🌍 Earth Day 2025: Why Going Vegan Is the Most Powerful Thing You Can Do for the Planet

This Earth Day—April 22, 2025—we’re once again reminded of the urgency to act. Climate disasters are worsening, ecosystems are collapsing, and we are rapidly approaching irreversible environmental tipping points. The good news? Each of us holds extraordinary power to protect the planet—starting with what we eat.

While switching to reusable bags, driving electric vehicles, and recycling are all helpful, the most immediate, impactful, and accessible change anyone can make for the Earth is going vegan.

Let’s break down the numbers.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions—more than all the world’s planes, trains, cars, and ships combined. This includes carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄)—a gas that’s more than 80 times more powerful than CO₂ at trapping heat over a 20-year period.

But that’s just the beginning. The global livestock industry also fuels deforestation—roughly 91% of Amazon deforestation is linked to cattle ranching or growing soy to feed livestock. It contributes to water scarcity—it takes 1,800 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef. A single hamburger? About 660 gallons. It also pollutes our oceans—runoff from animal farms, rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, leads to massive algae blooms that suffocate marine life, creating hundreds of “dead zones” around the globe.

Every year, it’s estimated that over 92 billion land animals are killed for food. That’s cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and more—more than 252 million per day. But this is only part of the story. When we count sea animals, the number is staggering. Estimates suggest that between 1 trillion and 3 trillion fish and other marine animals—like shrimp, squid, and crabs—are killed each year for food. Many of these animals are caught unintentionally (bycatch), suffering slow and painful deaths in massive nets or on longlines. Fish feel pain. They form social bonds. They suffer in silence beneath the waves. And they are being killed at a rate beyond comprehension. In short: the human appetite for animal products is destroying life at an unprecedented scale—both on land and in the oceans.

Animal agriculture is wildly inefficient. Consider this: 80% of all farmland on Earth is used for livestock and animal feed, yet it produces only 18% of global calories. If the world shifted to a plant-based food system, we could reduce farmland use by up to 75%—freeing up land the size of the U.S., China, Australia, and the EU combined. A vegan diet requires one-third the land compared to an omnivorous diet. In a world where millions go hungry, it’s absurd that we grow massive amounts of soy, corn, and grains—just to feed animals, only to eat the animals later.

Food production accounts for about 70% of global freshwater use, and animal products are the most water-intensive by far. For example, 1 gallon of cow’s milk requires about 120 gallons of water, 1 egg requires about 53 gallons, and 1 pound of chicken uses up 518 gallons. Animal farms also generate millions of tons of manure, which often contaminates rivers, lakes, and groundwater with dangerous levels of nitrogen and bacteria like E. coli. In the U.S. alone, factory farms produce 500 million tons of animal waste each year—more than the entire human population.

You don’t have to be perfect to make an impact. Each person who adopts a plant-based diet helps save: 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forest, 20 pounds of CO₂, and 1 animal life. And that’s per day. Over a year, one vegan saves approximately: 401,500 gallons of water, 10,950 square feet of forest, 7,300 pounds of CO₂, 200+ land animals, and potentially thousands of sea animals through reduced demand for fish and bycatch. Multiply that by millions of people making a change, and we’re talking about a real path forward for climate action.

Going vegan isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being accountable. It’s about aligning your values with your actions. It’s about refusing to let destruction be your default. Whether you’re ready to go fully plant-based, or just begin reducing meat and dairy, every step counts.

At Vegan America, we’re here to help make the journey easier. Discover our curated vegan marketplace featuring food, fashion, wellness, home goods, and more—from brands doing better for animals and the planet. We offer tools, resources, and community support to help you live plant-based with purpose.

This Earth Day, choose compassion. Choose sustainability. Choose life. Choose vegan.