Since the beginning of the 21st century, human activities have begun to alter the climate. Trends in diet choices have played a significant role in contributing to climate change from damaging clean water supplies, releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, and creating unsustainable patterns of land usage and degradation. When looking at the Standard American Diet (SAD), a large portion of the food consumed is animal-based. Why is this an issue you may ask?
- Animal product consumption can lead to pandemics: Covid-19 due to wild meat consumption; Hendra Virus due to horses; Nipah due to pigs; and Swine flu due to poultry.
- Livestock, especially cows, release methane gas into the air which has contributed to 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The vast presence of greenhouse gasses has led to a warming effect that includes a cascade of dangerous events. One example is the melting of glaciers, which increases sea levels, thereby altering regional climates and changing ecosystems.
- Animal agriculture requires a much higher land usage. Currently, 80% of the world’s agricultural land is used to produce grain for livestock. Pretty crazy and frustrating, I know!
- Due to vast demands on land usage and an increase in greenhouse gases, the biodiversity of many regions is declining. Monoculture of crops used for feed also fabricates a loss in biodiversity.
There are a number of positive environmental impacts when trying to eliminate or even limit meat consumption. For example, if all of Americans gave up meat at one meal, it would equate to taking nearly 500,000 cars off of the road. Switch over to more of a plant-based diet now—and check out more quick facts below to learn about your new journey. Also, a special thanks to PitE President Bridgette Pollaski for contributing to the content of this post.
- There is a correlation between the wealth of a nation and meat consumption. As GDP increases, there is also an increase in meat consumption.
- It takes up to around 1,800 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat (to put this into perspective, that is 50 bathtubs full).
- Every single meal containing beef results in 55 square feet of rainforest being torn down. Furthermore, 80% of deforestation in the Amazon was done so to increase meat production.
- In relation to greenhouse gasses production, all of the world’s transportation systems combined still cannot compare to that of meat production.