Meat & Environment

How often do you eat meat? What kind of meat do you eat most often? Why do some people become vegetarians?

Five ways the meat on your plate is killing the planet

When we hear about livestock farming, we often feel guilty and decide that we should eat less meat. Yet most of us probably won't. Over the next year, more than 50 billion land animals will be killed for food around the world. Most of them will live in conditions that cause them to suffer unnecessarily, while also harming people and the environment in significant ways. It's important to understand why some people choose not to eat meat so we can decide for ourselves what to put on our plate.

(1)

Livestock farming has a huge effect on the environment. It makes land less productive and pollutes water. It also damages forests and coral reefs, the habitats of animals and plants. Livestock farming also leads to climate change _ this industry contributes 18% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (more than the total from all transports). Climate change causes extreme weather such as floods, droughts and heatwaves. Reducing our use of animal products will help us to cut emissions of global greenhouse gases and avoid the worst effects of climate change.

(2)

Meat production is wasteful, particularly red meat. Producing one kilogram of beef requires 25 kilograms of grain to feed the animal and 15,000 litres of water. Pork and chicken are less wasteful. Using land for meat production is also a waste. Around 30% of the earth's land surface is used for livestock farming. Since there is not enough food, water or land in many parts of the world, this is an inefficient use of resources.

(3)

Feeding grain to livestock increases demand for grain and leads to higher prices, making it harder for the world's poor to feed themselves. If all grain were fed to humans instead of animals, we could feed an extra 3.5 billion people. In short, livestock farming is not only wasteful but also unfair.

(4)

If we accept that animals have feelings and their needs are important, then we should look after them and make sure that we do not cause them to suffer unnecessarily. However, most meat, dairy and eggs are produced in ways that do not provide enough space for animals to move around, have contact with other animals or spend time outside. In short, livestock farming causes animals to suffer without good reason.

(5)

Livestock farming uses large amounts of antibiotics to make animals heavier and control infection. This has an effect in the growing public health problem of antibiotic resistance. Eating large amounts of meat can result in heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers. These diseases are very common so eating less meat could lead to better public health. Changing to a diet with more plant foods could save up to 8 million lives a year worldwide by 2050 and lead to savings in healthcare and climate change costs of up to $1.5 trillion.

After reading this article, do you think you might make changes to how much meat you eat? Why/not?

Describe the changes you'd like to make. What might be difficult about making these changes?