Limiting Meat Consuming For The World 's Future

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

Major food corporations with the mantra of “feeding the world” have started a cycle of chemical abuse and sterilization of the earth. Frances Moore Lappé talks about this in his article, Diet Of The Small Planet, giving readers the harsh reality that our increasing meat centered diets are causing. The consumption of meat has been linked to the single-minded belief that beef/ham/chicken were the only source of “much needed protein.” According to the data that Lappé has gathered though, this “meat principle” could not be further from the truth. For instance, take the fact that a cow needs to ingest “21 pounds of [plant protein from grains] in order to produce 1 pound of protein for human consumption.” (Lappé) In fact, all the grains grown in the US that are supposedly suppose to “feed the world” at least “78%” (Lappé) is given to livestock as feed. This ridiculousness is further emphasized when Lappé mentions the stark contrast of livestock to the protein producing ability of plants per acre. The protein production of “cereals, legumes and leafy vegetables” easily produce up to “15 times more protein per acre” (Lappé) than the average piece of meat. The most startling example of the protein conversion inefficiency of meat through comes from the comparison to Spinach, which Lappé notes, is actually able to produces “26 times more protein per

A luxury tax on meat items can help the solution of cattle grazing by slowly luring people into buying less meat products. With a luxury tax on meat, people may finally realize that meat is indeed a luxury food product. This solution has never been active in any parts of the world but even adding fifty percent or doubling the price for its original would help the cause of deforestation. This extra amount of money can be used for replanting forests and advertising so people know exactly where the money is being contributed to. By replanting these forests will help rebuild the earths most natural resources that in time will create habitants to millions of species. Over time the grazing of cattle has taken up much space to raise animals and is being over used because of the production of meats in which people don’t realize is

If that isn’t enough, the Amazon rainforest is being affected by beef production; four-fifths of the deforestation is due to cattle ranching (Scheer). This is because there needs to be room for the livestock to roam and crops to feed the animals. There isn’t enough space for humans and our livestock since reported by Suzanne Rice, writer for the Journal of Thought, “30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is... involved in livestock production” (Rice 118). 30 percent doesn’t leave us with much and it is no wonder we are deforesting these rainforests. However, although cattle seems to be the most detrimental livestock factor to the environmental problem, they are not alone.

Eating less meat would benefit the the impact on global warming and increase food security (Sealing).

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.

Did you know that buying that burger at dinner or frozen chicken at the grocery store is killing you, your family, and the environment? Despite that you grew up eating meat and accumulated the thought that you “can’t live without it,” you CAN go without consuming meat. If you were to give up meat, even for a while or better yet all together, you would not only be helping the earth, but also your health, and even our future generations to come. Believe it or not, eating meat causes huge side effect to your health. Factory farming even causes more pollution and chemical fume releases than cars. On top of that, it is wiping out vast sums of land and is causing deforestation, which is even causing plants and insects to become extinct every day. Factory farming and the consumption of meat is bad and should be limited or stopped altogether.

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 United States prides itself on being an advanced society and helping both its citizens and foreign nations. However, some of the biggest problems facing the world today stem from sources often overlooked or even purposefully neglected by the American government. One of these sources is animal agriculture. Animal industries such as those which produce meat, dairy, seafood, and eggs are some of the main contributors to environmental decay, health epidemics, and even world hunger issues. Although proof of this is abundant, it continues to be ignored. Instead, we continue to go around the main problem and struggle to find alternate solutions only to arrive at inefficient and costly attempts. If we want our nation to truly represent its values, however, something must be done. In order to help solve issues regarding health, hunger, and the environment not only in America but in the world, the mass production of animal products should be outlawed.

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

These are two extremes, but people who live in the developed world on average still eat twice as much meat compared to people living in developing countries. And while people in developing countries might consume less meat and dairy now, growing populations and wealth will strongly increase their consumption. This will have negative impacts on the environment - and on ourselves. More than 25% of climate gases that contribute to climate change are associated with our food. This is also expected to increase over the next decades. But our diets are not only unsustainable, they are also unhealthy leading to malnourishment and obesity.

In most third world countries meat is usually scarced. Even if there is meat available, it is extremely expensive and is eaten on special occasions. Here in the states and most first world countries, meat is found in abundance and can be cheaper than plant produce. The large production in the meat industry made meat cheaper. A surprising fact that “70 percent of grain produced is fed to animals” (Motavalli). The amount of grain put into an animal and the amount of meat that is produced is less than the grains. The same applies for fresh water. Hypothetically, the grain could be able to feed starving communities in third

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

The impacts of livestock on global climate change are important to the health of the ecosystem because it causes the average global temperature to increase. Livestock contributes to the majority of methane emitted into the atmosphere because of the feces it produces. The growing population increase is not helpful to this matter because as a result, a demand of food arises. This demand for food also includes the demand for livestock because it is appropriate for the human diet. “Meat production is to double from 229 million tonnes in [2000] to 465 million tonnes in 2050” (McMichael et al. 1259). The methane emission rate is bound to increase because it is “dependent upon the population size of the [livestock], their productivity, and [handling system]” (Jose et al. 3).

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.