What will you eat now ?
the sustainability issues of eating a meat-based diet
Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment
The things being fed to the livestock can make people sick because it could stretch anywhere from chemically grown or grain fed. Americans are consuming close to 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year. Environmental problems have a lot to do with locally bred cattle (meat production). There needs to be a change in order for things to happen. Humans consume too much meat, which is costing a lot of money. Prices of meat in stores are super high. A lot of people are realizing the issues of meat production
Meat Lover
The meat supply has increased drastically over the past 50 years
The more meat that is produced means more corn and soy will be used; which will increase the profit being made because it's going to increase in price
Average
- The meat supply has increased drastically over the past 50 years
- 124 kg of meat and 20.3 kg of fish are consumed per year
No Beef
- 9 billion livestock and more are maintained to supply animal protein consumed each year.
- 0.5 ha of cropland was used to produce food for this diet
Vegetarian
The plant-based diet is called Lactoovovegeterian
- The more energy that is produced, the more greens that grow which is good for the plant based dieters.
Vegan
Less than 0.4 ha of cropland was used to produce food for this diet
The protein consumed each day on this diet is 89 g per day
Plant Lover
The amount of grains used to produce milk and eggs, used in the plant-based diet, was half then how much is used in the meat-based diet
- An estimated 4 billion people primarily live on the plant-based diet
Other Environmental Impacts
More Information...
Fossil energy is expended in livestock production systems. “Fossil energy input for all the animal protein production systems studied is 25 kcal fossil energy input per 1 kcal of protein produced. Too much fossil energy is being used. More than 99.2% of US food is produced on the land. Soil erosion and degradation is becoming an issue and will affect the food growth. Each year, 90% of US cropland loses a great deal of soil. There isn’t enough fossil fuels to fix the erosion issue and lack of nutrients within the soil. Too much water is being used to keep the produce growing. Both the meat-based and plant-based diets require significant amounts of fossil energy to produce.Natural resources are endangered as the human population grows