In this essay we will be discussing the negative impacts a standard meat eating American diet has on the environment and how a plant based diet is better for the environment. I will argue how animal agriculture is rapidly influencing our world in negatively and what we need to do to stop it. We will also explore the health impacts of a meat based diet vs. a plant based diet and whether humans have responsibility to express compassion towards non-human life.
First let’s dive into the harms of animal agriculture and the facts behind it. Animal agriculture is the second largest contributor to human made greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions as a whole, according to Climate Nexus and various other sources. It contributes to not only climate change but deforestation, depletion of our resources, soil erosion, species and habitat loss, ocean dead zones, water and air pollution and biodiversity loss, all of these things are seriously harmful to the environment. Over 70 billion animals are raised each year on our planet for human consumption (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). This means a third of the planet’s ice-free land surface is devoted to growing livestock (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). One whole third of our planet, this land could be used in many other productive ways, like growing crops for example. So, where exactly are these greenhouse gases coming from? The main causes of these greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture are the methane released from enteric fermentation (a natural part of the digestive process in ruminant animals (Enteric Fermentation)) and from animal manure, loss of carbon stored in forests and soils from land-use change and degradation and fossil fuels burned to produce mineral fertilizers for feed production (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change).
Cattle aka the livestock sector is by far the largest source of emissions from animal agriculture. A report, from 2013 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), estimates that about 14.5% of global GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions can be attributed to the livestock sector yearly (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). This is broadly equivalent to the emissions from all the fuel burned by all the world’s transport vehicles, including cars, trucks, trains, boats, and airplanes (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). Air and water pollution can also be directly attributed to the livestock sector. It is the main cause of water pollution in the USA, and animal agriculture alone uses about half of our water (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). That’s just with the process of manufacturing the livestock let alone the consumption of it. With the average American diet, beef consumption creates around 1,984 pounds of CO₂ emissions annually (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). Replacing eating beef with eating a plant based diet would reduce that figure 96%, bringing it down to just 73 pounds of CO₂ emissions (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). This change in diet is a way that individuals could make an impact. Also it should be noted that, 70% of our grain in the USA is used to grow cattle feed or beans to prepare these animals for slaughter (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). These beans could feed way more people. We don’t have enough food to feed everyone in the world, especially with meat.
Animal agriculture is not only directly harmful to the animals but can be directly harmful to humans as well. Concentrated factory farming presents many additional public health risks to the surrounding communities. One of these risks is the potential for viral diseases to spread from sick livestock to humans (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). Another large problem is the irresponsible manure/animal waste management from these high-volume facilities (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). This risks the possibility of aerosolizing fecal matter, that could reach nearby homes and causes harmful fumes (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). Animal waste, particularly pigs, creates harmful fumes and gets dumped basically wherever the factory farms can find space. This creates dangerous and unhealthy environments for people to live in, who are typically lower class citizens who have no control of this. Let alone to mention the unbearable smell it creates, so much so you don’t even want to leave your house. This waste can also pass through the soil and into the groundwater, which then may contaminate nearby streams and rivers with nitrates and pathogens (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). These chemicals then lead from the rivers into the oceans, where they can destroy marine ecosystems and create ocean dead zones, where all marine life is dead (5 Ways Eating More Plant-Based Foods Benefits the Environment).
Global GHG emissions from the livestock sector alone are increasing every year. If this global consumption of meat and dairy continues to grow and this pace, the agriculture sector could consume about 70% of the allowable budget for all GHG emissions by the mid-century (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). To meet the global goal of limiting climate change to 2°C, yearly emissions must be reduced from today’s level by half (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change). The contribution of GHG from the average western diet could be cut in half is everyone adopted a plant-based diet. There are ways we could improve this industry, animal agriculture emissions could be limited through smarter livestock handling, technology enabled monitoring of fertilizer application, simple changes in the layout of the fields and more efficient agricultural techniques that aren’t as harmful to the environment, or the animals (Animal Agriculture’s Impact on Climate Change).
