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Meat Industry Pollution
Sobe, Jane
How is the Meat Industry polluting our planet?
- Livestock, inlcluding cows, sheep, goats, chicken, pigs, fish and other farm animals require huge extensions of land, water, oxigen and electricity.
- Large amounts of forest are being destroyed to create pastured land for cows to be able to walk and eat on land.
- The industry uses great amount of energy to process the feeding, killing, packaging, and distribution of the final product into the stores.
- The industry contributes to 18% of the annual worldwide greenhouse gases emissions.
- All the blood and feckle residues from producing meat is being dumped in water resources, making water polluted with bacteria of all kinds.
Red Tide
The harmful algal blooms caused by manure pollution from the meat industry vary in their effects on the environment. They produce a potent poison called brevotoxin.
Factory Cows
The consequences of meat production on vast industrial scales is various diseases, viruses, and chemicals being within the meats that are then consumed by humans, causing all sorts of health issues.
The Pollution
The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
Interesting Facts and Statistics
- Raising animals for food uses 30% of Earth's land mass.
- Livestock grazing is the number one reason that plant species in the United States become threatened and go extinct, and it also leads to soil erosion and eventual desertification that makes the land go barren.
- 70% of the grains and cereal that we grow are fed to farm animals because they require large amounts of grain, soy bean, oats and corn which is too much compared to what they can produce.
- It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat, and even fish on fish farms must be fed up to 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish flesh.
- Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food.
- It is suggested for people to become vegetarians because of a tremendous waste of water involved with eating animals. It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegan diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a typical meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of meat than you do by not showering for six months!
Sites and Sources...
- http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources.aspx
- http://thecircleforhumanity.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=214:the-real-factor-behind-the-meat-industry-the-human-factor&catid=1:bad-news&Itemid=66&lang=en
- http://bringingforthworldequality.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/will-there-be-a-meat-industry-in-the-equal-money-system-and-if-so-how-will-it-work/
- http://blog.targethealth.com/?p=4746
- http://www.saawinternational.org/enviromentandhealth.htm