Vegetarian World
Do you want to know the Truth?
Aristocles was a Greek from a wealthy family, who was being groomed to be a politician in Athens. Until he found a philosopher named Socrates teaching in the middle of the street, he became interested in philosophy and earned the nickname of Platão from his colleagues for having the broad shoulders, the shoulder blades big ones.
Plato devoted his entire life to trying to rationally answer humanity's great questions, including how to live an extraordinary life.
His life and work were so epic that the writer Umberto Eco, who died in 2016, declared that in the 21st century there is nothing more modern than reading Plato.
In the book the republic, Plato describes a passage in which his teacher, Socrates, claimed that virtue is knowledge and that in order to act justly, you must first ask yourself what justice is .
This raised the following question in Plato: how do we know what justice is, or what anything else is?
The idea that Plato was a vegetarian probably derives from a passage in 'The Republic' where he describes a dialogue that would have taken place between Socrates and Glaucon.
They would be speculating on what would be the minimum that a city should have to be self-sufficient, assuming that each citizen could exercise a single trade.
In this way it was established that the city should have 3 or 4 farmers (one of wheat, one of barley, one of olive trees, etc.), an artisan, a blacksmith, etc, etc. At one point Glauco says that perhaps an animal breeder was also needed "somebody wants to eat meat".
Socrates then says that if there were in the city a breeder of animals, it would be necessary to have someone who slaughtered them, someone who worked the leather, etc. So the city would have to grow.
Land would soon become thin and citizens would look beyond their city limits to expand pastures. Soon the city would dispute land with its neighbors, it would be necessary to have soldiers (which could not be the citizens themselves, since in the beginning they said that each citizen should exercise a single office, to exercise it well).
With this, Socrates concludes (and Glaucon agrees) that the existence of livestock would inevitably lead the city to an unsustainable condition, as people would have to work beyond what they need to support the army, the land would be little and there would always be a need to expansion.
What would happen if the whole world became vegetarian?
Usually only 3% of people can radically change their omnivorous diet to vegetarian, and for vegans this percentage is even lower.
It takes awareness, responsibility, discipline, and a lot of study to know how to make the right combinations. Nothing too complicated, but changing habits is gradual.
But what if everyone was forced to change suddenly? what would happen to the Planet?
1- Impact of climate change: current food production accounts for between 25% and 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. And the bulk comes from livestock without a doubt. Even though they blame the cars. Gas emissions would drop by 60% if everyone went vegetarian and 70% if everyone went vegan.
two-Increase in area for Reforestation and Planting: of the current 5 billion hectares of land used in the world, 68% are for livestock. In an ideal world, 80% of this pasture could be reforested, improving biodiversity, and using a large part for planting a planned diet. Today 1/3 of the land is used to produce food for cattle.
3- Fewer deaths: currently kill 3.5 billion ruminants annually and tens of billions of birds for food.
4- Health: With a vegetarian or vegan diet, by 2050, we would have a reduction in global mortality of 6% to 10% with a consistent decrease in diseases such as: Cancer, heart disease, stroke, asthma, respiratory problems, etc. The cut in public health spending would be 2% to 3% of global GDP.
