Now we all know that eating healthier is better for us but what is the true cost of our meaty lifestyle and its affect on the planet. From a young age we all taught to eat our vegetables if we want to grow up strong and as you get older if you trying to eat healthy or make a few changes most people turn to the healthiest foods on the planet vegetables.
knowing this we can debate for millennia the benefits and disadvantages of meat eggs and dairy on the body process and function from performance to longevity and still be no further, but what we can do it look at the scientific data collected by scientists and academic institutions on the state of play our planet is in.
Recent year have seen a rise in plant based eating for numerous health benefits and as a way of living longer and stopping potential disease like heart disease, Obesity, diabetes and even fending off cancer. This rise in conciseness as well as media attention about the animal agricultural culture industry has show a lot of light on the effects of raising and killing such large quantities each year has on the planet
59 BILLION Animals Die Each Year Just To Feed America...
According to The Humane Society of the United States its about ten billion cattle, chickens, ducks, hogs, sheep, lambs and turkeys were killed for food in the United States in 2015. when you think of it is an incredible number of animals died so that humans on this earth can get not even 1/5 of their overall calorie needs...
Interesting the number of animals being raised for slaughter is in a slight decline.
The bad news is that this number doesn't take into account the number of fish taken from the ocean for human consumption or the species and numbers of marine animals that become victims of fishermen who either refuse or are ignorant of devices to protect those animals.
In 2009, about 20 billion sea animals were killed (by the US) for human consumption 20 billion just ponder that for a second and that's just killed by the USA not for USA as that number would be much higher with imports from other country's. Total number of Animals killed worldwide for Americans' food in 2009 amount to 8.3 billion land animals and 51 billion sea animals. (total of 59 billion animals Dead.)
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These numbers also don't include wild animals killed by hunters, wildlife displaced by animal agriculture, wildlife directly killed by farmers with pesticides, traps or other methods.
New data and research shows the huge footprint of livestock that is killed and overall to the planet population it just provides us with 18% of our overall calories but takes up 83% of farmland.... You do the maths
With an ever growing world population/ more land in needed there for more wild areas are destroyed or chopped down to make for land to raid livestock eventually the land runs out and people go hungry but its it really worth all that effort just for 18% of overall calorie consumption.
Cattle require the most land to raise and with illegal settlements all over the world especially in national forests or south america the demand for meat is high so will people will try make a profit the amazon is one of the hardest hit with 1,3 million hectares, the Jamanxim National Forest and thousand of hectares in the Amazon,have been lost already all to profit of the meat industry
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.
The newest research to date shows incredible statistics and data analysis on the industry. It shows that if we didn't have our global meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – basically the same surface mass as the USA China Australia and Europe together let that just sink in ..... o yer and with 75% of the farmland returned to nature you can still feed the entire population of the earth
Loss of wide environments are the number one cause of extinction on this planet and wildlife.
Meat at Dairy cause 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions
The new analysis shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority – 83% – of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Other recent research shows 86% of all land mammals are now livestock or humans. The scientists also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.
The study, published in the journal Science, created a huge database on almost 40,000 farms in 119 countries and covering 40 food products that represent 90% of all that is eaten. It assessed the full impact of these foods, from farm to fork, on land use, climate change emissions, freshwater use and water pollution (eutrophication) and air pollution (acidification).
How You Can Save The Planet
“A Plant based or vegan diet is probably the biggest single way you as a human can reduce your impact on planet Earth, Not just because it better for the animals but to reduce the growing level of co2 and greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere, Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, (Leader of the Research) said its far greater impact going vegan than catting down on you holiday trip turning of a light or switching to energy saving light bulbs or even buying and electric car as ultimately these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"Humans as a population make up just 0.01% of all life on the planet but have destroyed or killed over 83% of wild mammals to date"
But wait what about my grass fed cow?
You might be thinking i though particular meat or free range eggs or chickens were better for the environment well according to the the studies, avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.”
Beef cattle raised on deforested land result in 12 times more greenhouse gases and use 50 times more land than those grazing rich natural pasture. But the comparison of beef with plant protein such as peas is stark, with even the lowest impact beef responsible for six times more greenhouse gases and 36 times more land.
The research also found grass-fed beef, thought to be relatively low impact, was still responsible for much higher impacts than plant-based food. “Converting grass into [meat] is like converting coal to energy. It comes with an immense cost in emissions,”
Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars..
Ultimately what you can take for this research is change change needs to happen and it matter how quickly it happens you should interpret these results on a personal level and think is what I'm doing sustainable for the planet and not only the planet but future generations maybe your kids or your kids kids future, you don't need to go out and become vegan straight away and become an echo warrior over night but think how you can reduce your consumption or go a few days meet free find some plant based alternatives and try a few different nut milks . all of this means less impact on the earth.
If you thinking i cant really make a change to that number I'm just one person think about this according to PETA, 198 are saved each year, per vegan person, if you don't eat it the demand is less so less animals are produced or needed to be slaughtered and that relay does make a change to the planet and the animals.