What would happen if the whole world went vegan tomorrow? I respond to this common question about veganism. If the world went vegan, what would happen to all the food animals? What about population control?
This question has been asked many a time of many a vegan. It usually comes in one of two forms: 1) What would happen to all the food animals? and 2) What about population control? Won’t the animals overtake us if we don’t keep eating them?
First off, as much as I’d love for it to happen, the world is not going to go vegan overnight. But let’s say, for arguments sake, that it does. The food industry, like all industries, is all about supply and demand. If we don’t demand animal products, they will cease to be supplied. So farmers would cease breeding animals for food. For the animals that are already there, the worst case scenario would be that, finding there is no longer a demand for their “product”, farmers might abandon or slaughter their remaining animals. In the best case scenario, the animals would be sent to sanctuaries. But even the worst case scenario is countless times better than the continuation of our current system of slaughtering billions of animals a year.
Another common concern brought to vegans is that if we saved all the animals, the world will be over-populated. The argument being that we have to eat them so they don’t overrun us. Now before I go into a factual refutation of this statement, let me just make this analogy: saying that if we didn’t slaughter, eat, and hunt animals, they would overtake us is like farting in a room all day and saying that if you weren’t there to open a window, the stench would overtake you. In both cases, humans are the ones creating the problem.
What I mean is this: the reason there are so many animals is because we bred them. Both with our food industry and with our hunting. We create artificial populations. State wildlife agencies boost deer populations and breed game birds to create hunting opportunities. And our food industry breeds billions of genetically modified “food animals” to satisfy our demand for animal products. If we stopped the demand for both animals products and hunting, the supply would stop in response. The wildlife populations would find their own balance based on predators and available resources.
And let’s not forget the amazing things that would happen if the world went vegan tomorrow! There would be an end to the meaningless slaughter of literally billions of lives, the 80-90 percent of our crops that currently go to feeding our food animals could feed the world’s hungry. The environment could start to heal from the devastation of the animal products industry.
Natural habitats destroyed by industrial agriculture could start to have a fighting chance. No more would mother pigs have to feed their babies while lying cramped in gestation crates. No more would mother cows have their children ripped from them moments after birth. No more would male baby chicks be ground up alive in the egg industry. No more would billions of sentient, innocent beings live tortured, painful, terrifying lives only to be killed without even as much as a thought.
That is what I think of when asked what would happen if the world went vegan tomorrow. And that is the answer that matters.
Now go turn the world vegan!
— Emily Moran Barwick
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Hello, I would love the whole world to be vegan too, but I have a concern. First of all, what would be the economic impact of this? I know some of my friends who work for these meat processing plants, and I wonder what would happen to them? Also, I took this AP Human Geography course and I learned the problem of world hunger was a distribution issue and not the amount of food we create. How could we work to improve distribution? Finally, what about space? I understand that our population is skyrocketing, so we may need places to live…
thanks for your time :)
First, like every business that goes under, others take its place. We will need farmers to farm the new crops, people to harvest and package them, etc. Second it most definitely is a distribution issue but the amount we divert to animals is a hugely wasted resource and a giant step in the right direction if we eliminate it. Distribution must be remedied as well, which is no small task. Space-wise, at least 45% of the US taken up by farmed animals, though I hardly advocate replacing it with people. Feeding people doesn’t need to equate to population explosion.
Solution is to if ppl want eat,wear etc animals products then they must go do the labor,not keep humans slaves including children ,govts of all nations want to turn population to 100% orphans,so they’re forced to eat what is served by institutions,or food banks,like now ground sick cows served in women shelters,foster homes,it’s a business,hospitals,church n sports bbq ,fundraising of all kinds,land grant colleges forced public lands to be turned into big agriculture,by forcing colleges to teach agriculture n mechanical arts,.along w compulsory military training,get the pic? Army to protect big agriculture,n it’s grain based stickmarket,this is using violence to enforce the rape overbreeding of females ,religion s do it to women thru marriage,n economics,single mothers now forced to work in dangerous slaughterhouses,so forced to feed govt subsidized milk from the cow to her child,child n wife labor on farms is very dangerous n unpaid yet forced by tax paid university n 4H clubs etc,overproduction of animals products result s in mountain of dairy n meat thrown out by the shelters n institutions also when prices of animals is low,there’s epidemics of barn fires so insurance payment is higher than sales of the animals,for centuries there’s been overproduction of grains as shown by turning it into hard liquor disease keep docs,nurses etc paid n employed,still solution is like microbiologist n farmer Fukuoka says ,” farming for all”, that’s 100%. Healthy pleasant lifelong Jobs for all,if not excess living g styles,keep on. Stop child labor in Canada n USA ,see child amputees n deaths I. Agriculture
The argument itself is false. Whether or not we farm , we eat animals, it doesn’t matter. As the population grows we will continue to decimate the environment. Let’s just say we only ate vegetables. If all we do is farm we will eventually begin clearcutting for farmlands. It’s not anything to do with animals, plants environment. Civilization must be stopped for the planet to go back to normal. That’s just not gonna happen. But keep on arguing . Without dissension progress would never be made.