Towards a plant-based diet | Benjamín Sigurgeirsson | TEDxReykjavik

Benjamín Sigurgeirsson has a PhD in Biotechnology from KTH, Stockholm. He is currently working as a teacher and researcher at the Faculty of Life- and Environmental Sciences at University of Iceland.

In his talk at TEDxReykjavík, Benjamín says that through little fault of our own, we are now consuming a diet that exploits animals and is destructive to the environment and life on our planet. He is confident that we have what it takes to make changes for the better and challenges us all to re-imagine our diet and explore the tremendous benefits we can achieve by doing so. It’s easy if we try.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

I'm confident that the Earth
revolves around the Sun

and not the other way around.

Who else in this room thinks the same way?
Let's show a raise of hands.

OK, that's pretty much all of you.

I am equally confident

that keeping the human diet
practically void of animals

is the right thing to do.

It was not always so, though.

Just as there was a time

when people tried to undermine
the Sun-centered view of the solar system,

there was a time when I
didn't quite like vegetarians.

At best, I thought
vegetarians were tolerable,

and at worst, they were
just plain annoying.

And it is strange that this
was my impression of vegetarians

since until recently,

I have only known one person
who was a vegetarian,

one person who decided not to eat animals.

And she was fun and not annoying at all.

So I wondered why she was a vegetarian,

and it turned out that in the country
where she is from,

animals raised for food have to endure
horrid conditions and suffering.

So, I kind of understood
why she was a vegetarian,

but it felt strangely comforting

that I did not have to resort
to any such measures

since where I come from,
animals are treated nicely.

Also, I had heard one time on the radio

that domesticated animals
could not survive without us,

just as we could not survive without them.

From that perspective,

the human-animal relationship
was a win-win situation.

However, since about five years ago,

I have reduced my amount
of animal intake to such an extent

that today, it is practically zero.

Now, why would I do that?

Well, inspection shows that, frequently,

animals raised for food have to endure
horrid conditions and suffering,

not just in my friends country,
but in every country across the globe.

And there is more.

Raising animals for food
is destructive to the environment,

and the leading cause of human death

are diseases which are associated
with a poor diet, rich in animal products.

So the human-animal relationship
is not a win-win situation,

it is a lose-lose-lose situation.

We are losing,

the animals are losing,

and the environment is losing.

These are the three pillars
advocating the shift

from an animal-based diet
towards a plant-based diet.

The first pillar: human health.

Current research strongly suggests

that if humans would shift
towards a plant-based diet,

they would live longer,

and healthcare systems
across the globe could be streamlined.

This is related to reduction in deadly,
difficult and expensive diseases,

such as heart disease, diabetes
and certain forms of cancer.

Given the likelihood of a better health
on a plant-based diet,

it is an option that people should be
encouraged to exercise more often.

Compared to eating animals,

eating plants is not only
more likely to be more healthy,

it also has a much stronger
ethical standpoint.

Which brings us to
the center pillar: the animals.

The vast majority
of animals raised for food

reside on factory farms.

And every single year,
we kill over 60 billion land animals.

Out of these 60 billion
land animals, 1.3 billion are pigs.

So, to sustain the demand
for pig-eating humans,

these killings need to be maintained.

And to maintain these killings,

the first line of business
is to make sure that the pigs

are giving birth to all the piglets
that we kill every year.

So, through the centuries,
female pigs, or sows,

have been bred and selected

to be able to give birth
to as many offspring possible.

And today, each sow gives birth
to 10-12 piglets, two times a year.

The days prior to giving birth
and during lactation,

the sow is kept in a metal enclosure,
called a gestation crate.

While in the gestation crate,
the sow cannot move about,

not even turn around,

let alone make any meaningful
contact with her piglets.

Soon after birth, the testicles
of male piglets are removed,

allegedly to make their meat
smell better when it is cooked.

And to avoid biting and being bitten,

some piglets have their tail
and selected teeth removed as well.

With certainty, regardless
of the conditions until then,

when the piglets are
around three weeks old,

they are removed from the presence
of their mother, forever.

During the rest of their short lives,
they are kept in crowded places

to be fed and to grow
with thousands of their kin

who are all destined
for the same senseless fate.

Meanwhile, their mother is being prepared
for her next pregnancy session.

To keep the sows constantly pregnant,

they are impregnated through artificial
insemination, performed by humans.

The pig semen is also collected
by human professional masturbators.

You can lookup "Pig semen collection,"
on YouTube, if you are interested.

So, even though pigs give birth
to offspring all the time,

they never have sex.

And I guess most of us appreciate
that pigs are sentient beings,

that can feel pleasure and pain,
often in similar ways that we humans do.

Thus it seems inconsistent
that losing an offspring,

which is arguably the most painful
experience that humans have to endure,

is an experience that we carelessly
inflict upon pigs, all the time.

Most pigs never breathe fresh air
or walk under the bare blue sky,

and the only time they
might see a glimpse of the sun

is when they are in a back of a truck
being transported for slaughter.

What I have said here about pigs
can without much difficulty

be adapted to fit the lives
of other domesticated animals,

such as chicken or cows.

The third pillar: the environment.

The staggering amount
of animals we raise for food

is having some dire consequences
for the environment.

Consequences that were perhaps
unforeseen at the time,

but have become so blatantly
obvious at the present.

To put things in context, let's go
twelve thousand years back in time.

Twelve thousand years ago,
there were no domesticated animals,

and the combined weight
of all large land animals

was around 300 million tons,
out of which humans represented 1%.

Today, the total combined weight
of all large land animals

is almost 1500 million tons,

five times the amount
it was twelve thousand years ago.

