The Meat Industry
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More land on this planet is used to support the animal farming industry than any other human land use. Most of the farmland on the planet is used to grow food for farm animals. That translates to most of the water used for farming, and most of the fuel used for farming, and most of the toxic chemicals used for farming. That is just the start of the damage done to the planet by the animal farming.
Please read Howard Lyman’s book, Mad Cowboy, and John Robbins’ book, The Food Revolution.
“The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent than transport [pollution from all cars and trucks combined].”
– Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome, Italy; 2006
“The less animal-based food you eat, and the more you replace those calories with plant-based food, the better off you are, in terms of your health as well as your contributions to the health of the planet.”
– Gidon Eshel, assistant professor of geophysics, U. of Chicago. Co-author of study concluding that becoming a vegan does more to reduce greenhouse gasses than car use.
“The crowded, often unsanitary conditions promote disease, which has led to the overuse of antibiotics and to a class of superbugs that are resistant to those same antibiotics. Even the modern corn-based livestock diet causes problems. It makes meat fattier and may have helped some strains of the E. coli bacteria evolve from benign microbe to one of the deadliest pathogens in the food supply. And, of course, to grow all the grain we now feed our livestock, we've converted much of the Midwest into a huge corn and soybean plantation.”
– Paul Roberts, Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2008. Author of The End of Food.
Unfortunate facts about the animal farming and meat industry:
- The number one reason why tropical rainforests are cut down is to provide land to grow corn, soy, and other food for farmed animals. The forests are clearcut and/or burned, releasing the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
- The destruction of the Brazilian rainforests to make way for cattle grazing and grain fields has turned Brazil into the world’s leading exporter of beef and soy.
- According to the 2007 report, Lovestock’s Long Shadow, produced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the animal farming industry produces more pollution than all cars, trucks, ships, trains, and airplanes combined. It is responsible for 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions and 37 percent of methane emissions. Transportation causes 13.5 percent of the worlds global greenhouse gasses, and the livestock industry produced 18 percent. According to the report, 265 gallons of fossil fuels are used to produce the meat consumed annually by the typical American family of four.
- The number one use of synthetic chemical fertilizers on the planet is to grow food for farmed animals. The fertilizers are made using fossil fuels, are spread on the land using petroleum-burning engines, and release tremendous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. The nitrogen-based fertilizers release nitrous oxide, which is nearly 300 times for damaging than CO2.
- Produces the greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide as a result of the manure and gasses being produced by tens of billions of farm animals. Methane is emitted from the mouths of cattle and sheep and is 23 times stronger than CO2. One cow can produce as much as 130 gallons of methane per day.
- In the 30 years starting in 1975 the global production of farmed meat from cows, chickens, turkeys, hogs, and lambs rose from 130 million tons to 230 million tons.
- Nearly 1/3 of Earth’s fertile land is used to grow food for farmed animals.
http://www.AnimalsAustralia.org
Farm Animal Reform Movement: http://www.FARMUSA.org
http://www.FarmSanctuary.org
Howard Lyman: http://www.MadCowboy.Com
http://www.MercyForAnimals.org
No Veal: http://www.NoVeal.org
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.PETA.org
John Robbins: http://www.FoodRevolution.org
http://www.WoodstockFAS.org
http://www.VegSoc.org/environment
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