Are we morally obliged to become vegans?

S.-J. Conrad

Are we morally obliged to become vegans?

In: Climate change and sustainable development

Author:

S.-J. Conrad

S.-J. Conrad University of Bern, Länggassstrasse 49a, 3000 Bern 9, Switzerland; conrad@philo.unibe.ch

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 367–372

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086867530_0057

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The ecological footprint is, among other things, influenced by nutrition styles. Especially western diets with their high intake of meat, dairy products and eggs produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. Different analyses show that from an ecological point of view a vegan diet overruns a vegetarian or a meet-based diet by far and in all respects. However, diet choices are generally considered to be a wholly private matter. The paper claims that this assumption presupposes some conditions, which arguably do not hold. Namely, that eating is unproblematic. Yet, depending on what one eats one contributes to a different extent to global warming and one’s diet turns out to be either more or less harmful for the climate. Undeniably, it is only the aggregated effect of human actions that generates climate harm, actions related to food consumption being among them. But this merely shows that the individual impact is inscrutable without being unreal. Animal products should be given special attention when evaluating different strategies to live more climate friendly because they all emit large amounts of methane and nitrous oxide. This makes going vegan not imperative, but shows it to be a very promising strategy for individually contributing to a better climate.

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Climate change and sustainable development

Ethical perspectives on land use and food production

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086867530

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 15 Nov 2012

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- Life Sciences

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Are we morally obliged to become vegans?

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Climate change and sustainable development

Ethical perspectives on land use and food production

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