Study: What would happen if the whole US decided to go vegan.
https://gizmodo.com/new-study-shows-what-would-happen-if-the-us-went-vegan-1820429136The researchers looked at hypothetical changes to the entire livestock process, including people and industry, fuel, and raising crops for animals, for example. They found a 23 percent increase in the amount of food available—mainly in grains—and a 28 percent decrease in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. However, they only found a 2.6 percent decrease in overall greenhouse gas emissions. They also found deficiencies in the American diet’s essential nutrients.
Many will probably remind me that it is possible to live healthily on a vegan diet, though doing so might require supplements and extra work, including producing more of certain calcium and Vitamin B12-containing foods. Others might remind me that meat replacements like plant-based burgers and lab grown meat should be taken seriously.
----------------------
I see the B12 as the big problem. The only vegan food that contains enough B12 for a human diet (without vitamin-pills as supplements) is the japanese seaweed Nori. So unless the US starts farming Nori on a national scale, there's no way a nation-wide vegan diet could work.
= new reply since forum marked as read
As another responder has already pointed out, humans have evolved as omnivores. Veganism is fine for those who choose it. But it's a bit wackoloon to me to suggest that we all go down that path.
And raw vegans are total wackaloons. The next step is fruitarians who just die. Or breathairians who are all fucking liars.
I eat less meat these days. I could deal with a vegetarian diet, but vegan is just plain stupid. No dairy or eggs? Blech! That means no cheese, no ice cream, no pizza, no omelets!
Screw that!
Click throughs are costly here in the national forest whereas DU is very efficient.
It won't be the first time people have fallen victim to the insidious headline writer.
Mea culpa!
It reminds me that I need to buy and use more seaweed. I know that farmers in Maine are getting more involved in production of seaweed. I like it - I just toast it on the stove.
I also use a lot of yeast on my foods - I really like it (so expensive, though!) and it has a lot of B12. I think it's an acquired taste... Though when we were in Portland Maine last year I bought popcorn that had lots of herbs and yeast. Although I use it on popcorn all the time at home, I was surprised that there was now a commercial market for it. (So, I guess the taste is popular enough for that 
.
I'm a long time vegetarian - and while I'll never be quite vegan, I do aspire to be more vegan .
I just wonder why vegans seem to love to promote their dietary choices to everybody else. As I wrote above, I find it presumptuous.
Plus, it's a horrible, tasteless diet. But that's just my opinion.
Eat what you want, but keep it to yourself.
My best to you.
Wherever we go we are bombarded with advertisements for meat products. Think about it the next time you listen to the radio or watch tv or look at billboards on the highway. Discussions from friends and family are very frequently about how great this animal product tastes or that animal product from such and such a restaurant.
It's not easy for us to see and hear this on a daily basis and feel that if we voice our opinions we are met with "keep it to yourself".
We aren't allowed the luxury of saying "keep your opinions to yourself" when it comes to discussions food.
I have heard the joke "How do you know someone is vegan? They will tell you. I turn that joke around and say "How do you know someone is an omnivore? Don't worry they will tell you. That gets a look of confusion from people. Then I remind them they constantly discuss eating meat dairy and eggs.
BTW for the most part I keep my mouth shut when omnivores talk about food. I try to tune it out.
Just another perspective and this is a thread about the vegan diet so I feel it's ok to express it here.
My best back to you .
I just do not understand vegan. Why no dairy or eggs? I buy eggs locally from a small farm. I am lactose intolerant, so I only eat cheese. Sad, no more ice cream for me.
If you want to be vegan, have at it Hoss.
I choose not to go that route. And it has nothing to do with insensitivity to animal suffering, which is the card vegans universally play in these discussions. Look at nature for once. There you see suffering.
Evolve, as in become a vegan? No thank you.
I was brought up to be polite even in disagreement. That apparently is not a good thing to you. Sad.
My best to you. Respectfully.
I am not ignorant, however. I just disagree with some of your philosophy.
Nature is simultaneously a wonderful and horrible thing. Charles Darwin was absolutely horrified by the Ichneumonidae, the parasitic wasps whose progeny eat their prey alive. I see none of that here in the chicken farms where I get my eggs. The dairy farms here likewise have free ranging bossies grazing. Although I no longer eat much dairy, except hard cheeses, the cows are treated ethically here. Not everywhere is nature raw tooth and claw. That is how humans can make a difference.
As I wrote above, I eat less meat in my old age. But I am still an omnivore. I buy local because that's what's available here in the national forest. I am happy for that because despite your implication, I do care about ethical treatment of animals. And I feel strongly that eggs and milk do not preclude that. Granted, I eat meat, too -- and fish. But that is my burden, not anybody else's. I don't expect to be maligned for that which the vast proportion of humanity does also. And that which nature does in spades, with far less ethics.
Thank you again. I hope you consider this colloquy was as productive as I did.
Always, with respect.
