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Animal agriculture and environment
Animal agriculture and environment
Consequences of factory farming on human beings
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1. First of all, it was pretty hard to watch the movie Cowspiracy and how much control meat industry has over us. I was planning to watch this movie before because I was shocked by another Kip Andersen’s movie called “What the Health?”. That movie actually made me to rethink my eating habits. I definitely agree with Howard Lyman’s argument that you can’t eat meat products and think of yourself as an environmentalist. It is clear that factory farming is a great threat to an environment and is the greatest contributor to the greenhouse effect. There may be many more factors that define an environmentalist, but I think the greatest of them is to refuse to eat meat and not being scared to let others know about it. I believe that the people who eat meat, indirectly support …show more content…
There were more than two interviews that really infuriated me. It was painful to watch how the largest environmental support companies do not address factory farming or more explicitly, cattle farming, as an important issue even though the amount of harm it creates is huge. The interview with Lindsey Allen form Rainforest Protection Group was one of those which really frustrated me. Even though Allen is an executive director of the company which is concerned about the sustainability of rainforests, she acted as if she didn’t know that cattle production is the greatest threat to the forests. It is impossible that a person at such position doesn’t know that, but she clearly chose not to mention that. Another interview that made me laugh and frustrated at the same time was with the Markegard family that has a ranch for raising animals for meat production. The phrase that caught me the most was “I love animals, so that’s why I’m in the meat business”. How can you kill animals if you care about them? That just sounded ridiculous to me. This was just as non-sense as saying that “the best way to save fish is to eat fish”. A person who really cares about animals would never say or do that, in my
When most people picture a farm, their minds usually entertain the idea of acres upon acres of green land with cows roaming the pastures, chickens making nests, and pigs galavanting in the yard, however the reality is much more sinister. The cows are no longer roaming fields but standing in their own manure, the chickens are being shoved into small metal crates, and the pigs will never see the light of day. Factory farming is an industrial process in which animals and the products they generate are mass produced. The animals arent seen as individual sentient beings w/unique physical and psychological needs but as eggs, milk, meat, and leather. Because factory farming is a business its goal is to maximize production and, consequently, profit. Since the animals are seen as mere commodities, they are bred, fed, confined, and drugged to lay more eggs, birth more offspring, and die with more meat on their bones. According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, “There are currently no laws governing the conditions in which farmed animals are raised.” I believe the consequences of this agribusiness are environmental
Vegetarians often argue that consuming meat is immoral and causes extreme environmental devastation. It appears that the only compelling arguments that vegetarians can come up with are environmental. Those
Many people nowadays try to be conscious of their impacts on the environment, but what if one of the main contributors of environmental destruction was something that the vast majority of people contribute to everyday, without even realizing the detrimental effects it has on the environment? In conversations about lessening one’s personal environmental impacts, some common points are using renewable energy, recycling, taking shorter showers, and not littering. While these are great steps to take, one subject rarely thoroughly discussed is one’s consumption of animal products. Switching to more sustainable meat is suggested by numerous environmental organizations, but
For the past years the global demand for meat has multiplied and with that the world meat consumption is expected to double and double which is a crisis. Meat factories have consumed huge amounts of energy, contaminated water and generated lots of greenhouse gases. Therefore if you eat less meat there is less demand for it and fewer animals are killed which means less greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere. In the article Mark Bittman who is an American food journalist talks about how animals have a big effect on the environment and public health by giving an example on how cattles are fed and raised, “cattle are meant to digest grass, not grain, cattle raised industrially thrive only in the sense that they gain weight quickly. This diet made it possible to remove cattle from their natural environment and encourage the efficiency of mass confinement and slaughter. But it causes enough health problems that administration of antibiotics is routine, so much so that it can result in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten the usefulness of medicines that treat people.” Here Bittman gives only one example out of millions examples on how animals are treated in an unethical way which affects our environment and our health too. In the article Flesh of your Flesh the author Elizabeth Kolbert considers many issues on how we humans live in a two face guide on how we look at animals versus meat. America consumes roughly thirty-eight billion pounds of poultry, twenty-seven billion pounds of beef, and nine billion birds and numerous more of the animals that are slaughtered annually to provide meats for American people for food (Kolbert). We americans are meat eaters. We consume a lot of meat and at the end of the day we face huge health problems such as obesity. Meat is not the only source to rely on for protein. Whoever says that eating meat means survival that is not true because of the large amount of resources
...press released that “processed meat was classified as carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer.” This was no surprise to the vegan community but a shocker to the rest of the world. Making national news, this might just be the beginning of people beginning to start questioning their food choices. Farm animals are beginning to be compared to our pets on terms on intelligence, compassion, and sociability. The health benefits and harmful effects of eating meat are being discovered, as well as the huge negative impact of animal agriculture on global warming. Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent, and one animal’s life while doing no harm to their body (Cowspiracy).
