Impact on the Environment
It is hard to believe that a third of the world’s land area is being turned into desert because of the production of meat. It is also a shocking fact that over half of the world’s oceans are nearing the point of ecological collapse because of fishing.
The meat industry and environmental devastation are interconnected. Various studies and reports clearly confirm this statement. By choosing our diet, we are the ones who decide what happens to our natural resources such as fossil fuels, wood, drinking water and fertile ground.
Diet - Greenpeace Advises
Production of meat from land animals and fish is generally harmful for the planet. Let’s take, for example, beef. Livestock has to be fed with huge amounts of grain in order to produce even the smallest amount of animal protein for human consumption. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the total amount of soybeans and grain given to livestock in the USA could feed all the people on the planet approximately five times.
Livestock farming is not only wasting food but is also ravaging the land. According to the United Nations organisation for food and farming, livestock farming occupies 30% of the Earth’s surface (including pastures and fertile land for growing crops for human consumption).
Methane, nitrous oxide and industrial gases are also important greenhouse gases. The main sources of methane are animal husbandry, agriculture and forest destruction. Agriculture is also the main source of nitrous oxide. Every kilo of meat produced causes the release of greenhouse gases with an effect equivalent to between three and four kilos of CO2.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), livestock farming is responsible for about 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions - because of the very high amounts of energy consumed in fertiliser production, the clearing of rainforest for pasture land and soybean crops and, finally, the large volumes of methane produced through cattle dung.
Notwithstanding all that, many chemicals released into the environment are deposited and gradually accumulate in animals’ fat tissues.
Choose a plant-based diet!
Published with kind permission from Greenpeace International
