Here's what's on my mind this morning...
A major 2006 report by the United Nations summarized the devastation
caused by the meat industry. Raising animals for food, the report
said, is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to
the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to
global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major
policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate
change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss
of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is
on a massive scale …."
Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts
of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of
the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals
for food.6,7 Our taste for meat is also taking a toll on our supply of
fuel and other nonrenewable resources—about one-third of the raw
materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal
industry.
Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire
human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't
have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this
concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil,
and contaminating our air.9 And meat-eaters are responsible for the
production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per
second!10 Give up animal products, and you'll be responsible for none
of it.
Many leading environmental organizations, including the National
Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the
Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals
for food damages the environment more than just about anything else
that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or
air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking
havoc on the Earth. The most important step you can take to save the
planet is to go vegetarian.
