EVERYONE knows that vegetarian/Vegan is healthier way of life, but the City can benefit in more ways than one. E.g In the new street food program, if there was a stipulation that each food vendor needs to have Vegetarian as well as vegan friendly options, it would speak highly of the city. Not only will vancouverite's cholestrol levels would dip, but also it will make them more aware of being fit and health and conservation etc. the more people know about this, the more action will make us the greenest city that much quicker.

Veganism will change your life and the life of the planet for the better!

Offering widespread vegan options will make Vancouver a TRULY green city. People of the future are going to think we were insane for waiting so long to acknowledge one of the leading causes of climate change!

Going vegan is the best thing one can do for this planet.

Vegan options are not only better for you they are better for the planet. Eat lower on the food chain and everyone benifits.

To produce 1 pound of feedlot beef requires about 2,400 gallons of water and 7 pounds of grain. Considering that the average American consumes 97 pounds of beef (and 273 pounds of meat in all) each year, even modest reductions in meat consumption in such a culture would substantially reduce the burden on our natural resources!!

Scientists have advised that the U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat!

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF MEAT PRODUCTION:

According to a 2006 United Nations initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to deforestation[2], air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change[3], the overuse of resources including oil and water, and loss of biodiversity. The initiative concluded that "the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."[4] In 2006 FAO estimated that meat industry contributes 18% of all emissions of greenhouse gases. This figure was revised in 2009 by two World Bank scientists and estimated at 51% minimum. [5]

In a world of diminishing safe water supplies it is worth bearing in mind that animals fed on grain need much more water than grain crops..[6] In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1.[7] The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the direct harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits for human consumption. A person existing chiefly on animal protein requires 10 times more land to provide adequate food than someone living on vegetable sources of protein.

The environmental impacts of animal production vary with the method of production. A Grazing-based production can limit soil erosion and also allow farmers to control pest problems with less pesticides through rotating crops with grass. In arid areas, however, it may as well catalyze a desertification process. In a world that utilizes around 30 percent of its surface to raise livestock[8], it is important to recognize the potential effects grazing has on the soil.

In July 2009 Nike and Timberland stopped buying leather from deforested Amazon [9] a few weeks after Greenpeace report demonstrated the destruction caused by Amazon cattle ranchers. With relation to global warming the Carbon Dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas. Methane has about 21 times more Global Warming Potential (GWP) than Carbon Dioxide and Nitrous Oxide has 296 times the GWP of CO2. The livestock industry is a major contributor of these gases.[10]

[WIKI-ENVIRONMENTAL VEGETARIANS]

Going Vegan is the easiest way to make to go green and make a positive impact on living beings everywhere, human or animal.

Every two seconds a child starves to death somewhere in the world. Countries such as Ethiopia use their precious farmland to supply North America with cheap meat instead of growing grain foods for their own starving people. Also, Hummer-driving vegans use less fuel and cause less emissions than meat-eating Prius drivers. Going Vegan is really going Green.

Ranching, is “the major driver of deforestation” worldwide, and overgrazing is turning a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert. Cows also soak up vast amounts of water: it takes a staggering 990 liters of water to produce one liter of milk.

Cows in a natural environment get their calcium from the greens they eat. So let us as a community promote green and alternatives to dairy consumption, such as soy beverages, water and fresh fruit juices

Eating animal products produces more greenhouse gas emission than all of transportation. Yet diet change is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change. You don't need to spend millions on infrastructure to go vegan.