Title: "A Role of the Vegan Lifestyle in Addressing Energy Poverty"

Submitted:

16th September, 2023

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a vegan as "a person who does not eat or use any animal products, such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, or leather." You might be wondering if such a person really exists - well, they do, and I might be one of them :). Oh wait, no! I am a vegetarian, rather :D. The same dictionary defines "me" as "a person who does not eat meat for health or for religious or moral reasons." The Cambridge dictionary further narrates that some of us (vegetarians) avoid eggs and dairy products as well as meat, and that is indeed true. In my case, I thought that was some kind of abnormality. After studying some biology in secondary school, I realized that this wasn't the case. Everyone in my community thinks that being a vegetarian/vegan means missing out on a lot, but, boy, are you missing out on a bunch of sweet health advantages :).

Back to the point, the world has over 79 million vegans, and you may be the 80,000,000th. By 2040, it’s projected that only 40% of the world’s population will eat meat (RedefineMeat, 2021). While there are several reasons why people turn vegans, RedefineMeat reported that 68% become vegans because they feel mercy for the animals. Awe!

According to BBC Good Food, being vegan carries significant benefits, including but not limited to:

• Supporting weight management
• Promoting heart health
• Lowering blood pressure and cholesterol
• Supporting blood sugar control
• Reducing the risk of diabetes complications
• Lowering the risk of certain cancers
• Benefitting gut health
• Having anti-inflammatory properties
• Promoting healthy skin
• Being a very nutritious way of eating (BBC Good Food, 2023)

It is important to note that being vegan doesn't only benefit human health but also animals and, most importantly, the planet! Now, back to serious business. This September free report dives into how the vegan lifestyle may pave the way to addressing energy poverty. It might sound abstract to you until you read to the end.

Energy poverty is a multifaceted issue that transcends geographical boundaries. More than 2.5 billion people lack access to clean cooking facilities, relying instead on solid biomass, kerosene, or coal as their primary cooking fuel (IEA, 2018), while 1.3 billion lack access to electricity (Washington Post, 2015), with over 50% coming from LDC (World Bank, 2019). These energy-deficient populations face health hazards, limited economic opportunities, and reduced educational prospects.

While it's much clearer that the world is still deficient in energy, it's also important to note that meat has a much higher “energy footprint” than any other food. It takes 75 times more energy to produce meat than corn. And it takes an area of vegetation 7 times the size of the EU to produce food for cattle and other livestock animals in Europe (World Counts, 2023). Moreover, it takes approximately 107,482 Btu to produce a single pound of beef. Most animal-based products require more energy to produce, although beef is the most inefficient. It takes about 42,992 Btu to produce a pound of pork and 15,013 Btu to produce a pound of chicken (SaveOnEnergy, 2022). That could even be a tenth of the energy it takes to produce corn :p.

So, in the long run, producing meat for consumption is much more likely to reduce energy available for other people in the world. In fact, millions of dollars spent on deadly animal farms could be used to develop energy infrastructure to transport energy to places where it's scarce. Last but not least, it is important to note that meat production leaves a huge carbon footprint, posing a threat to Mother Nature. FAO reports that the livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions (FAO, 2023). In a nutshell, the vegan lifestyle would mean a reduction in carbon emissions and the availability of enough energy and funding for developing energy infrastructure.