The human world is currently on
the brink of catastrophic environmental disaster. As President of the USA, Barack Obama, said
in the State of the Union Address, “no challenge poses a greater threat to
future generations than climate change” [Obama 2015]. To quote Tony Juniper, author of How many lightbulbs does it take to change a
planet?, “We must now face the challenge of meeting expanding human needs
while simultaneously maintaining the relatively stable and productive planetary
conditions that have sustained our welfare… [because] if we are to build
sustainable societies we will need to address some urgent and large-scale
interlocking trends, namely, climate change, the impending global mass
extinction of species, and the depletion of resources” [Juniper 2007:
p.6].
Climate change is a very real, but underappreciated threat every single one of us on this planet faces. It is the large-scale change in regional and global climate patterns, associated with human interference from the mid-20th century onwards, which has been caused by the rising levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere [Met Office 2015].
A truth that matters cannot stay
hidden. Yet the devastating impact of
animal agriculture on our environment is a shocking truth that governments and
the heads of corporate farming industries seek to hide from the public
domain. Why? Because the impact is far greater than they
are willing to admit. If the wider
public audience were aware and took immediate action, millions of pounds’ and
dollars’ worth of industry profit would be lost. The power of the public to make conscientious
choices is a very real threat to corporate and governmental profitability.
Animal agriculture is the number
one cause of all human-induced climate change.
This means that raising animals as livestock for meat or by-products:
consumes one-third of all fresh water; occupies 45% of all the Earth’s land;
causes 91% of Amazonian destruction; is the leading cause of species extinction;
is the leading cause of ocean “dead zones”; and is the number one cause of habitat
destruction [Oppenlander 2013]. The
United Nations Environment Programme 2010 report, noted that, “Agriculture and
food consumption are identified as one of the most important drivers of
environmental pressures, especially habitat change, climate change, water use,
and toxic emissions” [UNEP Report 2010: p.13].
The significant driver of
ecosystem degradation? Expansions in the
human population and changes in our diet.
The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment found that, over the past fifty
years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any
other period of comparable human history.
This is, in part, due to population numbers increasing, leading to a
rapidly growing demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre, and fuel. This has resulted in substantial and
irreversible loss of diversity and damage to the life on Earth. In 1912, there were circa 1.5 billion people
on the entire planet. Just over 100
years later, and we now have circa 7 billion people inhabiting this planet
[pbs.org]. The population has grown
exponentially, and if we continue to passively accept an omnivorous diet
perpetuated by those with money and political power, thus continuing the
increase in factory farming, we will simply find ourselves living on a planet
with even fewer resources than today.
216,000 people are born to this planet every day. This is an extraordinary figure. Yet what is far more extraordinary is that we
need, every single day, 34,000 new acres of farmable land to accommodate to the
growing population’s demand for meat. We
simply cannot accommodate to these requirements, and, consequently, a huge
strain is placed on our already limited environmental resources.
The increased demand for land for
agriculture and grazing has caused a significant decline in the quality of the
land due to over-harvesting and over-exploitation. Factory farming is the Pandora’s Box of
capitalism: we have a corrupted morality, damaged the ethics of food, and the
result is a society lacking compassion.
Environmental degradation and factory farming are the epitome of our
current individualistic, consumerist-based societies, which profits from the
exploitation, violation, and abuse of other sentient beings and our
environment. Profit-driven motives
corrupt the system from the top downwards, spreading messages of reliance on
animal produce because higher profits can be reaped from the exploitation of a
helpless animal.
At least that is what the
capitalist machine would like us to believe.
It can be difficult to comprehend
the extent of environmental degradation with words alone, so some numerical facts
and figures can be helpful in bringing some light to this issue. For example:
· 1.5 acres of land can produce 37,000 lbs of
plant-based foods versus 375 lbs of meat [Oppenlander 2013]
· The amount of land required to feed a vegan for
a year is one-sixth of an acre; for a vegetarian it is three times this amount
of land; whilst for omnivores, their land usage is eighteen times the land used
by a vegan [Thornton et al 2011]
·
To produce 1 lb of beef requires 660 gallons of
water [Pimentel et al 2004]
· 1000 gallons of water are required to produce 1
gallon of milk [Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2012]
·
Farm animals directly consumer 800 billion
gallons of water per year
But there is a better way,
involving nothing more than simple changes:
removing meat, eggs, and dairy from our plates. Our human physiology is not designed for the
consumption of dead corpses and another animals’ breast milk. As Lisa Towell on the Peta Prime page noted,
“natural meat-eaters swallow their meat raw after no or minimal chewing,
relying on their highly acidic stomach juices to break down the meat and kill
the bacteria that cause food poisoning. We chew our food thoroughly, and we
have a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme in our saliva to start the digestive
process, just as other herbivores do. Without the stomach acidity that
carnivores and omnivores have, we are forced to cook our meat to avoid the risk
of food poisoning. Like all herbivores, we have a long intestinal tract, which
is necessary for the proper digestion of the cellulose in plants. Carnivores
and omnivores have shorter intestines, which are designed to quickly digest
meat before it begins to rot” [Towell 2014].
However, to reject such a
biological argument against meat consumption is an inadvertent attempt to
justify the killing of billions of sentient creatures simply for a momentary
palate satisfaction over a life (current estimates from the UN and WorldWatch
suggest that between 56 and 70 billion animals are killed for consumption
annually). Killing is never
ethical. Meat and dairy cannot be
ethically sourced, and any attempts to do so are an oxymoron. We have, on this
planet, 80,000 edible plants. We do not
need to maintain the profit-driven, corporate narrative that plants do not
cater to the vitamins, minerals, and proteins necessary to our survival.
This is about all life on earth
hanging in the balance. We have a
choice. If we do not want to wake up too
late to the destruction of the planet, we need to take action now. It is daunting knowing that the future of all
living beings and our planet is reliant on us making a change and acting
efficiently, but it is possible. We can
change the world. We must.
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