A Brief Note On Livestock 's Long Shadow : Environmental Issues And Options By The Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative

Anna Lappé’s book, Diet for a Hot Planet, discusses the impact that meat consumption has on the planet and our environment. It discusses how the global food system is a major contributor to climate change, producing as much as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. She writes about how the way we farm, what we eat, and how our food gets to our tables all

Animal agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change; however, this fact goes unacknowledged by most people. Livestock and their byproducts produce monstrous amounts

One of the biggest controversies with livestock production is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that get released into the atmosphere. Its assumed that cars produce most if not all the greenhouse gas emissions however livestock has a big say in air pollution. According to Cassandra Brooks, writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, 18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock production. This is nearly 20% and can be greatly reduced if people reduced their demand for meat. The Environmental Working Group used a tangible variable for Americans stating “if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million

Brought up in the southern of China, I often heard about that people from there “eat anything with four limbs except tables, anything that flies except aero planes, and anything that swims except ships”. Nevertheless, I eat more fruit, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains but less meat to make careful choices for environmental protection. Similarly, Kathy Freston argues that animal agriculture is one of the top contributors to global warming. In her Huffington Post selection “Vegetarian Is the New Prius,” Freston lists how many emissions of greenhouse gases people make when they eat meat and illustrates the consumption of tree in animal agriculture. She effectively convinces her audiences that the livestock results in the most serious environmental problems and encourages people to lead a greener diet to protect our environment. However, ardent craving, poor health, and perpetual hassle and cost prevent all Americans from being vegetarian.

This article discusses how the consumption and production of meat and dairy is one of leading causes of habitat destruction and quick action needs to be taken to preserve biodiversity. The article analyzes the meat-eating trends in tropical regions of America, Asia, and Africa. It concludes that meat production rates are rapidly increasing, underlying that a 30-50% increase in the land will be needed by 2050 if these patterns continue. Bushmeat consumption in Africa and livestock consumption in China are outlined as special concerns. The main solution proposed is reforming the livestock industry by reducing demand and waste, replacing ecologically inefficient protein sources with better alternatives such as plants or fish, and reintegrate modern livestock production

The world and the way that we as human thrive as a species had changed rapidly over the centuries. One of the biggest developments has been animal agriculture. While incredibly beneficial to our growth, we must weigh this against the impact animal agriculture is having on the environment. Cowspiracy is a 2014 documentary that explores and discusses the impact that animal agriculture has on the environment and looks deeper into the policies of the organizations that are involved in this issue.

Houghton, J. T. (2004). Global warming: the complete briefing (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University.

Chances are, you’ve consumed meat, dairy, or eggs at some point in you life, but have you ever stopped to think about the effects the animal agriculture industry has on our planet? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has gathered that from a local to global scale, the livestock sector emerges every year as one of the top 2-3 most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems. From air, to climate change, to land & soil, to biodiversity, the animal agriculture industry has an impact on virtually all aspects of the environment. Evidence has shown that the production of livestock releases substances that contribute to climate change and air pollution at nearly every step of the process. When compared

Sustainability in agriculture is sustain the world’s population with sufficient food and textile while still preserving the earth’s resources for future generations. To achieve sustainability in livestock production a sufficient amount of these products must be produced to satisfy the ever increasing demands of the growing population while also reducing the amount of greenhouse gases produced. As the demand for sustainable and ethically sourced food is becoming greater some changes need to be made to animal welfare and education about the topic.

Everyone has heard of the conservation movement in order to save our planet from global warming by saving water and burning less fossil fuels but what about the raising of livestock? “Nitrous oxide that is produced by animal agriculture has a global warming potential 296 times greater than CO2 emissions per pound.” Due to the fear of being attacked by major meat and dairy corporations, many environmental organizations do not talk about animal agriculture being the leading cause of environmental destruction even though their entire mission is to help protect our planet. Raising animals for food is the true agent to global warming, and therefore, there needs to be an end to the overproduction and consumption of animal products for its immense

United Nations Global Environmental Alert Service claims, “Livestock emissions makeup nearly 80 percent of emissions from agriculture and agricultural emissions make up an estimated 10 to 35 percent of total global emissions.” Although livestock produce a lot of emissions, their impact on the soil and people outweigh the negative effects of the emissions.

Global meat production rose to a new peak of 308.5 million tons in 2013, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a more than fourfold increase over the last five decades. Even more startlingly, meat production has grown 25-fold since 1800 (Horrigan, Lawerence &Walker, 2002). Globally, agriculture utilizes nearly 70 per cent of the world 's available freshwater. One-third of that percentage is used to grow grains to feed to livestock (ECOS, 2014). While the global meat industry provides food and a livelihood for billions of people, it also has significant environmental and health consequences for the planet. Over half of the water used in meat production

In the early 1900s over 6000 small rural farms provided the meat consumed in the United States. Today that number has fallen to 2000, 95% of which are what we typically call “factory farms” (Dimitri, 2). This move towards a highly concentrated factory production system has had a staggering impact on the current change in climate. This impact stems from broad and wide reaching causes fueled by factory farming, stretching from land degradation, to chemical use in fertilizers, to C02 and methane emissions. Lobbying by agribusinesses has resulted in miniscule regulation, and with the help of government subsides meat production under this model has been allowed to flourish. Furthermore, the public at large is apathetic to these issues. With factory farming as the second largest contributor to green house gas emissions in the US and an ever increasing demand for cheap meat products it’s clear that the current trajectory of the industry is on the road to causing irreversible damage. If we are to put an end to the disastrous effect factory farming has had on global climate change we must increase public awareness of the concerns associated with factory farming, remove government subsides, and investigate synthetic alternative to meat production.

Chapter one of Dire Predictions Understanding Global Warming does exactly like the title says, it gives the reader the essential basics of understanding the Global Warming issue. Chapter one gives essential information covering a wide range of things including: the natural and human impacts on climate, definition of a greenhouse gas and how it affects temperature, positive and negative feedback loops, threatening human byproducts that affect the ozone, ways scientists study ancient climates, and it gives possible future Earth outcomes due to global warming. It is a really loaded chapter I know, but this information proves to be very valuable when learning about global

The IPCC Status Report on Climate Change Summary for Policymakers is an assessment of the current scientific understanding of the impacts of climate