Cameron Redburn

CTAC124

2/15/18

The Environmental Impact of a Meat Based Diet

I. Goal: Inform

II. Specific Goal: Inform the audience of the environmental impact of a meat-based diet.

III. Introduction
a. Attention Getter: How many

b. …of you incorporate meat into your diets? Congratulations, you are contributing to

the demise of the beautiful planet that we live on.

c. Thesis: Eating a meat-based diet has many environmental impacts, including, but not

limited to, depletion of water, overuse of energy, pollution, and deforestation.

d. Relevance/Credibility Statement: I love animals, and lived a vegetarian lifestyle for

all of 2017, and experience no vitamin deficiencies or any downfalls caused by my

diet.

IV. Main Body

a. Water

i. There are 3 times more livestock in the world than people

1. We need water to feed crops and livestock, instead of just feeding

plants for us to eat.

ii. It takes 2,464 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef in California.

1. That is a 7-minute shower every day for 6 months.

2. It takes 25 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of wheat.

iii. 40% of freshwater in the US in 2000 went to livestock feeding crops.

b. Energy

i. Agricultural production uses 10% of the energy used every year in the US.
 1. 40 calories of fossil fuel are used to produce 1 calorie of protein from

beef.

2. 2 calories of fossil fuel are used to produce 1 calorie of protein from

tofu (Ogden).

c. Pollution/Deforestation

i. Livestock are often raised on factory farms that produce harmful gasses and

chemicals (Good).

1. Red meat production is responsible for as much as 40 times as many

greenhouse gas emissions than common vegetables (Pimentel).

ii. 40% of the Earth’s land is used for food production, 30% is used for raising

livestock (Walsh).

1. Deforestation often occurs to accommodate this livestock (Premack).

B Ogden, L. (2007, April 04). The Enviromental Impact of A Meat Based Diet. The Vegetarian

Times.

Good, K. (2014, December 18). Explain Like I'm 5: How Does Eating Animals Hurt The

Environment? One Green Planet.

Pimentel, D. (n.d.). How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll? Scientific American.

Walsh, B. (2013, December 16). The Triple Whopper Environmental Impact of Global Meat

Production. Time.

Premack, R. (2016, July 3). Meat is horrible . The Washington Post.