The
Environment
and
Vegetarianism:
Impact #1: Pollution
Meat eating
pollutes our water, air and food. 18% of our carbon input into
greenhouse gases and 22% percent of our methane pollution is caused by
animal husbandry and slaughter operations. The cattle and hog industry
is one of humanity’s most polluting industries—infecting our waterways
with bioactive manure, antibiotics and other pollutants. Because of
massive over-fishing, our oceans are now depleted of 90 percent of the
largest predatory species compared to only fifty years ago. It is a
well-known fact that meat eating consumes over five times the resources
than a plant diet does. It takes about 5.86 plant protein pounds to
produce one animal protein pound.
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Impact
#2: Water
In addition, one pound of animal
protein requires about one hundred times the water a pound of plant
protein requires. One steer’s lifetime water intake could float a
battleship. In a world of dwindling resources, it truly becomes a
practical choice. |
Impact
#3: Land Use
The earth is bursting with an excessive population of cattle due to the
meat industry. While over 1.2 billion domesticated cattle populate the
planet—rivaling human population—cattle disrupt more than half the
world’s land. In the past fifty years, about sixty percent of the
world’s rangelands have been damaged due to overgrazing.
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