Numerous numbers of animals suffer for the entirety of their short lives each day.“Each year on today’s factory farms, over eight billion animals are confined in windowless sheds, tiny barren crates, and filthy wire cages. The vast majority of these animals are mutilated without painkillers, denied veterinary care, and ultimately slaughtered.” (Saved!) Any normal person that saw this happening before their eyes would think twice about ever eating meat again. These farm workers disrespect animals and think of them as objects. Despite the labels on food that claim they are “organic” or “free-range”,consuming these animal by-products is still not cruelty-free. “Many ‘organically raised’ cows are sent to crowded factory-farm feedlots to be fattened prior to slaughter. Cows who are transported long distances and fattened on feedlots can still be labeled “organic” as long as they’re given organic feed.” (The Organic) This is just one example, there are many more. It is easy to be manipulated into thinking that animals are being treated appropriately prior to slaughter, because of how the meat industry can lie with such ease. Animals have souls and feel pain, whether society chooses to put a blinder to it or not. Factory farmers care purely about profit, and nothing else. Like any other business, if they don’t have customers they will be forced to shut
The environmental impacts of a diet based in animal products is well documented and is the source of much debate. According to a controversial United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow (2006),“The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” For those committed to reducing their environmental impacts, one solution would be to transfer to a vegetarian or even vegan diet. It is not necessarily ethical to prescribe one way of being for environmentalists all over the world, especially without thinking about differences in cultures. However, most committed environmentalists should adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet, with a few caveats. This is because (1) animal products are an inefficient source of protein in terms of environmental impact, (2) the greenhouse gas emissions from an animal product-based diet is significantly higher than a plant-based diet and (3) animals are part of the environment and their treatment is as important as the treatment of the planet as a whole.
Normally, whenever we see an open field, that land is probably used for raising cattle. The world now harvests more crops to feed animals than to feed humans. Talking about the usage of water to raise animals, it takes an excessive amount of water just to grow crops to feed animals, cleaning farms and also the drinking water for animals. “Animal agriculture water consumption ranges from 34-76 trillion gallons annually” (Pimentel). Huge amount of water is required just to produce 1 pound beef. Then, you can imagine how much water we can save by going vegan. Whenever we talk about global warming, climate change, we always think transportation like car, airplanes and all other forms. But in reality, “Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation” (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations). From here, we can see that animal agriculture is much more responsible for the degradation of the environment. The level of deforestation is reaching its peak as the number of animals is proportional to its feed. “Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction, ocean dead zones, water pollution, and habitat destruction” (Wilcove). The chemical fertilizers used to grow feed crops mix into the fresh air and as a result, pollution increases. Due to excessive deforestation, species are also losing their habitat. The more we demand meat, the more environment
The standard American diet consists of numerous products derived from animals, including but not limited to meat, cheese, eggs, and milk. These products are popular because of their taste, and as a result, the meat and dairy industries are thriving - at the expense of the planet’s well being. The condition of the planet is an extremely urgent matter, and it is undeniable that something as adjustable as a diet should not be responsible for so many aspects of environmental destruction. Animal agriculture is unquestionably detrimental to the environment in an abundance of ways, and the success of the meat and dairy industries only enable climate change, the destruction of the rainforest, the killing and waste of ocean animals, and the waste of
