Cutting out all meat (including chicken and fish) is the next step after beef and dairy.
There are so many reasons to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle – improving your own health, stopping cruelty to animals, reducing your impact on the environment, and saving money. Plus there are so many delicious alternatives to meat.
Don’t worry if you slip up sometimes. 95% there is better than trying and giving up altogether. Do what works for you, but work towards the goal.
Why stop eating chicken?
Chicken has less impact per head than cattle, but there are more of them, and they eat a lot of food. According to Greenpeace, nearly half of the soya the EU imports from Brazil is fed to chickens. This soya is grown on land that used to be rainforest – which accelerates the climate crisis and pushes wildlife towards extinction.[1]
Why stop eating fish?
Eating fish (particularly those caught by large-scale commercial fishing operations) causes significant harm to marine life. In addition to over-fishing (which endangers animals further up the food chain), commercial fishing methods like trawling, gillnets and longlines catch many more species than intended. Affected species include whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks and other species of fish, which may be injured in the process, and are discarded.
Discarded fishing nets and tackle (known as “ghost gear”) make up 10% of plastic pollution in the ocean – and up to 70% of floating macroplastics (the large bits). This plastic waste poses a threat to marine life for decades.[2]
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Step 5: choose a vegan diet
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Step 3: cut out dairy & eggs
[1] Greenpeace.org.uk. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/is-eating-chicken-better-for-the-environment-than-beef/> [Accessed 10 January 2021].
[2] the Guardian. 2021. Dumped Fishing Gear Is Biggest Plastic Polluter In Ocean, Finds Report. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-fishing-gear-is-biggest-plastic-polluter-in-ocean-finds-report> [Accessed 10 January 2021].