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Environmental problems of eating meat
Environmental problems of eating meat
The impact of the western diet on the environment
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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. Phasing out animal agriculture and replacing it with stronger, safer plant cultivation would greatly reduce pollution released into the environment as animal waste, burning fossil fuels, and contaminated water runoff. The animal waste produced in factory farms is dumped into immense open-air lago... ... middle of paper ... ...>. Felsinger, Alex. "80% of Amazon Deforestation Stems from Cattle Ranching." PlanetSave.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. . "Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources." PETA.org. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. . Moore, Heather. "New UN Report Says Vegan Diet Vital To Saving The Environment, Curbing Fossil Fuel Use." Care2.com. N.p., 03 June 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. . Silverman, Jacob. "Do Cows Pollute as Much as Cars?" HowStuffWorks.com. Discovery Communications, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. .
People can be classified into two categories, meat eaters and non meat eaters. Meat eaters or carnivores are common in society so there has to be a tremendous amount of meat production to meet these needs. But has anyone ever thought about the amount of fuel and energy it takes to make it and how it would ultimately destroy the Earth? Many have and it revealed to them that the cost of being a vegan or vegetarian is far less than continuing their carnivorous ways. Two authors have their opinions to offer, even if they are on the same side of the argument and want to convert people to being a vegan. In “Eating Green” Margaret Lundberg states why becoming a vegan is healthy, not only for the person, but also the environment. John Vidal’s “10 Ways Vegetarianism Can Help Save the Planet”
Millions of animals are consumed everyday; humans are creating a mass animal holocaust, but is this animal holocaust changing the climate? In the essay “ The Carnivores Dilemma,” written by Nicolette Hahn Niman, a lawyer and livestock rancher, asserts that food production, most importantly beef production, is a global contributor to climate change. Nicolette Niman has reports by United Nations and the University of Chicago and the reports “condemn meat-eating,” and the reports also say that beef production is closely related to global warming. Niman highlights, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides are the leading greenhouses gases involved in increasing global warming. A vast majority of people across the world consumes meat and very little people are vegetarian, or the people that don’t eat meat, but are there connections between people and meat production industry when it comes to eating food and the effect it has on the climate? The greenhouse gases, methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxides are not only to blame, but we should be looking at people and industrialized farming for the leading cause of greenhouse gases in agriculture and the arm-twisting dilemma we have been lured into, which is meat production itself.
On the topic of environmental impacts due to “industrial farming”, Bill McKibben and Blake Hurst share completely different perspectives. McKibben believes that industrial farming has simply left an unexcusable bad impact on the environment, saying that it is unethical and that the meat we eat is potentially killing our environment and us as well. McKibben states that “we should simply stop eating factory-farmed meat, and the effects on climate change would be one of the many benefits.” (page 201). McKibben addresses that the techno fixes brought in industrial farming are simply not enough to help our environment.
The impact of eating meat on the environment is staggering and it is scary how fast we humans are exploiting our planet. Eating meat is not sustainable. A shocking 30% of the worlds entire land surface is used for raising live-stock. This significantly adds to global warming and over 51% of greenhouse gas emissions are due to animal agriculture. Pollution due to animal waste running from factory farms into our waterways are killing marine life and tainting our fresh water. Did you know we spend more time, money and resources fattening up the animals we eat, than we do feeding humans who are dying of hunger? (Anderson) – no wonder there are 925 million people that don’t have enough food. Not to mention 60% of the world’s grain is fed to farmed animals, if less live-stock was bred then couldn’t we give that grain to the people who are starving? On top of this it takes almost 20 times less land to feed someone on a plant-based (vegan) diet than it does to feed a meat-eater (PETA). How can you argue with
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
Every year, humans kill over 56 billion farm animals, with 3,000 animals dying every second in the slaughterhouse around the world. In the United States, there are about 12.7 million people being diagnosed with cancer; eating red meats might be linked. Not only is the growth of the meat industry hurting the health of Americans, but also negatively affects the climate. As a society, we should be more educated about the food we eat and how it affects our bodies.
The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.
Furthermore, factory farming can also be very dangerous for the environment. Gale (2013) states, “...the livestock industry accounts for 80% of the greenhouse gas emission, while the methane produced by cattle and their manure has a global warming effect equivalent to that of 33 million automobiles.” By working together to stop factory farming, people can save their environment. They will also have a cleaner air to breath ...
