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Argumentive Essay - Reilly Milligan
Argumentive Essay - Reilly Milligan
Argumentive Essay - Reilly Milligan
Reilly Milligan
Matthew Garrett
11 November 2020
More than 200 million animals are killed every day all around the world for a food
source. These animals are often put through torture their whole lives and then killed. To stop
these animal’s suffering, should more people go vegan? Quite possibly, yes. Going vegan does
not just stop at helping animal cruelty but it also improves one’s health and benefits the
environment.
Being vegan ends up benefiting and helping the environment a lot, actually. Tiffany
Francis wrote, “You don’t need a science degree to understand why veganism is one of the
easiest steps we can take towards healing our planet, but the benefits extend even further than
you might think.” In Tiffany Francis’s article, she talks about the environmental benefits
veganism has on Earth. Francis explains “Every second, an area of rainforest equivalent to a
football field is cleared to rear and graze animals for the meat and dairy industries. Contrary to
claims that vegans are driving deforestation through the demand for soybeans, in reality up to
70% of global soy production is destined for animal feed, not humans.” This statement shows
that more people going vegan would be better for Earth’s environment. Tiffany Francis also
proves that going vegan stabilizes and replenishes oceans and seas by lessening the acidity in the
ocean and lowering the number of nets used to catch fish in the sea that other innocent sea
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creatures are being caught on. A study conducted at Oxford University found that a person’s
reasons and more are why more people should go vegan to save the environment and stop animal
cruelty.
Animal cruelty is not just the awful slaughtering of animals for their meat and
by-products, it is the life these animals are forced to suffer through before they killed for humans
to have a meal when there are other options out there. For some, when learning about and seeing
exactly what tragedies these animals are put through just to feed people, it turns them vegan.
Some might ask, “Are these animals’ lives really that bad?”, and the answer to this question is
undoubtedly, yes! These animals are put through absolute torture. For example, in the
documentary Dominion, directed by Chris Delforce and Lissy Jayne, the viewer is shown
graphic images of male chicks and deformed female chicks on a conveyor belt being dropped
into a macerator, which is an industrial blender. These baby chicks, which are only one day old,
are being ground up into almost nothing because they can not produce eggs and are not the
specific breed of chicken that is killed for its meat. Therefore, these baby chicks are marked as
‘worthless’ to the industry and massacred. The female chicks that do survive this blender are sent
to housing farms where they are put into small cages with four to twenty other hens in there with
them. These hens lay so many eggs they lose their feathers due to the physical stress they are put
through and it destroys these hens’ health. After eighteen months of these chickens’ living in
poor conditions, they are either suffocated or slaughtered. This is just one of the many examples
of the ways animals are tortured for their products. The way these animals are treated is not
right! Carrying on about the morally ethical reasons to become vegan, causing suffering to
animals through essentially imprisoning them in non-ideal conditions before slaughtering them
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undoubtedly causes suffering to the animals no matter how you look at it. The moral argument
against vegans is wrong. Animals are put through so much torture, it not right! This furthers my
point that more people should go vegan so fewer animals will be forced to suffer for humans’
consumption when there are other options that avoid this torture and suffering.
Having a vegan diet also has a lot of health benefits that go along with it that could even
save lives. An article written by Chrissy Matthies, explains some of the many benefits that come
with a vegan diet. The writer explains that having a vegan diet can help prevent type two
diabetes and also reduce your risk of cancer as well as many other diseases. The writer also
mentions that a vegan diet can promote weight loss. Another article titled, “Health Benefits of a
Vegan Diet”, also mentions that a vegan diet lowers the chances of getting certain types of
cancer, such as colon cancer and that it helps “manage diabetes by lowering A1C levels.” In
addition, the writer states that this diet can “Reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering
cholesterol levels.”. The writer of this article goes on to explain the ways to make a vegan diet
healthy with all the nutrition a person needs. Protein, vitamin B12, essential fatty acids, iron, and
vitamin D are all talked about in the article and explains the ways to obtain these nutrients
without consuming animals and avoiding their suffering. These articles are very useful in
showing how to have a healthy diet as well as a more healthy life because of the benefits behind
a vegan diet. This proves that more people should go vegan to help a person’s overall health.
Some might say that veganism is bad for the environment; people like Charlie Parker.
Parker explains “The spread of veganism will not solve climate problems linked to the farming
sector and could even harm the environment, scientists have warned.” he continues to say that if
the whole planet went vegan then it would destroy the planet. However, this is not about the
whole world going vegan. It is about educating more people about the benefits of going vegan.
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Parker, earlier in his paper, conveys the environmental benefits of more people going vegan.
Tiffany Francis explained in her article that people who are vegan actually help the environment.
Francis stated that being vegan helps rainforests, oceans, seas, and carbon emissions get better
and stabilize. This easily proves that vegans actually help the environment more than they hurt it.
After looking at all the facts and benefits of going vegan, it is safe to say that more
people should go vegan. It is clear that even though some might say that going vegan is bad for
the environment it is actually more helpful to the environment than anything. It can also be said
that the torture animals are put through their whole life for their products is not right and should
not be tolerated. More people going vegan could ultimately help animals live a proper, happy,
and healthy life. Going vegan can still give a person the same nutrition as a meat eater and will
also benefit one’s health by reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and type two diabetes,
which gives people all the more reason to go vegan. Ultimately, these are all wonderful examples
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Work Cited
Francis, Tiffaney. “6 Surprising Ways Veganism Helps the Environment.” Vegan Food & Living,
3 Mar. 2020,
www.veganfoodandliving.com/features/6-surprising-way-veganism-helps-the-environme
nt/.
Matthies, Chrissy. “7 Fantastic Health Benefits of Eating Vegan.” PETA UK, 27 Dec. 2019,
www.peta.org.uk/living/vegan-health-benefits/.
www.farmtransparency.org/videos?id=90cf4bb762.
Parker, Charlie. “Vegans Could Be Bad for Environment, Say Scientists.” News | The Times, The
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vegans-could-be-bad-for-environment-say-scientists-k55s7ck
Soble, Jeffery. “Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet.” Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet | Rush System,