

Answer 4

Well, ask your friend how much land is used for livestock. And tell her that a rainforest is being chopped down to raise cows for human consumption. AND did she know that one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes but only 165 pounds of beef!

Plus; the whole factory farm deal is NOT good the environment. Stay veggie, youre doing the environment a favour.

Answer 5

Well, what your friend said isnt true. But, there are nutrients your body needs in meat so being a vegetarian is bad, but not the way your friend thinks.

I'm on your side, but I am not a vegetarian, its too hard and my mom would never allow it.

Answer 6

its not bad to be a vegetarian

and i dont know if its good either

but i can assure you that what your friend

said to you is a lie

Answer 7

Ruminant animals such as cows and sheep, also emit huge quantities of methane via burping and flatulence. Methane has 23 times the global warming potential of CO2, and the livestock industry alone is responsible for 37 percent of human-induced methane emissions.

and yes i am a vegetarian:)

Answer 8

LOL I think the last thing we need to worry about in this world is cow farts!

Answer 9

No i have respect for vegan and vegs because its so hard to do

and stick to it

and they also respect animals

Answer 10

I am not a vegetarian, but i see your point.

P.s. Cow farts are not ruining the environment

Answer 11

no that isn't true. but nice try for your friend.

rotting animal flesh is gross. id rather die by cow f**t asphyxiation

Answer 12

Your friend's argument that meat eaters are helping to reduce the farting cow population is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.  

If people didn't eat meat, the factory farms on which most cows are pumped full of hormones and slaughtered for the meat-eating public would lose their financial incentive to produce beef and could theoretically use their land to plant grains or crops.

On the contrary, EATING MEAT IS TERRIBLE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!!!

Don't take my word for it, read a recent UN report titled "Livestock's Long Shadow" which I've linked below.  They conluded that eating meat is "one of the most significant contributions to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."  Eating meat causes almost 40% more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world combined.

Answer 13

NO THE PROBLEM IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT SHE SAYS!!!!!!!

factory farms are mass producing cows and their farts contain that stuff i forgot wat its called, and if they are mass produced its hurting the environment. also if there were no factory farms, we would solve world hunger, because if we gave all the grain  and water to the people of the world instead of the animals in factory farms, no one would be starving. and the energy use for factory farms is high too. if ur christian u could also see this video and show it to her too if she is too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KB5ds788...

Answer 14

I cannot believe how ignorant you are, i think you are the stupidest person i have seen on here.

Answer 15

im on ur side.... im not a vegetarian but i would like to be. i think its wrong that people kill animals just to eat them... its not like we dont have any other options. i dont get how we r helping by eating the cows.

Answer 16

Cow farts are ruining the environment because environmental groups (emphasis on the "mental") know dairymen are easy targets because of their ridiculously low voting power in comparison to the hoards of people living in big cities that will mindlessly follow anything told to them if you utter the magic words of "pollution" "global warming" or "climate change."  So, regulation, excessive fees (that do nothing to help air quality but do create job security for hundreds of useless government employees) and impossible permitting processes are imposed on dairymen who will eventually succumb to the regulation and stop dairying, or move to another state where regulations are not so severe.

So, when the dairy industry is decimated in the US and we are buying imported milk from Mexico that is then linked to a food born illness outbreak because of shoddy quality control, remember how we, the most powerful and wealthy country on the planet, ended up s******g ourselves through the effort of a few overly-fervent do gooders who are anything but.  Of course, many in this forum would probably love to see exactly that.  Pay no mind to the fact that the real problem with air quality (if there is one) lies in our pathetically inadequate road system where millions of cars sit idleing every day rather than speedily arriving at their destination (I'm speaking mostly of CA here).

PS.  Your friend is wrong simply through the logical argument that we will never eat all the cows because we produce more cows to take their place.  It has nothing to do with vegetarianism or any other "ism".

Answer 17

Your friend is misinformed.  The number of cows is based on the demand for beef, eating more beef means that farmers will raise more cows to meet the demand.  Cows produce methane in their digestive tracts and methane is a potent greenhouse gas, but the same is true for termites.  The individual termite may not produce much methane but there are a lot more termites in the world than cows so ultimately termites contribute more to global warming than cows.  You are also correct about slaughter operations,  we have an obligation to see that all animals are slaughtered as quickly, painlessly and humanely as possible.  I am not a vegetarian but I have nothing against the lifestyle and I don't think I need to resort to bad arguments to justify my own choices.