Animal agriculture (at its current scale and method) causes lots of waste!
- Livestock & their byproducts account for a major portion of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
- According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the report “Livestock’s Long Shadow.”
- Christopher Heiner (at the Georgetown Environmental Law Review) says:
- Animal agriculture and the degradation of the environment are extremely intertwined (with emissions and other issues).
- There’s a large lack of policy to address this issue!
- The USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates humans can reduce energy use (in Btu) by 77% if people switched to an “Energy Efficient Diet” (pescatarian).
- According to the United States Department of Agriculture ‘s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS).
- Find more information in my “Healthy Diets and Sustainability” post.
The agriculture economy (and subsidies) are messy.
- The subsidy system might be working for the right way for the wrong group.
- In the U.S. feed crops (like corn and soy) are heavily subsidized by the government.
- Find subsidy details at the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) “Farm Subsidy Database.”
- In the U.S. feed crops (like corn and soy) are heavily subsidized by the government.
- Farmers don’t get much above market value for their crops usually, but Big Agriculture companies who need cheap, calorically dense food (i.e. corn and soy) to feed their livestock make out on this deal (So do ethanol processors and processed corn-refineries).
- A summary of this issue can be found from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s (IATP) piece, “Below Cost Feed Crops: An Indirect Subsidy for Industrial Animal Factories.”
- Find out more about this at the “Sustainable Agriculture Series” in my “Sustainability” tab.
Negative ecological impactsof growing these feed grains often occurs, like excess pesticides in groundwater and rivers.
- Read this example in a summary of pesticides in groundwater from 1992-2001 from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), in the Department of the Interior (DOI).
Animal agriculture uses lots of water the earth’s available fresh water!
- Growing feed crops for livestock uses 56% of U.S. water.
- Beef, in particular, uses LOTS of water. One pound of beef averages at 2,500 gallons of water.
- Check out Pimentel et. al.’s paper, “Water Resources: Agricultural and Environmental Issues” in the journal for The American Institute of Biological Sciences to learn more.
- Check out Pimentel et. al.’s paper, “Water Resources: Agricultural and Environmental Issues” in the journal for The American Institute of Biological Sciences to learn more.
For myself, this information helps to provide a basis of facts large enough to shift my eating pattern to a permanently plant based one. However, dietary choices (like most lifestyle choices) are both cultural and personal, and each individual deserves to make informed and individualized decisions.