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Chelsea Green

Professor Tanya Grae

ENC 2135

March 6, 2017

Is eating meat bad for the environment?

While consuming meat may not directly harm the environment, the way that the meat

gets to your plate can have devastating effects on it. The meat industry used to consist of small,

family owned farms. Now farming is considered agribusiness, which is considered more of a

corporation than a farm ( Mcdermott ) . With this wide scale system of farming livestock, there is

a much larger environmental Impact. In the 1970s, factory farming became popular ( Floegel ).

Factory farming is a mass production method of bringing up livestock. With thousands of

animals packed together as tightly as possible, a lot of waste is produced. This waste pollutes the

water, air, and land. The meat industry also significantly overuses natural resources such as

water, land, and fossil fuels. To produce one pound of animal protein vs. one pound of soy

protein, it takes about 12 times as much land, 13 times as much fossil fuel, and 15 times as much

water. ( Von Alt ) Imagine how drastically the environment would be positively effected if

everyone cut some amount of animal products out of their diets.

One of the main causes of river pollution is runoff of waste from factory farms. This

runoff includes nitrogen and phosphorous that comes from animal waste ( Good ). When this

waste reaches aquatic ecosystems, it can disrupt them greatly. A common effect of nitrogen

runoff is the overgrowth of algae. Nitrogen promotes algae growth. The algae ends up becoming

so overgrown that it smothers the rest of the life in that ecosystem of oxygen. This can lead to the

death of entire ecosystems. Areas where this has occurred are known as dead zones. The
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largest found is a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is almost as large as the state of New

Jersey ( Molles, Borrell ). Water pollution caused by factory farm runoff can also damage human

health. This pollution can runoff into drinking water. The runoff can contain E. Coli and other

dangerous bacteria that can poison humans. Cesspools created from factory farm waste have also

been known to seep through the ground and contaminate nearby bodies of water ( Mcdermott ).

This can kill off fish and other aquatic life. Chemicals that runoff into bodies of water may not

directly impact the primary consumers, but the concentration of the chemical increases as you

move up the food chain. The larger fish typically have a very high concentration of chemicals in

their systems. Birds that prey on these fish consume these large amounts of chemicals. Some of

these chemicals cause a defect in which birds eggs are laid with very thin shells, making the

baby bird inside very vulnerable. When the mother bird sits on her eggs, she crushes them,

killing her young. This is a main reason that many species of bird in the united states are

endangered ( Molles, Borrell ).

In order to keep their water pollution under the legal limit, factory farms have been known to

commonly spray liquid manure into the air (Horrigan, Lawrence, Walker). The wind carries this

off into the surrounding atmosphere. They therefore convert their overflow of water pollution

into air pollution. Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and methane are the main toxins

that are released into the atmosphere due to the meat industry ( Horrigan, Lawrence, Walker ).

People and animals residing nearby then breathe in these chemicals that are carried into the wind,

causing illness such as serious cardiac and respiratory disorders. People working near one of

these farms that are exposed to hydrogen sulfide are put at risk of unconsciousness or even death.

Industrial pollution also adds to this by evaporation. This can cause acid rain, which harms many

ecosystems, starting with the soil. Trees and other plants cannot grow healthily when watered
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with acid rain, causing deforestation ( Braunig ). Switching to a diet free of meat, dairy, and

eggs saves more carbon emissions than driving a Prius. ( Von Alt ) Industrial Animal farming

negatively effects the earth in many ways. With factory farming, pollution is in mass, and it is

inevitable. A cow excretes around 40kg of manure for every kilogram of edible beef it puts on

and when you have many thousands crowded into a small area the effect can be dramatic. Their

manure and urine is funnelled into massive waste lagoons sometimes holding as many as 40m

gallons. These cesspools often break, leak or overflow, polluting underground water supplies and

rivers with nitrogen, phosphorus and nitrates. ( Vidal )

Unlike water pollution, air pollution emitted from factory farms is virtually unregulated

in the United States. Animal agriculture is also the leading producer of greenhouse gas

emissions in the united states. ( Braunig ) Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse

gas emissions than all of the cars, planes, and other forms of transportation combined. ( Von

Alt ) Even so, the EPA does not have the power to regulate these emissions. ( Braunig )

It takes an extremely large amount of clean water to grow crops for animal consumption.

Water is also used for animals to drink and to clean the factory farms. Due to how much water is

used to grow crops and the enormous amount of food it takes to raise cattle, it takes more than

two thousand, five hundred gallons of water to produce one pound of beef (Walsh). If humans ate

the crops directly instead of using them to feed animals for meat production, the human

population could easily produce enough food to end world hunger ( Roddy, Moss ). One human

could save about two hundred and nineteen thousand gallons of clean water a year simply by

cutting out animal products. ( Roddy, Moss ) It also takes an immense amount of energy to grow

these crops for meat production. This wastes a large amount of fossil fuels. The emissions of
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these fossil fuels also pollute the air. Fossil fuels are also used to transport feed long distances to

feed the animals. The animals and meat must also be transported. All of this wastes fossil fuels

on a large scale and adds to the overwhelming amount of air pollution that is already caused by

factory farms. ( Roddy, Moss )

In this same sense, land is overused for the meat industry. Since it takes so much more

food to support an animal than a human, an enormous amount of land is devoted to agriculture

for animal consumption. It takes seven pounds of feed to produce one pound of beef, so it takes

an immense amount of land to raise animals for human consumption. ( Walsh ) Seventy percent

of agricultural land, which is Fifty six acres of land in the united states is used to produce animal

feed. ( Good ) That is fourteen times more land than what is used to grow food for human

consumption. This is not an issue that is isolated in the United States. Livestock is the reason for

ninety percent of the deforestation in the amazon rainforest, because there was little space for

them to graze. ( Walsh ) Many other forests are cut down to make more room for animal grazing.

Overgrazing can cause soil erosion and desertification, as well as loss of land fertility. ( Vidal )

Helping this cause does not necessarily have to mean cutting out animal products all

together. Most people consume much more meat than is required to maintain a healthy level of

protein. ( Brauning ) Merely thirty years ago, half the amount of meat was used for global human

consumption than the amount that is used today. ( Vidal ) Since then, death caused by heart

attack and other dietary issues has skyrocketed. Also, meat made from local farms has much less

of an impact than factory farms. Using local farms as your source of animal products is much

less harmful to the environment. Simply by cutting out meat for a few days a week could greatly

help the environment. By purchasing and consuming meat, you are supporting a system that is

extremely harmful to the environment. Everyone should be encouraged to decrease their animal
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consumption. By doing this, not only are you promoting a healthy earth and a better world for

future generations, but you are also promoting a healthier you.

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