Animal Agriculture Essay

Animal Agriculture: Dietary Choices that Cause the Least Environmental Harm

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

People infrequently think about the amount of land it took to produce the foods they eat, however livestock and the land used to grow food for livestock accounts for approximately one-third of the Earth’s ice-free land (Cowspiracy). Animal agriculture, mainly cattle ranching, is also responsible for 90% of Amazon rainforest destruction (Hyner). According to Cornell University, “Each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein for human consumption.” Therefore it takes about 5 times the amount of crops to produce animal products compared to the equivalent amount of plants. Eating more plant-based foods uses much less land than animal-based foods, thus causing less destruction to

There are many impacts that fishing and land animal farming have on the ocean, which are detrimental to ocean ecosystems as well as many other aspects of the environment. Overfishing, killing fish at a much quicker rate than the fish can repopulate, is one major problem. Three-fourths of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted (Cowspiracy). Researchers have estimated an end of all viable fisheries by 2018 if the current trends of fishing continue (Mason). According to the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, hundreds of thousands of animals die every year as bycatch, with one of the worst offenders being shrimp fisheries, catching up to six pounds of bycatch per pound of shrimp. Endangered species are also caught, including predators which are important in keeping the balance in ocean ecosystems (Smith). While many organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommend consumers to eat more “sustainable” fish, this will not stop the massive environmental impacts. Sustainable fishing for one does not account for the natural flux in the population of species of fish; what is considered a sustainable amount of fish to harvest one year may deplete the fishery in another year (Smith). Sustainable fish also are becoming even less sustainable as companies that label sustainable fish must find more For example, after Wal-Mart pledged to selling Marine Stewardship