FACT: Animal agriculture is a leading cause of global warming.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 70 percent of all human-caused global nitrous oxide emissions. It also is responsible for more than 20 percent of global methane emissions.
The world’s 1.3 billion head of cattle emit approximately 150 trillion quarts of methane gas—or about 400 quarts per cow per day. Methane is the second largest factor in global warming. In fact, animal agriculture is second only to landfills as the leading cause of human-related global methane emissions.
Excessive amounts of nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide trap too much of the sun’s energy in the Earth’s atmosphere, in turn warming the air and water. This warming effect has already begun to cause droughts, wildfires, extreme weather and a rise in sea level.
The costs of global warming will be staggering, not only in dollars, but also in lives.
FACT: Seventy percent of water used in the 11 western states is dedicated to the raising of animals for food.
A meat-based diet requires 14 times more water than does a vegetarian diet. A pound of wheat can be grown with 25 gallons of water, whereas, for instance, the average pound of beef requires 5,214 gallons.
According to John Robbins, author of The Food Revolution, “In California today, you may save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for six months.”
Although powerful agricultural interests thwart efforts to tie meat consumption to water consumption, it is clear that meat consumption leads to water shortages. Take that shower and skip the beef! Conserving water is critical to the future of our society and our planet—it is a true “homeland security” matter.
Animal agriculture also creates vast amounts of pollution. Highly concentrated livestock waste, kept in “lagoons,” often spills into rivers and streams. The United States’ largest feedlots have a waste output equal to that of the largest American cities.
FACT: Animal agriculture significantly contributes to destruction of ecosystems, often leaving land and water unsuitable for native wildlife.
In the American West alone, some 300 million acres of public land—an area three times the size of California—is currently used for grazing by private interests.
Grazing on cleared forest land is especially damaging. This land cannot withstand overgrazing and becomes barren within five to eight years.
Cattle grazing is responsible for the majority of deforestation, which leaves the once-luscious land barren, destroying entire ecosystems. Grazing cattle deposit enormous amounts of soil and manure into waterways, killing aquatic wildlife, trampling the banks and adversely affecting riparian vegetation. Pesticides and waste often flow into rivers and the ocean.
A less obvious impact of destroying forestland is the release of carbon dioxide by decomposing or burning trees.
FACT: The meat industry is directly responsible for 85 percent of all soil erosion in the United States.
Soil provides every terrestrial creature with sustenance, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood elements. Our well-being hinges in part upon soil, but our hunger for meat is creating dusty voids in which no life thrives.
Public lands ranching places huge, unnatural strains on the soil, which adversely affects climate, agricultural production and water quality.
Cows aren’t picky about what they eat and are capable of stripping the landscape bare, leaving behind giant plate-sized heaps of hardened feces and forgoing only poisonous and non-native plant species.
Because almost all public lands ranching in the United States takes place in the 11 western states (equaling 75 percent of the West’s 418 million acres44), ranchers are using and destroying public soil for private gain.
FACT: Numerous wildlife species are threatened by modern meat production.
In addition to suffering major biological impoverishment because of livestock’s damaging habits, the West’s wildlife faces death at the hands of ranchers and Wildlife Services, a deceivingly named agency of the U.S. federal government.
In Colorado, few animals are as threatened as the black-tailed prairie dog, which occupies less than 2 percent of its historical habitat.
Perceived as competition for livestock forage, tens of billions of prairie dogs have been killed in the past century. Because so many species rely on the existence of prairie dogs, the effects of this slaughter are immense.
Other animals killed to “protect” livestock—at taxpayer expense—include black bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and red foxes.
As more and more people become vegetarian, fewer and fewer of these animals will be killed—lands currently used for grazing and for raising feed could be restored (at some level) to their native states, in which wildlife and ecosystems thrive.
What can I do?
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