The Environmental Sustainability Of Meat Production

The world has a need for meat, and it is almost obsessive. Most cultures typically consume some sort of domesticated animal in agriculture. Whether it is cows, chicken, lamb, deer, turkey, or fish, many people are not educated to the fact that the alternative diets are better for their health. There are different animal products for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hundreds if not thousands of diverse chain restaurants dedicated to meat consumption.There are also many different holidays around the world such as Thanksgiving and Christmas where meat is consumed. With affordable prices and an acquired taste, it is likely to be a lifelong habit. There are vast miles of subsidized agricultural land dedicated to the cultivation of animals. According to Amir Khan, staff writer for U.S.News, reporting on the American Meat Institute, Americans consume, “57 pounds more meat than they were in the 1950s”(Khan).

The meat industry today is not what it was nearly a century ago. While improvements are thought to have been made, an ever changing society has brought upon new problems that have been piled on to the previously existing ones. While these problems are not like those found in The Jungle, they do parallel how by exposing what is going on in the meat industry; new regulations would be the answer to the noted problems. The increased demand for meat has made it a rushed mutated production instead of a means to raise livestock for consumers. Taking into consideration the demand for cheap meat that will be used for in quick and high demanded products such as frozen and fast food, this demand of meat has greatly skyrocketed. Animals whose sole

Thesis statement: There should be meat free alternatives and more awareness of the benefits of choosing a vegetarian lifestyle as eating less meat is better for an individual’s health and the environmental.

The author of this work also is very knowledgeable on this topic because it is his area of expertise through much research and studying. While Yount is using questions from undergraduate students, they are easily understood questions. This article adds value to my research paper because it brings the humanity of eating meat into the equation. So as my research essay moves from the human biological need, or lack thereof, to consume meat, this article will help me bridge the gap because of the wide variety of opinions and facts that are presented within it.

Walker, P., Rhubart-Berg, P., McKenzie, S., Kelling, K., & Lawrence, R. (2005). Public health implications of meat production and consumption. Public Health Nutrition , 348 35.

As the world population grows by thousands each day, meat consumption continues to rise in developing economies while cultivable land is running out and the global livestock production may be reaching its full capacity. Farmed meat has a high possibility of becoming costly and scarce if the demand for meat continues to rise.

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.

Today, society has entered into some truly interesting yet important times. None more so that with regards to the origin of the food provisions people consume. Bringing a debate to the forefront of mainstream attention, in regards to the mass consumption of meat, and the ethical dilemmas faced with the current model of harvesting of meat, in particular the harvesting of beef cattle. Concurrently major scholars and research institutions, are developing studies and examining the current state of health to humans whereby they are comparing those who regularly consume meat, to those who abstain from animal products to varying degrees. While studies are in the infancy stages, enough progress has been shown to offer some basis of debate. Considering the health of the consumer of beef, or the people who eat it, offer two general yet major stakeholders in the debate of meat, and the first tiered look into the ethics of eating meat. Aside from the health of the consumer, the practice of which the animal is farmed is quintessential to the well being of the animals while influencing the economics of the industry. Modern animal harvesting, or the life cycle of the animal, offers a commercial source to a large portion of the country, affectionately known as the Heartland of America or the Midwest. All the while non-traditional animal friendly farms, where a multitude of animals live in cohabitation of each other, that convey the impression of an animal product-producing utopia, while an

As we can now observe, vegetarianism has become something fashionable, and the number of people who reject eating meat is constantly increasing. In Britain, for instance, over 5 million people have done it so far. It is obviously connected with the recent animal diseases, but this tendency is likely to spread on the other regions of the world. However, it is not only a fashion or fear of illnesses. I myself became a vegetarian about 2 years ago, and I can see a number of reasons why people should stop eating meat. They are mainly of ethic, economic and health type. Those who think in an ecological way should also be aware of how this meat consumption ruins our environment. I don’t have an intention

Most environmental issues today come from actions that are so-called “necessary” with the way the world operates in the 21st century. Examples of such activities and their consequences is driving a car and the release of nitrous oxides into the air, or heating and cooling homes and businesses which requires the use of fossil fuels. However, animal agriculture, the industrialized production of meat and animal related products, is an industry that is not necessary to the functionality of society today. People’s desire to consume animal products is more often than not driven by taste buds, not survival. Furthermore, most people are not aware of the wide scale degradation animal agriculture causes both the planet and peoples’ health. Although animal agriculture impacts the environment in many forms, the negative impacts on the world’s limited water resource is too severe for such an industry to be able to continue to operate how it does today.

Humans are known to be omnivores and meat provides several essential nutrients that plants can not give us. Meat is primarily a source of omega -3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, protein and iron (Verma and Banerjee 2010). Livestock sector is one of the fastest growing agricultural subsector globally, employing 1.3 billion individuals and supporting around 600 million poor smallholder farmers in the developing world (Thornton et al. 2002). Livestock provide us food such as meat to maintain the health of the human body (Nestle 1999). With population growth, urbanization, economic growth, and flourishing markets, an increase in global demand for conventional meat product arose (Fiala 2008). The focus of this paper is to provide in

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.

Meat production is one of the largest factors contributing to environmental degradation, and consumption is the primary cause for a striking amount of chronic diseases found in humans. Christopher Hyner, Managing Editor of Georgetown Environmental Law Review, states, “Climate change. Ocean dead zones. Fisheries depletion. Species extinction. Deforestation. World hunger. Food safety. Heart disease. Obesity. Diabetes. The list goes on. There is one issue at the heart of all these global problems that is too often overlooked by private individuals and policymakers alike—our demand for and reliance on animal products.” The negative impact of meat production on the environment are often hidden by the cheap prices of meat in grocery stores across the U.S. and by massive corporate factories in which the livestock are produced. These prices provided by major corporations do not show the hidden detriment that meat production is having on the environment, as well as the products negative health impact on the human population. The air and water pollution from feedlot runoff, energy and water expenditures, and the damage that meat production can have on our livelihood and the sustainability of our planet cannot go unnoticed for the sake of our world's future. By increasing public awareness on the negative effects of large scale livestock production and excessive meat consumption, our generation and those to come have the potential to massively influence both health and environmental

The raise of animals for food has a negative impact on the environment and the public health. When cattle is raise for human consumption, many natural resources are invested such as land, crops, and water but the earth received in return methane, carbon dioxide, animal waste, etc. Once cattle is turned into beef and consumed as food health issues starts to raised. The consumption of red meat is link to cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Weston see ethics as a way to challenge people life style, what they do, how they live, including their diets. American diet often finds it hard to imagine no longer eating meat. Still, say the critics, familiarity alone does not necessarily make anything morally acceptable (107). The fact that previous generations diets would rely on animal flesh to survive because of the unstable weather that does not mean nowadays society is unable to develop sustainable technology to produce food. The purpose of this paper is to describe the negative impact that the consumption of any type of meat and others animal products causes to the environment and to the public health. Also it would explore the alternative way to stop negative effects by switching to plant based diet or at least reduced the consumption of it. People are looking for a human way to consumed meat but there is not human way to kill an animal. In any case, the whole issue is a useful reminder that ethics is not just a call to judge some occasional but extreme question