In an article by EARTH TALK- From the Editors
of E/The Environmental Magazine they discuss a number of reasons that
eating meat is extremely bad for the environment. I am an avid meat eater, and
can't think of a life without it, but these claims are pretty strong. Although
the article was obviously written by a vegetarian, I think our society should
use them a stepping stone to alleviate these issues, instead of using the issue
to try to get people to stop eating meat.
The 20 billion or so animals that are raised for livestock are draining
resources, and polluting the environment. The first issue being that to raise
one pound of beef, it takes 4.8 pounds of grain, which seems like a waste of
grain if you compare them side by side. The article does not, however, discuss
how much nutritional value there is in one pound of grain vs one pound of beef.
Just like the cereal commercials, I'd like to know how many bowls of grain I'd
need to equal one bowl of beef ;-)
Another negative effect of raising livestock for food comes from the vast
amount of pollution that it causes. The main pollution comes from the animal
waste, which the Environmental Protection Agency says pollute our waterways
more than all other industrial sources combined. One interesting comparison
they use is with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill which is
still in the news today with a massive lawsuit. But no one knows about the
1995 New River hog waste spill in North
Carolina that spilled 25
million gallons of excrement into the water, killing 14 million fish
and closing 364,000 acres of shell fishing beds.
The last part of the article discusses how livestock uses up a large amount
of valuable water. They say that the beef production alone uses more water then
all fruit and vegetable crops. Once again I'd like to know the nutritional
value comparison, and whether they are taking into account rain water, and
might that be a possible solution for animals? Catching rain water to water
livestock seems like a simple and easy solution.
The article goes on to say that over a third of all raw materials
and fossil fuels consumed in the U.S. are used in animal production.
This statistic does not seem that bad to me, since we are talking about
producing meat to feed the entire country. Maybe we should look to ways to
install solar and wind energy, or alternative raw materials to help bring this
percentage down.
I am not a vegetarian, and do not plan on ever becoming a vegetarian. With
this being said, I do think it is important to know what kind of impact my
lifestyle has on the environment, and I hope to someday work at solving today's
pollution and resource issues cause with raising livestock.
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Cool that you raised the question about nutrition equivalent. I have to admit (at the risk of being lynched) that all of the strict vegetarians I know habitually appear under-nourished. I've heard the statistics about amino acids and protein types from non-animal sources- but the truth of the matter is that we are animals, and if we consume animal tissue, we have proteins in the correct proportion to build more animal tissue (us!) - but that's neither here nor there.
Another question is: Since animal waste is "natural" waste, isn't it less of a "contaminant" than, say, an oil spill? We're getting into philosophical territory here, but... there you go.
-And I'd be curious about the water consumption of US agriculture, in general. If livestock takes more water than grain to raise, but the total amount of livestock water use is only 5% of the agricultural use, then...
Two cents!
I wouldn’t consider myself an ‘avid meat-eater’, but I do enjoy adding meat to the occasional meal. And being a meat eater, I do agree that it is important to understand just what effect my dietary habits have on the environment. I try very hard to buy organic and free-range, and to avoid eating foods that I know came from enormous ‘meat farms’. When you compare the diets of livestock raised on smaller-scale farms, versus the larger corporate meat houses, it is easy to see a difference in energy consumption. Typically, the former consumes less.
I have personal experience with livestock farms and farmers, as many of my family members work on or own smaller farms. My suggestion to all meat eaters is this: Appreciate the foods you are eating, and respect the resources used to create it. Buy local, Organic, and/or free range when you can, and try your best to support the smaller, more self-sustained farms. You don’t have to stop eating meat, just pay attention to where your meat is coming from.
[quote=midget]I wouldn’t consider myself an ‘avid meat-eater’, but I do enjoy adding meat to the occasional meal. And being a meat eater, I do agree that it is important to understand just what effect my dietary habits have on the environment. I try very hard to buy organic and free-range, and to avoid eating foods that I know came from enormous ‘meat farms’. When you compare the diets of livestock raised on smaller-scale farms, versus the larger corporate meat houses, it is easy to see a difference in energy consumption. Typically, the former consumes less.
I have personal experience with livestock farms and farmers, as many of my family members work on or own smaller farms. My suggestion to all meat eaters is this: Appreciate the foods you are eating, and respect the resources used to create it. Buy local, Organic, and/or free range when you can, and try your best to support the smaller, more self-sustained farms. You don’t have to stop eating meat, just pay attention to where your meat is coming from.
[/quote]
Very good points. I grew up having a small amount of livestock (chickens, pigs and a goat). My goal is to someday have my own animals, as well as have the smaller farms meats more available. When I move back out to the wilderness (rural USA) these will be the first things I do.
I think that your plan would probably be one of the best options – to have your own, almost self-sustaining farm. When done on such a small scale, you would be able to control a lot of the elements that would typically lead to waste and lost energy. This will also ensure that you are able to put more of the animal to use post-slaughter.