Cultured Meat: Environmental Analysis

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

Meat is part of a balanced diet. If humans stopped breeding animals for meat, then we would have to hunt all the wild animals for food. The wild animals will be hunted into extinction because of gluttonous meat-eaters. Because of factory farming, meat is now available at all time at the super market. This makes meat convenient to obtain and eat nutritionally. Meat contains all the essential amino acids that we need every day to remain as healthy individuals. Minerals and vitamins that are also beneficial to the growth and development of the human body are found in meat too. Eating specific types of meat such as fish provides healthy natural oils that cannot be found anywhere else. Abandoning meat as a source of nutrition means we will need to compensate with another source of sustenance.

Western diet and culture are responsible for the increase of global meat consumption, over the last few decades. This is why the global trend of moving “towards concentrated animal feeding operations is expected

Lab-grown meat, otherwise known as synthetic meat, or cultured meat is made “using muscle tissue from animal stem cells in a lab rather than harvesting from livestock” (Hultin). Consuming lab-grown meat will be healthier than traditional meats. Vitamins and minerals could be enhanced in lab-grown meats, the unhealthy components such as saturated fat could be decreased in lab-grown meats, and diseases and pathogens that come from animals could be eliminated in lab-grown meats (Hultin). By removing the unhealthy elements and keeping the beneficial nutrients of lab-grown meats will help to sustain Earth’s growing population if there was an issue with food security. Also, producing lab-grown meats will positively impact the environment. As stated by Ginger Hultin, a Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that Americans like their meat. In fact, America produced 93 billion pounds of meat and poultry in 2012, which included some 32 million cattle. As many of us already know, agriculture has a significant impact on our environment in a variety of ways. In order to successfully rear livestock, slaughterhouses require large quantities of water, and emit plenty of greenhouse gases – methane and CO2 specially – during production.

You may not know this, but what you choose to eat has a huge impact on the environment. There are many stances for these view points, but two people have very different opinions from one another. Jonathon Safron Foer is a strong advocate to not eat factory farmed meat in his essay “Against Meat”. On the other hand, Christina Serbenz flips a 180 on her view about food in her essay “7 Reasons Why I Refuse to Stop Eating Meat”, she argues that meat is vital for nutrition and adds a huge social benefit. There are many pros and cons according to each author.

Moreover, there are various problems with meat production process. To run a meat farm, it cost a lot of plant protein, freshwater, energy, and carbon dioxide from animal’s excretion, which is the main problem of air pollution. According to the article “Meat Analogues” (2017), to produce 1 kg of grain fed beef takes 5 to 40 times more water than 1 kg of cereal grains. In addition,

It seems like Lab-grown meat development has captured the attention of many, on the negative effect on our environment. As a result of conflict matter regarding on what are the chances that all of the farm grown meat will be consumed or processed in the future or will it be consumed. The fact that by producing lab-grown meat could have a possible benefit to wildlife preservation

The raising of cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and more are the reason for most of the destruction of the environment on the planet. Over all farm land covers about 38% of the worlds land area. So humans can continue to eat meat millions of animals and insects are losing their homes and even going extinct so more farm

The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.

     It also needs to be pointed out that meat production industry is highly unfriendly to the environment. It has been proved that the results of this mindless actions are extremely harmful to the whole planet: trees are lost in creating farms for animal food, land is taken away from wildlife, additional erosion is caused, topsoil is lost, groundwater is wasted, and pesticide is excessively used. In fact, one chicken farm uses as much water as a little city. Few may know that this industry, compared to others, causes the biggest pollution at all.

Meat production is just more than animal cruelty and health risk, it is an environment issue also. Over producing livestock unbalance the ecosystem. The manure produced by the animal pollutes bodies of water from runoff (Motavalli). Meat production does not only affect humans, fresh water for other inhabitants are also at risk of disease and illnesses from drinking feces contaminated water. This can potentially kill off species. Not only are bodies of water are threatened, the land is also. Over grazing of lands causes erosion (Motavalli). Over grazing can kill off plants, which again, ruins the ecosystem. Other wildlife need the plants there to live, not just livestock. Most people would’ve never thought of the meat they eat is damaging the environment.

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

Consumption of meat by humans creates several problems. First and foremost, raising animals for food compromises the environment. For example, it takes a large amount of natural resources to sustain the meat industry. The use of water, land, and food to raise animals for human consumption is not an efficient use of our limited resources. In contrast, it is more efficient to feed humans directly than to use land, food, and water to feed animals to be used as food. There are shortages of fertile land, clean water, and food in several third world countries. Many of these countries’ resources are allocated to produce feed for animals in developed countries around the world. As a result, the citizens of these countries are stricken with water and food shortages, while their crops are feeding cattle from across the globe. However, this problem can be solved by adopting a vegan diet. The vegan diet will allow a more efficient use of resources that in turn can be used to feed starving men, women, and children throughout the world. Consequently, more people in the world could be fed if the land used to grow feed for animals was used to grow food for humans.

Because of our love for beef, Westerners consume close to one ton of grain per year, and more than three-quarters of that is first transformed into animal products. It actually takes ten pounds of grain protein to produce one pound of beef protein. People in poor countries consume less than one-fifth of that amount. Westerners who are concerned about the pressure of population on the world food resources should remember that their typical family of four are consuming more grain than it would take to feed a poor Indian couple with eighteen children.