
Environmental Impacts of Eating Meat: Why Less Is More?
Nowadays we tend to hear the expression that there is no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist. Although you can be concerned with ecological issues and still eat meat, once you read the studies that consist of plain facts and start noticing how some of the world’s most popular religious and political figures are starting to make a pledge for eating less meat for a greener planet, you may think twice before ordering a steak. This implicitly means a rather constant financial support to the practice of the animal agriculture that is destroying the planet. Here are the most important points that reveal how meat industry strongly impacts our environment.
Taking up too much land
Enormous and very precious land resources are used to raise animals; trees are constantly being cut down in order to have enough grass for grazing. Instead of this, we could be raising crops and feed the hungry world, for it is not a secret that for producing a very small amount of meat, large quantities of water and food are being used, food and water that hungry children in Africa desperately need.
Wasting our water
Raising farm animals is a very wasteful practice when it comes to water. Huge amounts of water are being used in order to satisfy the daily requirements of the 150 billion animals that are being used for food annually worldwide. For instance, it can take up to 50,000 litres of water to obtain 1kg of beef whereas we need only 2,500 litres to obtain 1kg of white rice and a lot less for most fruit and vegetables.
Green house effect
Animal aquiculture is largely responsible for global warming, mainly because of the emission of the methane gas that animals themselves produce through their natural gases and feces. Since they are stuck in one place and in artificially large number, it renders this practice far from Eco-friendly. Also, by cutting the forests in order to make space for farms, humans are destroying the precious natural “carbon sinks” – the trees.
Destroying biodiversity
By cutting down endless amounts of beautiful forests, animal agriculture stands responsible for the extinction of many animal species. The trees and forests are their only home, but the hungry industry is focused on profit and forgets that without biodiversity no one can be healthy. We all depend on each other; we are all connected though the Eco-system and almost nothing you do affects only you, let alone the impact of losing millions of forests.
The question that arises after being acquainted with this inevitable truth is: What can we do about it?
We can continue educating ourselves and try to adopt a lifestyle that takes meat out of the equation as much as possible. Educate other people too, for our planet needs us all to act fast and slow down one of the several main causes of pollution and loss of natural resources – animal agriculture.
