Return to Home Page

The Issues - Meat and the Environment

According to both the UN Report on Climate Change and Global Warming and an independent study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago, animal agriculture - even on small farms - contributes more to global warming than does automobile use. This is caused primarily by the massive amounts of ammonia released from the waste generated on animal farms. The data makes clear that the single biggest thing any of us can do to help stop global warming is to switch to a plant-based diet.

Animal agriculture is also the leading cause of water pollution and the second leading cause of air pollution in the United States. Animals used in food production in this country generate 160 times more waste than the world's entire human population. This waste contains multiple pollutants such as heavy metals, antibiotics, pathogens, nitrogen, and phosphorus that enter the riverways and water table through leaks, spills, manure runoff, and absorption into the ground or into the atmosphere. Over two-thirds of the nation's waterways have been contaminated by runoff from animal agricultural facilities.

Animal agriculture, whether large or small scale, is incredibly resource-intensive. Producing animal protein requires 8 times more fossil fuels than producing the same amount of plant protein. It can also require up to 300 times more water usage to produce 1 pound of meat compared to one pound of grain. You could take six months worth of showers with the amount of water it takes to produce a single hamburger patty.

70% of the grain grown in this country goes to feed farmed animals, an amount of grain that could feed approximately 800 million people if it had not been channeled into the resource-wasting farm animal food system. Because animal agrigulture - and growing grain for animals - requires so much land, animal agriculture is the number one cause of the desertification of much of the Western United States, as well as the leading cause of rainforest detsruction worldwide. More than 50% of forests and rainforests worldwide, including 300 million acres of American soil, have already been cleared for lifestock grazing or animal feed crops.

If you have a concern for the environment - be it global warming, land and resource usage, water contamination or air pollution - the number one thing that you can do to help reduce all of these problems is to switch to a plant-based diet. For resources on switching to a veg diet, please click here.