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A spot for present and prospective vegans and vegetarians
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Vegetarianism and the Environment
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"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet..." - Albert Einstein Raising livestock for human consumption has innumerable ramifications on the environment and to human health. Livestock is responsible for the consumption huge amounts of land, water, and resources, as well as vast amounts of waste and pollution. Furthermore, the correlation between meat consumption and various diseases has been well documented - proving vegetarians to be healthier and have longer lives. Thus, questioning how much meat you eat and reducing your consumption will not only significantly reduce your ecological footprint, but may improve your health, prevent against disease, and improve the lives of countless other animals. "To consider yourself an environmentalist and still eat meat is like saying you're a philanthropist who doesn't give to charity.." - Howard Lyman The environmental impacts of the meat industry are vast. These include intensive exploitation of natural resources; pollution of water, air, and soil; soil erosion and degradation; deforestation and threatened habitats of wild species of plants and animals. Wasted Resources Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires huge amounts of land, water, and resources. In fact, it is estimated that if everyone in the world matched the level of meat consumption of an average American citizen, the production of meat would account for 67% of the world's arable land. Furthermore, nearly half of all the water and one-third of the raw materials used each year in the United States are consumed by farmed animals. Getting the meat from the animal to your refrigerator also consumes huge amounts of energy. Consider the steps: growing grain to feed livestock; operating feed mills, farms, and slaughterhouses; transporting feed and animals; hauling the meat to the grocer's; and finally keeping it refrigerated until it is eaten. All of this results in over 260 gallons of fuel being consumed to provide the yearly average meat consumption of an American family. In total, one pound of beef requires 4.8 pounds of grain, 55 square feet of land, 4 liters of gasoline, and up to 10,570 liters of water. Robbins states, "you may save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for six entire months". Yet animals utilize considerably more food calories than they produce in the form of meat. 70 percent of all the wheat, corn, and other grains produced in the U.S. is fed to farmed animals, only a fifth of which is actually converted into meat. In other words, the grain fed to livestock could feed five times as many people. In a world where a significant percentage of the population suffers from severe malnutrition, this represents a colossol waste of resources. Pollution and Waste Waste from factory farms is currently exceeding the capacity of the planet to absorb it. The production and transportation of meat contributes to pollution through the consumption of fossil fuels, but livestock also produces greenhouse gases directly. Methane, the leading agricultural greenhouse gas, has 23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide and farmed animals account for 28 percent of the methane produced each year in the U.S. Thus, consuming 1 pound of beef is the equivalent of driving approximately 260 kilometers in an average American mid-size car. Farmed animals also produce about 130 times more excrement per year than the entire human population of the U.S. And because factory farms don't have sewage treatment plants, these wastes (along with the runoff of pesticides and other chemicals) pollute waterways and soil as well as the air. In fact, rivers carrying livestock waste are dumping so much excess nitrogen into our oceans, they are creating "dead zones" in which algal blooms, rapid increases in phytoplankton algae caused by nutrients in animal waste, use up the oxygen in water that normally supports marine life. In 1999, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico stretched nearly 13,000 square kilometers. Today, it is estimated that over 43,000 kilometers of rivers in the U.S. have been polluted by animal waste. Soil Erosion and Degradation Soil is eroding much faster than it can be replenished. It is estimated that topsoil loss in beef production is up to 8800 tons per km squared per pound of beef. So one hamburger is then worth five times its weight in topsoil. Factory farms also endanger soil health because they depend on heavy machinery that turn up the soil in order to grow grains to feed livestock. This destroys soil structure and kills beneficial organisms in the ecosystems. Intensive grazing and trampling by farmed animals strips the land of vegetation that holds soil in place, causing desertification in some areas. Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss According to the United Nations, "ranching-induced deforestation is one of the main causes of loss of some unique plant and animal species in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America". 40 percent of all the rainforests in Central America have been cleared or burned down, mostly to make way for cattle pasture. In the process, ecosystems where various plants and animals naturally thrive are destroyed. While the rainforest may seem a long way from home, it is important to note that agriculture has led to an 85 percent reduction in Canada's wetlands, one of the most diverse habitats in the world. "a vegetarian.. diet, from a nutritional standpoint, is at least as healthy as, and in all probability healthier than one which centers on or includes meat". - Michael Allen Fox Animals raised for human consumption are some of the most heavily medicated creatures in the world. Drugs are used for everything from increasing growth rates to reducing stress levels in unnaturally crowded animals; even so, between 10 and 30 percent will die of stress, disease, or mistreatment. The cramped and filthy condition of factory farms has led to an increased threat of contagious diseases. In 2000, up to 80% of American chickens were affected with Salmonella, a potentially fatal bacteria that causes food poisoning in humans. The presence of other bacteria (E. coli, listeria, and campylobacter), parasites, pesticides, and diseases like avian influenza and bovine spongiform encephalopathy are common. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad-cow disease, BSE infects the central-nervous systems of cattle and is passed to humans in the form of the always fatal variant Creuztfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). The UK Department of Health estimates that approximately 160 people have died of vCJD from meat contamination in Britain since the detection of mad-cow in 1990. Meat consumption has also been linked to both heart disease and cancer - the two leading causes of death in North America. Vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease than non-vegetarians and are 40 percent less likely to get cancer, regardless of other risk factors. Meat contains high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat - these fatty substances create blockages in the arterial walls, restricting blood flow throughout the body. This artery damage is called atherosclerosis and can lead to heart disease. According to the American Cancer Society, one-third of all cancer deaths in the U.S. are due to nutrition. Leading epidemiological researcher, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, argues that, "...no chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein". For something to be labeled a carcinogen, the cancer must be caused by excessive consumption of the substance; however, Dr. Campbell found that even moderate levels of meat consumption had a carcinogenic effect in humans. A vegetarian diet provides essential nutrients and anti-carcinogens, minus the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants fount in meat. And as an added bonus, vegetarians live an average of six to ten years longer than non-vegetarians. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian... - Paul McCartney One of the guiding principles of sustainability is that we ought to minimize the harmful impact of our lives on the biosphere. It follows then, that we should cease supporting an industry that causes incalculable suffering to millions of animals each year. Farm animals are treated without a single regard for their acknowledged sentience and the suffering and deprivation inflicted upon them has been well documented. Choosing to eat lower on the food chain by reducing meat consumption, then, not only benefits the environment and your health, but the health and well-being of animals. A diet that relies heavily on meat only appears affordable and environmentally sustainable to those who are unaware of the larger ecological costs of meat production. If sustainability is the minimization of our impact on the environment, then the wide-scale adoption of vegetarian practices is essential. Strict vegetarianism may not be for everyone, but reducing the amount of meat we consume is perhaps the single most important thing we, as individuals, can achieve in the fight for a sustainable future. see here for references |
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