Is meat killing the planet?
A recent BBC documentary by animal biologist Liz Bonnin investigates the environmental impact of animals being raised to supply the world’s increasing demand for meat and looks at efforts reduce the environmental impacts.
The documentary didn’t look at the morality of eating animals but concentrated on the facts about our animal consumption and its impact on the planet.
The documentary makers looked at deforestation in the Amazon and attempts to save rare animal and plant species whose habitats are being cleared for cattle and China to see the huge growth of the meat industry and beef production in the USA, all of which are having unprecedented effects of our planet’s climate, biodiversity and resources.
We are increasingly understanding that eating meat is one of the biggest environmental hazards facing our planet. Globally, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined.
At times, the documentary made for difficult viewing and didn’t need to exaggerate because the facts spoke for themselves:
Cows must consume 16 pounds of vegetation in order to convert them into 1 pound of flesh. Raising animals for food consumes more than half of all water used in the U.S. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat;
Producing just one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles. Of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S., more than one-third are devoted to raising animals for food;
A typical pig factory generates the same amount of raw waste as a city of 12,000 people. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, raising animals for food is the number-one source of water pollution;
About 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to produce feed for animals raised for food. as a result, the meat industry is directly responsible for 85 percent of all soil erosion in the U.S.
More than 80 percent of the corn we grow, and more than 95 percent of the oats are fed to livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people – more than the entire human population on Earth.
My Conclusion
No one is suggesting that veganism or vegetarianism is the answer, but it is clear that reducing meat and dairy consumption is the single biggest way, we as individuals can lessen our impact on the planet according to recent research and tackling dangerous global warming is considered to be impossible without massive reductions in meat consumption.
As hard as it is to change our eating, we’re killing ourselves and the planet and we’re running out of time. We must act now, before there is no future, or future generations.
We must eat more alternative sources of protein instead.
https://www.peta.org https://www.theguardian.com/environment
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