Conservation:

“The act of protecting Earth’s natural resources for current and future generations”.

Talks about conservation often forget to mention the elephant in the room, one of the biggest contributors to climate change: industrial animal agriculture, such as factory farms and  CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). If you worry about global warming, you may be surprised to learn that the food most humans eat is a significant contributor. The powerful meat industry lobby wants to keep this secret, and mainstream media rarely report about it.

Two gasses in particular contribute to the Greenhouse Effect because they form something like an umbrella, trapping heat and slowing their release into the atmosphere:   1. Carbon dioxide (CO2), which is produced by natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and through human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, and  2. Methane, which  occurs naturally in wetlands when plant matter breaks down. Human activity causing methane are landfills, rice farming, and animal agriculture. 

Burning of carbon-rich fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil emits CO2, the largest contributor to global warming.  Methane is caused by the decomposition of plant matter,  and  methane emissions produced by livestock (mainly cows and other ruminants) come to 7.1 gigatonnes per year, representing 14.5% (or more) of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

One can’t be sure about the numbers because some studies are heavily influenced by the meat industry’s powerful lobby. So, they fudge the numbers quite deliberately: methane, for example, breaks down rather quickly, after only 12.4 years. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, can persist for hundreds of years. To compare the Global Warming Potential of different gasses, the agencies select a certain time window, usually 100 years. This incorrectly dilutes the potency of methane; its GWP over 100 years would be 28, whereas over 10 years – more accurately – it would be 84. Scientists who calculate the impact of methane based on a 10-year timeframe claim that livestock accounts for 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, quite a startling number.

Recent studies and analyses reveal a disturbing disparity in government support between meat and dairy industries and their plant-based counterparts. In the United States and the European Union, billions of dollars in subsidies annually bolster meat and dairy production, dwarfing the financial support allocated to plant-based alternatives. For instance, data from the Environmental Working Group (EWG; a non-profit group that specializes in research about  agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability) illustrate how livestock and seafood producers have received over $59 billion in subsidies since 1995, compared to a mere $124 million for plant-based proteins and alternatives over the same period.

So, how do these numbers relate to the food on your plate? The latest studies state that one ¼ LB hamburger comes up to 0.126 LB of methane. When one includes all the greenhouse gasses released during its production – the fossil fuels burned or released to raise the crops that feed the animals and to transport the beef after the cattle have been butchered, as well as the methane directly produced by the cows themselves – , your ¼ LB hamburger comes to 4 pounds of total carbon footprint! 

The journal “Nature” published an article in April 2024 which states: “The global food system is responsible for approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, occupies half of global habitable land and accounts for more than four-fifths of all water consumption. Current global food emissions alone will probably preclude the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement target”. 

Most people agree that we have to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and some even claim that it’s too late, that we have already passed the tipping point. But if we want to stay optimistic and hope that our actions can make a difference, what should we focus on? Should it be fossil fuels and energy production, or should it be food, in particular that which comes from animals? Of course, it doesn’t have to be one or the other, it’s not an either/or situation, and it better not be seen as such because  we have to make huge changes to both if we want to have any success. 

Crops and Land Use

More than two-thirds of crop calories grown in the United States are used to feed animals that are raised for human consumption. Instead of feeding people, these crops are being fed to the billions of chickens, pigs, cows, and other animals who live and die on factory farms and in CAFOs. In 2019 corn was the largest crop that American farmers planted, on 91.7 million acres, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). That’s about 69 million football fields of corn – I can’t really picture this, except that it’s a lot of corn. About one third of this crop is used for feeding cattle, pigs, and poultry. The U.S.Department of Agriculture’s website says that “it takes a couple of bushels of American corn to make corn-fed steak; by some estimates, a beef cow can eat a ton of corn if raised in a feedlot”.  Wow.

And animal agriculture consumes a whopping 97% of soybean meal. I want to stress this because some people mistakenly think that vegetarians and vegans who eat tofu and other soy-based foods are responsible for the enormous amount of soybeans planted. Wrong, almost all of it goes to livestock. But if you do eat tofu, which I highly recommend, make sure it is organic. Commercial soybeans are full of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. 

Also, it’s a common misconception that plant-based soy products like tofu drive global deforestation. In reality, the vast majority of soy is used for animal feed. To fight this tragic habitat destruction, it’s far more effective to replace meat with soy-based alternatives.

In addition, intensive farming practices such as growing “monocultures” (huge amounts of one crop like corn or soybeans), can degrade soil and deplete critical nutrients. Not only do these farming practices prevent soil’s natural processes but they can also reduce the amount of carbon stored in the soil—a huge problem in the face of climate change. Intensive agriculture, closely intertwined with factory farming, damages the soil beyond repair.

30% of global forest cover, especially in the Amazon region (Rainforest) has been cleared, displacing wild animals and threatening an extinction crisis mainly caused by us humans. 

Forests, in particular old growth and rainforests, are what is called carbon sinks, which means that they absorb carbon dioxide and offset what is released into the biosphere. Human activities and natural processes produce carbon, and forests absorb and store the carbon. Layers of gasses can’t form and trap warmth. 

BUT! One-third of the Earth’s forests has been lost, twice the size of the United States. Cattle ranchers burn the Amazon Rainforest for beef and soy production (the soy is used for animal feed). Thus, the forest is emitting more carbon dioxide than it can absorb and can’t function as a carbon sink any more. 

Unsustainable agriculture, logging, transportation, residential or commercial development, energy production, and mining all are responsible for the dangerous increase in greenhouse gasses. Since the industrial revolution, human activities have progressively destroyed and degraded forests, grasslands, wetlands and other important ecosystems, threatening human well-being. Seventy-five per cent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface has already been significantly altered.

Freshwater Use

A quarter-pound hamburger uses 460 gallons of water, or about 1,800 gallons for 1 LB of meat. Let that sink in: 460 gallons of water is something I can try to imagine, when I picture gallon containers on the shelves at the supermarket. A LOT of shelves would have to be covered. For ONE, small hamburger. 

Globally, about 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture. Some of it is used for crop irrigation, but much of it goes to livestock. Although water is a renewable resource, only 2.5% of the water that covers the Earth is freshwater. And out of that, almost 70% is permanently frozen in the ice caps covering Antarctica  and Greenland, which leaves a mere 1% of freshwater for people to use for drinking, bathing, and irrigating crops. This precious resource should be spent carefully and deliberately, not squandered unnecessarily.

In addition, agricultural runoff—the water that runs off of farmland—can contain fertilizers, pesticides, and lots of other harmful chemicals. When this water gets into streams, rivers, and oceans, it can damage the organisms that live in or drink from those water sources. And it affects people. North Carolina, for example, has many intensive pig farms, and the immense amount of waste produced by the pigs is stored in what is called lagoons. Spills and leakage happen frequently, and because the waste isn’t treated it can contain  salmonella, antibiotics, as well as nitrogen and phosphorus. People living nearby are getting sick from respiratory diseases, infections, increased risk of cancer, and other health risks. The horrible smell had some residents faint and forces people to keep windows and doors closed.

When one considers all these detrimental effects of animal agriculture on the environment, a plant-based diet seems inevitable.

Happy Earth Day!

(About the images: I didn’t want to bore you with pie charts and graphs, or shock you with pictures of animals suffering in factory farms. So I chose photos I took over the years when I lived in northern New Mexico, a U.S.State relatively unaffected by human invasion.