Why I am a Vegetarian and Interview with Al Baylacq - Co-Owner of Good Earth by Olivia Tait

and my two fellow intern reporters are interviewing Al Baylacq, Co-Owner - at good Earth Foods in Fairfax, a market for organic, natural foods.  Good Earth Foods sells things like herbs, dairy, fruits and vegetables that are sustainable and non GMO foods.
Al says  that going vegetarian is the #1 best thing you could do for your planet. I asked Al how he would advise anyone who is going vegetarian for the first time what they should do. Cows cost the planet a lot of resources that are saved by eating vegetarian. It lessens your eco-footprint. Al says that at first a prospective vegetarian should gradually phase out all meat, perhaps starting with shellfish, then pork, then beef, then chicken and so on - for example.
Then I ask whether he thinks Vegetarianism is a social or personal thing.  Al believes it could be both, but he thinks it is less of a societal thing because the American society is very meat based.
Vegetarianism and veganism are one of my favorite causes because I am a vegetarian  and also because it helps the environment.  Eating meat contributes to greenhouse gases and has been linked to cancer, heart disease, and many other diseases like gout. Vegetarians and vegans have been shown to live longer and have reduced risk of diseases according to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. For those who can’t live without meat, there are fake meats available that taste like the real thing.
In today’s world of high cancer, diabetes, and heart disease rates there may seem that there is nothing to but go on pills and have stents to avoid them. What many people don’t know is that there is a way to avoid them and dramatically lessen the chances of getting ill. The journal Cancer Epidemology, Biomarkers, and Prevention did a recent study where they looked at  69,000 people  for  more than four years, finding that vegans had a sixteen percent decreased risk of all cancers.

Dr Caldwell Esselstyn published a book on how to defeat heart disease permanently, citing his twelve year study on critical heart disease patients who were in such trouble that one could not walk the length of a city block without needing to sit down. All of the members of the study reversed their heart disease in less than a year on a vegan diet.  A study by Harvard showed that regular meat consumption raised colon cancer risk by 300 percent.  Other studies have shown that  non meat eaters are forty percent less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters.
On the environment, vegetarians and vegans have much less of an impact than meat eaters. Cows that are later rendered into beef and hamburgers are one of the highest influences of methane levels around the world. Methane is a recognized contributor to carbon dioxide. Farmed animals including pigs are the top consumers of water in the US according to PETA- that is more water than the city of Los Angeles which is in a desert. Farming animals kills forestland. Because of that many species go extinct and many trees die that could be used to lessen global warming. Being Vegetarian or Vegan  means that you will not contribute to the crisis of global warming, be less at risk of cancer, and live longer.