Out of these 1500 million tons,
more than 1100 are domesticated animals.

More than 300 are humans,

and wild animals represent
only around 30 million tons.

So, we used to be 1% out of 300 million,

but today, along with our domesticated
animals, we are 98% out of 1500 million.

That is a huge difference
in a very short time.

So, with this picture in mind,
three things emerge.

Number one: our domesticated
animals eat a lot of food.

How come we are able to feed
1100 million tons of animals,

but we cannot prevent 10 million people
from dying from malnutrition every year?

How come there are more people
who die from eating too much,

then there are people
who die from eating too little?

Number two: Our domesticated
animals take up a lot of space.

To make space for our animals
and the food we grow for them,

we cut down rain forest.

And when we cut down rain forest,

we are not only destroying the planet's
defenses against carbon dioxide,

but we are also destroying the habitats
of wild species and driving them extinct.

The main driver for species extinction
is rain forest destruction,

and the main driver for rain forest
destruction is animal agriculture -

mainly, cattle production.

Number three: Our domesticated
animals release a lot of waste.

All of these animals
shit, piss, fart, and burp.

And while all is bad for the environment,

it is the burp that is having
the most damaging effect.

When ruminant animals,
like cattle and sheep, burp,

they release methane,
and apparently, they burp a lot.

And methane is a greenhouse gas

that is much more potent
at heating the atmosphere

than even carbon dioxide.

Mainly because of ruminant animals,

the global release of greenhouse gases
from animal agriculture is so enormous

that it is greater than from the whole
transportation sector combined.

Now, reflecting upon these pillars
may leave some of you with the idea

that there is something wrong
with the human species.

That of all the species,
it is the absolute worst.

And given the terms we set
for the survival of billions animals,

it is not that hard
to lose faith in humanity.

And it is not just how we treat
non-human animals

that can deter us from a glimpse of hope.

We are also dealing with wars,
refugee crises, climate change,

terrorists, nuclear threat, world hunger,
and various forms of discrimination.

There are parts on earth

where women have little or no control
over their lives or their bodies,

and there are parts on earth
where people are being prosecuted

because they do not love
or have sex in an orthodox way,

and every single year,

six million children die
before they reach the age of five.

So, with this grim picture in mind,
it seems reasonable to ask:

Will the human species ever make an effort

to change from an animal-based diet
towards a plant-based diet?

Do we even have what it takes
to make such a shift?

Well, I believe the answer
is a resounding "yes,"

and let me tell you why.

It is mainly because of two things.

First, despite all our faults,

human beings have
a great capacity for compassion,

and our compassion has been increasing,
and it continues to increase.

Also, we have made some meaningful impact
in the defense of animals.

So, many of the bad things humans do
is blown out of proportion.

Human history clearly shows

that we are much more peaceful
and less violent than we used to be.

There used to be a time

when encounters between two human tribes
burst out in violent conflict.

We have come a long way since.

Today, we are over 7 billion human beings
living in relative harmony.

Never before has there been so few wars,

and despite the media hype,

the terrorist threat
is relatively minuscule.

Torture used to be at display
for people's entertainment,

the death penalty has been
abolished in many countries,

slavery has been outlawed,

and slowly but surely, since then,

discrimination based on race
is no longer considered defensible.

The rights and empowerment of women

has seen a very positive and dramatic
effect over the last century or two.

And the rights of
homosexuals is improving,

notably, homosexuality was decriminalised
in the United Kingdom, only in 1982.

A further testament
to our altruistic behaviour

can be seen in how we donate money to
help people who live in extreme poverty -

people we do not know and will never know.

Such altruistic behaviour
seems impossible in other species.

And while it is true

that six million children die, every year,
before they reach the age of five,

it was only 30 years ago
when this number was 12 million.

Improvement in other
poverty-related areas is evident as well.

So, it seems irrefutable

that human beings have
a great capacity for compassion

and that our compassion is increasing.

And that gives us
a good reason to be optimistic

that we can make the shift

from an animal-based diet
towards a plant-based diet.

Also we have made some meaningful
impact in the defense of animals.

Many countries now have laws
that govern animals

where there used to be none.

Using these laws,

conditions for animals have improved,

perhaps most notably
in the European Union.

But also, big American food companies have
improved the conditions for their animals,

not because they were told
to do so by the government,

but rather due to popular demand
from their consumers.

Arguably, these efforts are not enough,

but they do show that
when it comes to animal suffering,

that people are aware
and that they do care.

Another impact in the defense
of animals is the fact

that more and more people
are deciding, for whatever reason,

to forgo animal products
in their daily lives.

With an increase in demand
for [plant] based products,

restaurants, supermarkets, entrepreneurs

are responding with an increase
in supply and variety,

which in turn makes it even easier

for people to accept and choose
a plant-based option.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite these positive things,
the fact remains that factory farming

is one of the greatest problems
facing the human race,

a problem of such proportions

that it affects the entire
biosphere of the planet.

That is why it is genuinely important
that as many people as possible

participate in the shift
towards a plant-based diet.

If you take a look at the atrocities

that we have successfully
and often proudly

eradicated from our civilized societies,

such as torture, slavery,
death penalty, and discrimination,

and then look at what is happening
with the animals we eat,

it does not take too much effort
of our imagination to appreciate

that it is with the animals we eat

where torture takes place,
where slavery prevails -

at it's very essence,
it is discrimination.

Fellow human beings, it is high time

that we embrace non-human animals
within our expanding moral circle.

It will bring unprecedented benefits
to humans and other animals alike,

for generations to come.

(Applause)