The single most powerful action an individual can make for the environment is to switch to a plant based diet. Eating a plant based diet cuts your carbon footprint in half, conserves water, saves the lives of animals and plant habitats, reduces ocean dead zones and produces cleaner air (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating). The amount of water that is wasted by eating a meat and dairy based diet is staggering. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce just one gallon of milk (5 Ways Eating More Plant-Based Foods Benefits the Environment). It requires about 100 times more water to produce a pound of animal protein than a pound of grain protein (5 Ways Eating More Plant-Based Foods Benefits the Environment). This clearly is not efficient. We could produce much more food for the world if it were plant based. “The real war against climate is being fought on our plates, multiple times a day with every food choice we make,” says Nil Zacharias, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of One Green Planet, ” one of the biggest challenges facing our planet, and our species is that we are knowingly eating ourselves into extinction, and doing very little about it.” With the wealth of available plant based options it has never been easier to eat with the planet in mind.
Not only is this change impactful for the environment but for our health as well. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, well this saying holds a lot of truth to it. The number one cause of death in The United States is diet (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”). The World Health Organization places red and processed meat at the same danger levels as cigarettes and asbestos (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”). Meat, according to the World Health Organization, is now the new tobacco. From eating a plant based diet you receive countless benefits from all the nutrients, antioxidants, and fibers in plants. People who have plant based diets have a longer life expectancy, lower rates of heart disease, cancer, obesity, lower risk of diabetes, etc (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”).
Regardless of how much of a harmful impact this all has on the planet and human lives, the ones who are really facing the most harm are the animals. Worldwide every year 56 billion animals and 96 billion marine animals are killed for food (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”). These factory farms house around 10,000’s of animals in one factory alone, resulting in the treatment of these animals to be extremely unethical (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”). There are around 20,000 of these factories in the USA and 370 animals are killed every second in the USA alone (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”). These farms do not care about the health and wellbeing of these animals, they simply see the animals as property and not living breathing beings. The only goal of these factory farms is efficiency and to make a profit.
Why do we love some animals and then eat the other. Pigs have been found to be more intelligent than dogs, yet are found on our plates instead of in our arms. This is shaped by our perception found in our culture. No animal should hold more value then the other, a life is a life. We are numbed to animal death through several ways, by the media, by our perception and simple by wanting to avoid the emotional pain of empathizing with them. We don’t see the face on the plate. Often it is argued that animals are just less intelligent than humans so that makes people feel entitled to eat them. Who is to say that these animals lives are less valuable than ours, regardless of their level of intelligence. We don’t just send all the people who we deem as less intelligent than the rest to be slaughtered, so why should we with animals. Peter Singer argues that the battle for animal rights is a fight for equality. Singer says, “The basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment, it requires equal consideration.” and “If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit nonhumans for the same purpose?”. The fight for animals rights, is a fight for equality, for life and for change.
Even individuals who claim to care about animals still follow a meat based diet. What is really hold us back from all turning to a plant based diet? It simply is “too hard” for people, in the sense that it inconveniences them or that meat just tastes too good. According to Singer, “If we are prepared to take the life of another being merely in order to satisfy our taste for a particular type of food, then that being is no more than a means to our end… The factory farm is nothing more than the application of technology to the idea that animals are means to our ends.”. This desire isn’t just unethical but harmful as well to the world around us. We shouldn’t have to rely on animals to sustain us. They have every right to life on this earth as we do. There is also the argument that in order to have protein to grow strong you need meat. This is simply untrue, protein can easily be obtained from a plant based diet, if you are vegetarian (vegans however do need to be more careful) (Talks, TEDx. “The Power of Plant-Based Eating”).
Throughout this essay we have covered many issues regarding the impact of a plant based diet and the reasons why you should consider it. The amount of harm that animal agriculture has on the planet alone should be reason enough to consider it. There needs to be serious change to this industry and it needs to be fast in order to stop this yearly increase of greenhouse gas emissions that animal agriculture produces. The health benefits that you would receive from eating a plant based diet are also appealing for the individual, who wants to live a long happy life (which most of us do). Then getting into the ethical side of things, seeing how these animals are abused and slaughtered mindlessly like products and not treated as a being with a heart and soul, is disturbing in it own right. That animal is not a “something” it is a “someone” and should be treated as such. There is a lot of work to do to improve this field but all hope is not lost. Vegetarian and Vegan diets are the most popular in our modern day culture then they have ever been before. Each and every day more and more people are turning to this lifestyle. Whether it’s from the compassion in their hearts for the suffering of the animals, the concern of the status of planet, wanting to live a healthier life or all of the above. Regardless of the reason these people are the ones who are helping in whatever small individual way they can to save our planet, and the more people who spread the message and turn to a plant based diet the more will follow.
