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Livestock and the Environment

Climate change has been dubbed the challenge of our generation. Many campaigns have

been launched to make headway in this challenge, such as the Plastic Straw Bans that were very

popular throughout 2019. One thing people overlook however, one very big thing, is the

environmental impact of the Meat-Industry. Most tend to ignore the issue in favor of keeping

their diet. Personally, I have always eaten meat. I was raised with the mindset of if there wasn't

meat on the plate then it wasn't a real meal. Though I've come to realize, that might not be the

best mindset. From a clearer atmosphere to saving the trees, reducing the amount of meat

consumed by humans would provide numerous benefits to Earth's environment.

Humans have been hunting and gathering for centuries, a “typical” meal in most houses

growing up would consist of meat, a starch, and vegetables. Though not everyone could agree

with this type of diet. Pythagoras, known for his work in mathematics, is actually also referred to

as the father of Vegetarianism. Until the mid-1800's the meatless diet was referred to as the

'Pythagorean Diet.' Many Anthropologists have said that humans, early on, had a mostly plant

based diet. Seeing as plants can’t run away, this made for a much easier meal. Looking closer,

the digestive system of a human resembles more closely that of a herbivore rather than a

carnivore. “Prehistoric man ate meat, of course, but plants formed the basis of his diet.” (Butler.)

Originally meatless diets were a means of protesting animal abuse and not wanting to take life.

People like Pythagoras believed all animals had a soul so consuming them would be the same

thing as murder. In the most recent popular movement, the 'Pythagorean Diet' was coined as

Vegetarianism. Once again that movement was about animal abuse and taking life, though it has
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shifted a bit in recent years with the idea of turning to a vegetarian diet in order to combat the

global climate change issue that has been becoming more prevalent in the mainstream media.

Global Climate Change is something that has been trending in the recent years. The fate

of the world may not be decided by nuclear warfare or aliens or meteors but rather by the lack of

care for the world. Scientists from NASA predict that the Earth, as a result of man-made climate

change, will dramatically heat up and cause life to change for the worse. The result of the Earth

heating up could come in various forms, whether it be the oceans rising to a level which makes

some coastal regions practically uninhabitable, or it could come in the form of massive droughts

in the areas that people cultivate crops and could cause intense forest and brush fires across the

world (think Australia or California in late 2019/early 2020 but instead everywhere.) Many

citizens of different backgrounds have been asked about the issue of climate change and while

about 83 percent of those who responded stated humans and their actions over the course of

history are causing part of climate change, only thirty percent said that the meat and livestock

industry was a large factor (Stoll-Kleemann.) The Meat and Livestock industry contributes more

to climate change than most people think.

One leading issue with the meat industry is the amount of space it takes to have enough

to sustain the population of the world, even just the United States of America. If someone were

to take a look at a map of the United States with different sections of what the land is used for,

they would find that just under half of the 2.43 billion acres of land is contributed to livestock.

Approximately 40% of American soil is for pastures and cows and sheep and goats. While

another 32% of 390 million acres of crop soil(127 million acres) is used for growing feed for the

livestock. (Giampiero.) This as a result means that over half of the United States is for growing
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livestock to meet the current demand of meat and animal products. If the world population

growth, predicted by Emily Cassidy in a 2013 report, is accurate, then we will see approximately

2-3 billion more people on Earth before we've reached our 'carrying capacity.' This 2-3 billion

people would lead to multiple millions of acres being needed for the traditional omnivore diet.

Plain and simple, there isn't enough room for that.

If the demand for meat for consumption dropped even 10%, the result would be around

112.37 million acres of land, just in America, opened up for other purposes. Now in terms of the

farmland used, reducing the need for feed by 10% would result in over a million acres of arable

land in the US opening up for other crops which could feed people. (Driscoll)

In South America, the Amazon Rainforest is a beautiful work of nature, it contributes to

5% of CO2 absorption, over 2 billion tons of a greenhouse gas. Ranchers in South America have

a bad habit of wanting more land for their cattle to graze, so they cut down large portions of the

Amazon Rainforest. This process, known as deforestation, has led to the destruction of what

many experts call Earth's Lungs. Currently around 17% of the Amazon has been lost to

deforestation and land clearing, according to National Geographic, if 25% of the Amazon is lost

then the area will dry out and become a savannah. Not only is the meat industry taking away

from the land we have to plant new trees, it is also taking away the trees we already have. If the

meat industry were to not be as popular then the space used for cattle in the Amazon could be

reclaimed by nature in a way to help the Earth's atmosphere cycle through the gases released by

the cattle themselves.

If the world had a predominantly non-meat based diet, the amount of food we would have

would be way above what we do now, or even what we will eventually need. According to
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published estimates, if the crops that were grown to feed animals or to make biofuel were instead

grown to produce food humans, at a global level, approximately 70% more calories would be

added to the world’s accumulated food supply(Pimentel and Pimentel). Because of this, the

amount of people that could be fed would be close to 4 billion, this is way more than Cassidy’s

prediction of around three billion humans in the foreseeable future (Cassidy). There are so many

people in the world that go hungry. The global food supply is being accessed extremely poorly

when taking into consideration that crops, which could feed us, are instead converted into animal

feed which is then used for us to eat (Garnett). An astounding 33% of fertile land across the

globe is used to grow animal feed. We could use that space to plant forests or make more food or

do anything in that regard.