One of the biggest controversies with livestock production is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that get released into the atmosphere. Its assumed that cars produce most if not all the greenhouse gas emissions however livestock has a big say in air pollution. According to Cassandra Brooks, writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, 18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock production. This is nearly 20% and can be greatly reduced if people reduced their demand for meat. The Environmental Working Group used a tangible variable for Americans stating “if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road” (Goffman 9). Instead of taking the bus to work, switching your diet around could make just as much of an impact on the environment.
If the grains used to feed meat animals were given to the starving people, it would make food available to about 800 million people (ProCon.org). Meat production uses a lot of water, up to 2,500 gallons is used to produce one pound of beef, so more people going vegetarian would help conserve the water we are in need of (ProCon.org). There are many different things that causes of environmental pollution, but meat production does play a decent sized role in pollution. All of the animals create a large amount of waste, which causes greenhouse gases. In fact one pound of hamburger meat equals to the same amount of greenhouse gas that driving one small car for nearly 20 miles produces, while a pound of potatoes only equals 0.34 miles (ProCon.org). Large portions of land is used for the production of beef, one hamburger destroys 55 square feet of rainforest (ProCon.org). The production of beef has taken away the environments of the native animals and the large use of land has caused 171 species to be put on the endangered species list (ProCon.org). Land animals aren’t the only ones who are
Meat is an essential aspect of most American’s diet and a lot of people enjoy consuming meat. It is conveniently available at grocery stores and fast food restaurants and can be accessed within a short amount of time. Most Americans eat meat on a daily basis, but they do not realize that the majority of meat is produced in factory farms. Factory farming consists of housing “more than 125,000 animals under one roof and are designed to produce the highest possible output at the lowest possible cost to the operator” (Farm Forward). Animals, (chicken, turkeys, cows, and fish) are confined in cramped living conditions with little to no room to move. Allowing livestock to live in deplorable conditions is animal abuse. Factory farms negatively affect the environment and the health of humans and animals. The issue of factory farms must be resolved, the bad outweighs the good in this situation and if we do not solve this problem the consequences could be very dire.
This is a much bigger deal than people think. In fact, according to an article by Peta, How Does Eating Meat Harm the Environment, it has such an effect on the environment that the Union of Concerned Scientist list meat eaters as the second biggest environmental hazard facing the earth. The number one affect being fossil fuels produced by cars. It was also found in a report published by the Worldwatch Institute that nearly 51 percent of all greenhouse gasses are produced from animal agriculture. This is a very staggering number when a lot of research is being done to make vehicles more environmentally friendly when we could make a huge impact just by changing the way we eat. It is even more astounding that it takes the same number of fossil fuels to produce one hamburger as it takes to dive one car 20 miles (Peta How Does Eating Meat Harm the Environment). The production of this meat is also a big cost. It takes more than 80 percent of the corn we grow and more than 95 percent of oat are feed to livestock. The world’s cattle alone are feed the equal amount that would be needed to feed 8.7 billion people. That’s more than the entire world population. If we cut back on our consumption of meat we could take corn and oats that we produce and feed the world. When producing meat many of our natural resources are used. We use water, fossil fuels and top soil, and we are
Cruelty toward animals, huge economic problems, and major health concerns are just three reasons why factory farming should be banned worldwide. Many people argue that factory farming is the only way to meet growing demands for food in the world today. However, factory farming is just not necessary, especially when it comes down to killing innocent animals in order to feed people. A way to put an end to the factory farming system is by buying our food from smaller, sustainable farms. These businesses still aim to profit from their labor, but that’s not their only objective. (The Issues: Factory Farming, n.d.) They simply will not sacrifice the health of the land or the quality of food simply to make a few extra dollars.
When these agricultural resources are given to the animals involved in meat production, these resources are lost. Besides the loss of land, the process of animal production is contributing to pollution and other greenhouse gases that are doing irreplaceable damage to the environment and contribute to untold negative health
Firstly, the threat to the environment, as a result of factory farms poorly managing the waste produced, thereby contaminating the air, ground, and water in their communities is often not acknowledged. This is because the industry does not want to admit to the harmful environmental impacts created by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). According to Daniel Imhoff, "100 acres of land for an animal food factory generates the same amount of sewage as a city of 100,000 inhabitants." (CAFO xii) This idea was exemplified in a study in the United States, where the waste was measured; it was found that 500 million tons of waste was produced per year, which is three times the amount of the population of the U.S (CAFO xii). Another study found that more than one ton of 'dry matter' of animal waste was produced for every c...