Eating o' The Green |
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March 17, 2008
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Most farm animals—unlike these two enjoying the green grass—are raised in conditions that are not only horrible for the animals but destructive to the environment. |
By Danielle Nierenberg
As St. Patrick's Day revelers gear up for a night of celebrating, they might want to consider trading in the traditional corned beef and cabbage for a more climate-friendly, greener meal.
The overwhelming majority of animals raised for meat in the United States are not strolling through fields of green on idyllic farms. Instead, they're penned in barren feedlots or confined in warehouses and fed unnatural diets of corn, soybeans and other fillers on factory farms.
Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) raising cattle, pigs, chickens and other farm animals are becoming well-known for not only producing meat, but for producing a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
Animal Agribusiness and Global Warming
The farm animal production industry is one of the largest users of land worldwide. Although the sector's role in degrading soil, dwindling the water supply, polluting the air and detrimentally affecting rural and urban communities is well-documented, the full breadth of animal agriculture's global effect has escaped close scrutiny. Indeed, livestock production goes far beyond simply rearing and slaughtering cattle, chickens, pigs and other animals.
Rather, all the ingredients that go into making modern meat—grain and fertilizer production, substantial water use and significant energy expenditures—increase the harrowing affect the industry has on climate change.
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| ©iStockphoto |
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| Vegetarian eating is much "greener" and is delicious and healthier as well. |
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By 2050, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization experts say global farm animal production is expected to double from present levels, primarily in lesser-developed countries.(1) About 57 billion land animals(2) are slaughtered for human consumption in a single year. If the some 49 billion chickens who are killed in a single year could be stretched wing-to-wing, they would wrap around the Earth's equator more than two times.
With that volume, it's not surprising that the intensive confinement and mass production systems that have plagued Western animal agriculture are also replacing traditional, free-range farming practices in parts of Asia and Africa.
As animal production operations move more animals indoors, the environmental problems they create become more harmful.
Unappetizing Numbers
According to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, growth in farm animal populations—particularly in large confinement operations—has substantially increased methane emissions from animals and their manure.
In just 15 years, methane emissions from pig and dairy cow manure increased by 37 percent and 50 percent, respectively—an elevation, according to the EPA, caused by the shift toward rearing pigs and cows in larger facilities where liquid manure management systems that promote anaerobic conditions are increasingly used.(3) And the U.S. poultry industry's shift toward litter-based manure management systems and confinement in high-rise houses, coupled with an overall increase in the poultry population, contributes to a 10 percent rise in nitrous oxide emissions.(4)
The increasing use of industrial fertilizers in the last 50 years—with a significant percentage going toward farm animal feed production—has resulted in elevated artificial nitrogen inputs to the soil, which has led to increased nitrous oxide emissions.(5)
CO2 emissions are also rising as a result of animal agriculture. The burning of fossil fuels is necessary to produce feed and fertilizers, while tropical forests and other carbon sinks are destroyed to create grazing land or fields of soybeans for feed.(6)
The Importance of the Consumer
While industry looks to techno-fixes to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture, including developing feedlot rations less likely to make cattle flatulent or installing anaerobic digesters to capture methane on factory farms, consumers have an opportunity to make a real difference with every meal.
Each stage of meat, egg and dairy production releases climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, disrupting weather, temperature and ecosystem health.(7) Mitigating—and preventing—these serious problems requires immediate and far-reaching changes in current animal agriculture practices and consumption patterns.
Certainly, reducing food miles and choosing less harmful transportation and energy use options are effective strategies; however, incorporating environmentally sound and animal welfare-friendly practices into daily life—and "greening" our diets for St. Patrick's Day and every other day of the year by being less reliant on meat, eggs and dairy products—are mandatory to slow the effects of climate change.
What You Can Do
Find out how easy and tasty planet-friendly eating can be with The HSUS Guide to Vegetarian Eating, and try some of our tempting recipes.
Danielle Nierenberg is an animal agriculture and climate change Specialist at The Humane Society of the United States—the nation's largest animal advocacy organization—representing 1 in 30 Americans.
1. Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M, and de Haan C. 2006. Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, p. xx).
2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAOSTAT Statistical Database. faostat.fao.org. Accessed August 27, 2007.
3. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2007. Inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990-2005, pp. 6-6 and 6-7. www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads06/07CR.pdf. Accessed April 17, 2007.
4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2007. Inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990-2005, p. 6-7. www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads06/07CR.pdf. Accessed April 17, 2007.
5. Paustian K, Antle M, Sheehan J, and Eldor P. 2006. Agriculture's Role in Greenhouse Gas Mitigation (Washington, DC: Pew Center on Global Climate Change, pp. 4-5).
6. Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M, and de Haan C. 2006. Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, pp. 86 and 90-92).
7. Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M, and de Haan C. 2006. Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, p. 79).
Related Links
Eating for the Environment
The HSUS Guide to Vegetarian Eating
Our Favorite Recipes
Animal Agribusiness and Earth Day
"Step It Up" to Fight Climate Change
Saving the Planet and Animals—One Bite at a Time
Rachel Carson and Factory Farming
Factory Farms: Polluting the Environment and Getting Away with It
Marks Dairy Farm Pays for Manure Spill
Marks Dairy Farm Manure Spill Threatens Environment and Public Health
Helping the Planet...One Bite at a Time
