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Reducing
Greenhouse Gases
Meat production requires 10 to 20 times more energy
per edible ton than grain production. This includes growing the crops to
feed the animals, processing the feed, housing the animals in unnatural
conditions, transporting them to the slaughterhouse and the actual
slaughtering. The slaughtering process alone is intensive in its use of water
and energy. Animal products also require more energy for packaging,
refrigeration and transportation, whereas many vegetables and fruit require no
packaging or refrigeration. The energy generated for the entire production
system comes mostly from burning fossil fuels that contributes to pollution and
global warming.
Also, livestock emit vast quantities of methane, a
greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. A vegetarian diet can save
1.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases per person per year.
Reducing
Land UseA meat
based diet requires seven times more land than a plant based one. Much of
the land that is used for grazing was once wild grassland or forest, supporting
a variety of wild species. Using the land for grazing farm animals also leads
to soil degradation that otherwise would not have occurred.
Using Plants
EfficientlyTo
produce 1 lb. of meat requires 3.5-8.5 lb. (1.6-3.8 kg) of plant food
(ratios vary with the type of animal.)
Eliminating
Pollution from Animal Waste Cattle produce 40 lb. of manure for every lb. of
edible beef. This waste must be disposed of. Animal waste can seep into
water systems can cause Ecoli, nitrogen, phosphorous, nitrate pollution.
Canadians will remember a small town in Ontario where seven people died and
many more were made sick when Ecoli contaminated the town's drinking
water.
Saving the
Oceans Commercial
fishing has had a devastating effect on marine ecosystems, not only depleting
fish stocks, but ravaging the environment for other marine life. Marine mammals
such as whales and dolphins are sometimes caught in nets and drown. Other fish
species that are not useful to the fishers also die. Fish farms, developed to
supplement dwindling fish stocks, raise fish in underwater cages in high
densities. The water is contaminated with drugs and feces that pollute the
adjacent waters. Fish that escape can spread disease to wild stock. From an
animal rights perspective, fishing is one of the cruelest ways that animals are
killed. The fish suffocate or are crushed to death. A fish flopping around in a
net or hold of a boat is literally gasping for air.
References
and further reading on the environmental impact of an omnivorous
diet:
Livestock
a major threat to environment
Vegetarianism
and the Environment - PETA
For the Environment - UK
Vegetarian Society
How Food Choices
can Help Save the Environment - Earthsave International
"Meat
production's environmental toll" , a paper
presented by Stephen Leckie at the 1997 International Conference on Sustainable
Urban Food Systems, held at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada,
"Diet for a Small Planet" a book
by Frances Mooore Lappé, Ballantine Books |