When it comes to the animal themselves, livestock is responsible for 18% of all

greenhouse gas emissions which is more than all of the planes, cars, and other vehicles

combined. It was found that the most impactful greenhouse gases from livestock are nitrous

oxide and methane. “Methane, mainly produced by enteric fermentation and manure storage, is a

gas which has an effect on global warming 28 times higher than carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide,

arising from manure storage and the use of organic/inorganic fertilizers, is a molecule with a

global warming potential 265 times higher than carbon dioxide” (Grossi.) This release of

greenhouse gasses far surpasses the amount of gas produced by non-meat substitutes. Beef Cattle

produce the largest amount of greenhouse gasses, while chicken produce the least (Karger.)

Comparing the amount of greenhouse gasses produced by the meat industry and other

types of food, there is no competition. This is because of many things. Firstly a large portion of

the emissions from livestock comes from Enteric Fermentation. Enteric fermentation is part of
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the digestive process, it's where bacteria, protozoa, and fungi contained in the stomach of the

animal, ferment and break down the plant biomass eaten by the animal (McAllister and

Newbold.) The fermentation of the biomass causes methane and nitrous oxide to build up and the

cattle either defecate or burp as a way of removing the gaseous chemicals inside. Another big

factor in the release of greenhouse gasses from livestock is in food production. This includes

fertilizers and chemicals, manure applied to soil, food processing, transport, agricultural

operations and land use (Grossi.)

Food that isn't from livestock also comes with greenhouse gas emissions. Tofu for

example, made from soy(most of the soy produced around the world actually goes straight to

feeding livestock), produces less than 35,000 kg of CO2e per million grams of tofu, compared to

the 1,050,000kg of CO2e per million grams of beef (Seijan.)

Many of those who oppose switching from meat to a more vegetarian lifestyle argue that

there isn't enough protein in meat substitutes, or that there aren't enough options for people to

choose from. They also claim that it is too difficult to transition over. It's interesting to know that

daily, the average human gets most of its protein from plants already. Also the meat substitute

industry has been stepping up its game lately. Companies such as Impossible Foods, and Beyond

Meat, have made great steps towards making an almost exact copy of various forms of real meat,

all out of plants. Mark Rober, former NASA engineer, visited these companies in a recent video

on his Youtube Channel. In this video he found that the food made by these companies, the

ground “beef” and italian “sausage,” were so similar that if he hadn't been told then he wouldn't

have known the difference. The way to transition from one diet into another isn't to go cold

turkey, or rather cold lentil, but instead to ease into it. You don’t need to stop eating meat all
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together. To benefit the Earth, you simply need to limit the amount of meat you eat or replace it

with a meat alternate. Mark Rober recommends starting “Meatless Mondays,” which means

substituting a meal like burgers, or tacos, with a meatless option for those same dishes. This

would allow your body to naturally adapt to the change while still starting the benefits of a

vegetarian diet.

The world is heading towards Catastrophic Failure from overheating. We as a society, as

a people, need to start shifting towards fixing the world, fast. Livestock and the Meat industry

are some of the biggest problems when it comes to climate change, and we can see many benefits

of turning away from a meat ruled lifestyle​. From one meat lover to another, I really believe that

if we are to progress as a world, we need to slow down the demand for meat.
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Works Cited

“Climate Change Drives Restaurants to Reduce Use of Meat.” Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada),

2019. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgin&AN=edsgcl.600266991&site=

eds-live. Accessed 28 February, 2020.

Diet Diversification and Health Promotion. Forum Nutr. Basel, Karger, 2005, vol 57, pp

147-156. doi: 10.1159/000083787. Accessed 1 March, 2020.

Driscoll, Sally, and Ann Griswold. “Vegetarianism Debate.” Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2018.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89158340&site=eds-live.

Accessed 28 February, 2020.

“Feeding Bill Gates a Fake Burger.” Youtube, 12 Feb. 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k-V3ESHcfA. Accessed 1 March 2020.

Giampiero Grossi, Pietro Goglio, Andrea Vitali, Adrian G Williams, Livestock and climate

change: impact of livestock on climate and mitigation strategies, Animal Frontiers,

Volume 9, Issue 1, January 2019, Pages 69–76, https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfy034.

Accessed 3 March, 2020.

Janson, Madison. Personal interview. 29 Feb, 2020.

Participant Media & River Road Entertainment present ; a film by Robert Kenner ;

producers, Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein ; writers, Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, Kim

Roberts ; directed by Robert Kenner. Food, Inc. [Los Angeles, CA] :Magnolia Home

Entertainment, 2009. Accessed 27 February, 2020.

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Rosi, A., Mena, P., Pellegrini, N. et al. Environmental impact of omnivorous,

ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan diet. Sci Rep 7, 6105 (2017).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06466-8. Accessed 21 February, 2020.

Sejian, Veerasamy, et al. Climate Change Impact on Livestock : Adaptation and Mitigation.

Springer,2015.EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01128a&AN=scc.b1685972&site=e

ds-live. Accessed 29 February 2020.

Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne, and Uta Schmidt. “Reducing Meat Consumption in Developed and

Transition Countries to Counter Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss: A Review of

Influence Factors.” Regional Environmental Change, vol. 17, no. 5, June 2017, pp.

1261–1277. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10113-016-1057-5. Accessed 29 February, 2020.