Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English — the programme where we bring you an interesting topic and six items of vocabulary. I'm Neil.
Catherine: And I'm Catherine.
Neil: Now, if you want fight climate change — what can you do?
Catherine: Well, you can use less electricity…
Neil: Or stop driving…
Catherine: But scientists believe there's another behavior which has an even bigger impact on the planet, and that is what you eat.
Neil: We're talking about meat here. If people cut out meat and animal products from their diets — harmful emissions could be reduced by 70%.
Catherine: That's according to research from Oxford University.
Neil: Now emissions are the gases produced by an activity or living thing — so we could talk about factory emissions or farming emissions.
Catherine: And if you eat no meat or animal products you're what we call 'vegan'. More and more people around the world are going vegan
Neil: And today's question: which of these celebrities is vegan? Is it…a) Brad Pitt, b) Jennifer Lopez or c) Miley Cyrus?
Catherine: And I'm going to go for…c) Miley Cyrus.
Neil: Well, we'll find out at the end of the programme. Now, before we go much further, why don't we find out a bit more about exactly what it means to be vegan?
Catherine: Here's Tom Kuehne from the Vegan Society in the UK.
Veganism is a way of living which excludes, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation and cruelty to animals.
Neil: So that's for food, clothing or any other purpose. So we just don't want to use or abuse animals.
Catherine: And we feel like there, you know, there are plenty of alternatives in this day and age. It's never been easier to be vegan.
Neil: Of course, he says that avoiding cruelty to animals is what it's all about, but that doesn't just mean food.
Catherine: If you're a true vegan, then clothing from animals is also out — no more leather shoes!
Neil: But he feels that it's easier than ever before to become vegan — and uses a nice phrase: "in this day and age".
Catherine: Yes. It means 'these days', or 'in the present time' — and is often used to highlight a contrast with a previous time.
Neil: So, many people go vegan for ethical reasons. Now ethical is a useful word, it means 'relating to moral beliefs'.
Catherine: So if you become vegan for ethical reasons, you do it because you think it's wrong to eat or use animal products.
Neil: Others go vegan because of environmental considerations, as we looked at earlier.
Catherine: Rearing livestock — that means animals like cows and pigs — produces a lot of harmful methane gas.
Neil: Now, let's just say the animals themselves produce a lot of it from their bodies. The other major reason to choose veganism…
Catherine: Veganism — now, that's the noun for a vegan diet.
Neil: is because they believe it is healthier.
Catherine: In the research from Oxford University we mentioned earlier, scientists found that 8 million deaths per year could be avoided if the world went vegan.
Neil: Now, that's human deaths. They claim that half of this figure would be because we no longer eat red meat,
Catherine: and the other half would be due to eating more healthy fruit and vegetables — as well as fewer people being overweight.
Neil: And they say that this would have an economic impact too.
Catherine: They suggest that up to USD1,000bn a year would be saved due to reduced healthcare costs and increased productivity at work.
Neil: Because fewer people would get sick.
Catherine: So, if it's all so simple — why don't we all go vegan tomorrow?
Neil: Well, meat—eating is an important part of most cultures — not everyone wants to change.
Catherine: And millions of people worldwide raise livestock for a living.
Neil: So these jobs would disappear. Now, with up to a third of the planet estimated to be arid — which means dry and unable to support crops.
Catherine: People living in these regions rely on livestock, so people for example like the Berbers in the Sahara region.
Neil: Without animal farming, they would be forced to abandon traditional nomadic lifestyles — that's where they move from place to place — and settle in cities.
Catherine: And for many people, well, they just like eating meat and dairy.
Neil: We asked you about well—known vegans: which of these is vegan? a) Brad Pitt, b) Jennifer Lopez or c) Miley Cyrus?
Catherine: And I said it was Miley Cyrus.
Neil: Well, you're kind of half right, Catherine. In fact, both Brad Pitt and Miley Cyrus are vegan.
Catherine: Jennifer Lopez used to be, but has since started eating meat again, apparently.
Neil: Now, why don't we wrap up by looking at today's vocabulary one more time?
Catherine: Well — we started with emissions: gases produced by something or an activity such as digestion.
Neil: Livestock emissions for example — are gases produced by animals.
Catherine: We can also add a word that describes a kind of emissions, like methane emissions or greenhouse gas emissions.
Neil: Next up we had in this day and age — which means 'these days'.
Catherine: I still can't believe you still don't have a smartphone in this day and age, Neil.
Neil: Well, maybe I just object to smartphones for ethical reasons!
Catherine: So you have for moral reasons to smartphones?
Neil: Yeah, for me it's important to understand the conditions of the workers in the factory where the smartphone is made.
Catherine: That's fair enough then. But, Neil, you haven't become vegan yet for ethical reasons, have you?
Neil: You've got me there — I admire veganism but I still like cheese too much to do it! Veganism is the noun.
Catherine: That's right. So two more words to go — we have arid and livestock. Arid describes land that is too dry to support many crops or plants.
Neil: But arid regions can sometimes support livestock — livestock means farm animals.
Catherine: If you think of the 'stock' as being the assets of a business, then animals are 'living' or 'live' stock.
Neil: And that brings us to the end of today's programme.
Catherine: Join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages for lots more! Let us know what you think of veganism!
Both: Bye for now. Bye!