Negative Externalities Of Animal Agriculture

Introduction (Attention Step): What do you think is the greatest cause of emission pollution? What do you believe is harming our planet? Well if you guessed that fossil fuel emissions are the biggest emission polluters, then you are completely wrong (attention getter). Animal Agriculture is actually the number one Greenhouse Gas emitter in the planet. Yes, cow farts are destroying the environment. It sounds crazy, but ever since the mid 60’s, agriculture associations have been spreading across the Americas and dominated the industry. The most destructive of all Ag corps are Livestock Corporation. These associations include IBP, Conagra, Perdue, Farmland National Beef, Cargill, etc … Animal Agriculture is effecting every single person in this room because we all breathe in the same air, drink the same water, and eat the same (credibility). The buildup of Animal Agriculture is a great destruction to our planet and our species because it is creating

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.

The quantity of meat Americans consume and the way the animals are farmed in the U.S. has changed over the last half century resulting in major impacts on the environment. These effects are largely a result of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations which are also known as “CAFOs” or “factory farms” in abbreviated terms (McCorkell 2009). Animal agriculture is responsible for much of the damage to land, biodiversity, consumption of drinkable water, and contributions to global warming in the United States. For years, its impacts have only become more extreme. Over the years, a few options for solutions have been brought to light involving efforts of reducing the demand for animal products, grass-feeding livestock, and passing stricter

Although many researchers believe that our planet’s environment and ecosystems are facing many challenges due to livestock production, proponents of livestock production believe that the reason why the our environmental condition has worsened is not that we eat more meat — but because we eat less of it. Niman argues that instead of decreasing production, we should focus on producing meat that is more environmentally sound. She also argues that “Feed production—with all its attendant problems of fossil fuel consumption, soil erosion, greenhouse gases, and chemical pollution—can be avoided altogether” (Niman, 79). In “Defending Beef”, she explicitly criticises the FAO’s “Livestock’s Long Shadow” and questions certain statements

Animal Agriculture accounts for much of the issues in our environment today. Most would not think of animal agriculture being the main reason for pollution or greenhouse gasses. The majority of people would agree that the fossil fuels that come from cars are the number one producer for greenhouse gasses. Well think again. I am going to tell you how animal agriculture has affected our atmosphere in a negative way by emitting a large amount of GHGs, and in turn effecting our climate and speeding up the global warming process. Animal agriculture refers to an industrial livestock production, the management of farm animals such as cattle, poultry, and in some cases fish, are bred, fed and cared for in a way that is advantageous to humans, also known as factory farming. Animals behavior, genetic qualities and are altered to fit the mold of a human. This process requires a lot of energy, land and water.

Animals all around the world are abused everyday, with 100 million animals being poisoned, burned, crippled, and abused in other ways in the U.S each year, and Ninety five percent of animals used for farming are excluded from only federal law offering any sort of protection. This information is very cruel indeed, but what people don't know is that large meatpacking industries are the cause of this abuse. Organic farmers, on the other hand, treat their animals with more respect, and allow animals to be free-range, resulting in healthier meat. Because of this, people need to stop buying from these meatpacking industries because their practices are morally and physically unhealthy and should instead buy organic and healthier options.

I couldn’t believe what I was watching, it was very interesting. It covered many topics that had to do with the earth and pollution. It mostly had to do mostly with animal farming and how the world wasn’t doing anything at all to help and fix the situation. Cows and pigs would grow on the acres and feed awhile bunch so they could become big. It was so they could gain more meat so when they were slaughtered there would be more meat. The animals are used to gain slot of profit since people tend to like meat.

For the past year or so, my fellow colleagues have asked and recommended me to watch this documentary – Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, but I never had the time to watch it. I am glad that this assignment presented me with this opportunity to watch the documentary. The documentary definitely opened my eyes on how I think about both the environment and environmental activist/ organizations/ lobbies/ interest groups/ special interest groups and the list goes to whose whom advocate for our environment. Out of all the things that stood out to me the outstanding logical point that I took from this film is that the issue(s) around the animal agriculture sector is all interconnected with

Cows are destroying our planet?! According to Margaret Lundberg they are. In Lundberg’s essay “Eating Green” the author states her belief “that our personal and global health [are] tightly interconnected, and what benefits one will benefit the other” (Lundberg 570). Lundberg than goes on to explain why a vegetarian diet will restore the environment. She lacks a realistic solution for her American meat-obsessed audience. Lundberg also used unreliable sources to over emphasize the effects that the meat industry has on the environment as well as shows no evidence that a vegetarian diet is actually good for the environment.

This weekend I watched the documentary, Cowspiracy, directed and written by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The documentary follows Kip Andersen’s journey of uncovering the truth behind animal agriculture and its impact on our planet. In 2006, after watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Andersen became a self-proclaimed OCE (Obsessive Compulsive Environmentalist). However, after reading a UN report Andersen realized it would take more than just recycling and taking shorter showers to truly give back to the environment. Through a series of interviews, Kip Andersen exposes the selfish and shameless agenda behind some of the biggest Environmental Organizations in the country.

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.

After watching this video, it left me with so many unanswered questions. I needed some time to think about what I was hearing and what it might all mean. It was astonishing to hear that 91% of the loss of our rain forests comes from animal agriculture. Also hearing that the leading cause of environmental destruction comes from animal agriculture was shocking. Some things that I took from this video was that it can’t just be one person trying to save the environment, cutting down on the water supply we use, recycling, and getting rid of the animal agriculture as a whole. I also think companies that support recycling, yet support animal agriculture need to either decide which side they are on and go with it, or have full disclosure of their

Cowspiracy: the Sustainability Secret is a 90-minute film asking why the leading environmental organizations are acting uninterested and ignoring a leading cause of environmental damage. It 's co-producers Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn are the leading the argument that our ways of trying to save the world individually by ways like taking shorter showers, not letting the faucet run, changing the lightbulb to fluorescent, riding a bike instead of your car, and many other little way people believe will save the environment but the harsh truth is making homes more water efficient and taking short showers will not make more water available, driving bike instead of cars will not solve the carbon emissions problem, installing LED lights will not stop global warning. Environmental issues will not make a collective difference unless we also confront the real problem, which is animal agriculture. Animal agriculture’s environmental effects are so major and which have altered our world that progress elsewhere by individuals cannot counter its destructive and growing impact.

From both an environmental, as well as economic standpoint, it is in the best interest of cattle producers to decrease methane emissions, limit their contribution to climate change, and improve overall animal feed efficiency (Beauchemin et al., 2008). There are several options for reducing methane emissions, which can be collectively grouped into three broad categories. These categories include increasing animal production via genetics and management, modifications to feeds, feeding management, and nutrition (including intake, roughage type/ quality, forage to concentrate ratio, feed processing, total mixed rations/ feeding frequency, and precision feeding/ feed analysis), and supplementation with rumen modifiers (including plant

Attempts made to decrease greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal agriculture would be costly and significantly impact budget constrains across the nation and would not stop the climate change from occurring anyway as cyclical change is inevitable in the Earth’s environment. Many worry about the monetary impact that aiding the environment would create. Stopping to