What are the Environmental Consequences of Eating Meat?

When thinking of human factors that contribute to climate change, images that come to mind are often of jam packed highways with exhaust pipes emitting carbon dioxide or of large industrial mills with smokestacks sending black clouds into the atmosphere.

What we often fail to recognize as a significant contributor to global warming and our carbon footprint is this:

That’s right. Our diet, more specifically our consumption of meat and other animal products as a regular food source, is identified as one of the most important drivers of environmental pressures (United Nations Environmental Program, 2010). For instance one statistic shows that if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted it for vegetarian foods, the savings in carbon dioxide would be the equivalent of taking more than 500, 000 cars off United States roads (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 2011).

A number of aspects of animal production and consumption play a role in this figure.  For instance on a global scale, roughly 70% of the world’s freshwater consumption, about 38% total land use and roughly 14% of the world’s green house gas production is due to agricultural production (United Nations Environmental Program, 2010). According to one study, meat production requires ten to twenty times more energy per edible tonne than does grain production (Leckie, 2007). This is because housing of animals for meat consumption often requires artificial ventilation, conveyor belts and electrical lighting, slaughter houses are water and energy intensive, and animal products tend to require more energy for processing, packaging and refrigeration than plant based foods (Leckie, 2007). Many vegetables, grains and fruits require no refrigeration and little to no packaging.  This is not to mention the amount of fuel that is necessary to transport feed to livestock, livestock to slaughterhouses, meat to produce stores and eventually meat to our plates.

LESS MEAT = LESS HEAT

While agricultural production is a necessary means for human survival, it is important to asses which types of production are fundamental to human and promote environmental sustainability, and which are detrimental to it. As population expands, adequate food resources and intact land areas are critical to maintaining a healthy population. A primary step in ensuring this, among other things, is an overall shift in food choices and consciousness away from animal products towards plant based foods.

Check this out:
Number one cause of global warming.


References

United Nations Environmental Program. (2010). Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production: Priority Products and Materials. Retrieved March 27, 2011 from www.enep.org/resourcepanel/documents/pdf/PriorityProductsAndMaterials-Report_Full.pdf

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (2011). Meat and the Environment. Retrieved March 27, 2011 from www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-feed/meat-and-environment.aspx

Leckie, S. (2007). Meat Production’s Environmental Toll: Wilderness Destruction, Soil Erosion, Energy Waste and Pollution. Retrieved March 27, 2011 from www.veg.ca/content/view.133.111/#energy

FaithofReason. (2008, November 6). Number 1 Cause of Global Warming [Video File]. Retrieved March 28, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox1WQUnBwa8