I went Vegan because of the ethics and moral values that highlights Veganism, and thus I became educated of the past and how it has changed to what it is right now, and about how the animal rights groups rose as time started to become more cruel. Before the late 1900’s crop rotation was used to fertilize land and grow agriculture, raise animals, and provide the essentials to families. However, as the population quickly soared and as new technological advancements facilitated the production of meat and crops, the demand and lack of compassion towards animals skyrocketed. Now, cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals are placed in cages, repetitively raped, abused, and mass breed. For this unnecessary production, nearly 70% of water, approximately 3.6 hectares of land, and about 56 billion farmed animals (excluding hunting and fishing) are killed per year. Moreover, as this influx of these needless actions begun, animal rights group first found in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s by a group of Oxford university post-graduate philosophy students ("Ethics: Animals." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007). As industrialization continued to expand
As the agriculture continues to grow so does the agricultural foot print. Just shifting away from animal products, vegans can save the planet by ending global warming. A study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicated that, “ A staggering 51 percent or more of global green-house emissions are caused by animal agriculture...” (PETA). Animals raised in the United States produce over a ton of excrement than our entire human population. Vegans reduce their own agricultural foot print by avoiding all animal products, and they eat plenty more plant-based foods with no negative impacts on our environment. Researches are considering that, “The livestock sector is a key player in increasing water use, accounting for over
A United Nations report states that land used for animal agriculture, both for grazing and production of crops fed to livestock, takes up an astounding 30% of land on Earth. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") To meet the industry’s demands, over 260 million acres of forest in the U.S. have been cleared to grow grain fed to farm animals. ("Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources") With that in mind, the meat industry also dumps disease-causing pathogens through animal waste that pollutes water and forces the need for waste lagoons to be constructed, which are susceptible to leaking and flooding. ("Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms”) Scientists say that about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gases are released by said agriculture industries, which is a growing concern for climate change and global warming. (Silverman) The meat industry uses one-third of all the fossil fuels consumed in the United States. (Moore) There is no question that farming animals has a negative effect on the environment and steps should be taken to mitigate air and water pollution risks and future deforestation. If animal agriculture was phased out, land used for animal grazing could be returned to forest land and some of it converted into fields for cultivating crops for humans. A global shift toward veganism, resulting in the elimination of the meat and animal agriculture industries, would protect the environment from various detrimental effects.
56 billion animals like cows, chickens, pigs, fish, and other meat animals are slaughtered every year for human consumption. Many of those animals are raised and slaughtered under inhumane conditions. These companies in the meat food production industry, that house these animals in overcrowded huge stock barns until they are fat enough to be inhumanly slaughter, are the companies that make millions of dollars. The pollution that these factory farms put into our air are very harmful to us and so are the different chemicals these animal’s meat contain. These companies feed animals food with different herbicide and pesticide chemicals in them and the animals are given different antibiotics to keep them alive. The meat that comes from these animals
...ming I will be willing to contribute in any way that I can, and becoming a vegetarian will help the environment a great deal. Becoming a vegetarian can also lead to becoming a healthier person and living a healthy lifestyle. And lastly, the way animals are killed and treated in factory farms are unethical and they should not be treated the way they are just to create a meal for the next person.Consider that the animal you are eating was a vegetarian and the meat contains all the minerals and vitamins of the plant foods it ate when you eat it. Along with fats yourbody needs in substantial amounts to stay healthy.....more on the fats later. Meat is as close to a complete meal as you can get because of this.
On the other hand, most people turn to Veganism because it saves lives, and can help the environment. Many vegans believe that the amount of abuse that goes on in the meat industry is unethical, and so they choose not to support it. Vegans can save up to 200 animals a year solely by not purchasing animal based products. The amount of animals killed and eaten is continually decreasing, as well (Mullins). Deforestation is one of many destructions being done on the planet which is linked to the meat