Limiting the consumption of meat and dairy

A statistical supplement to our Environmentalist Diet Blog.
In these pages we will continue to add facts and figures that will hopefully prove beyond all doubt that what we eat is the single most important way that all individuals impact the global environment.


MEAT:

The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. That's four times more in just over forty years. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over that period. (In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years. - January 27, 2008 for The New York Times


If we all (Americans) cut our meat consumption by just 20% it would be the same as switching our regular cars to hybrids. – ABC news


Animal agriculture accounts for most of the water consumed in the U.S., emits two-thirds of the world's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and is the world's largest source of water pollution -- killing entire river and marine ecosystems, destroying coral reefs, and of course, making people sick.
Try to imagine the prodigious volumes of manure churned out by modern American farms: 5 million tons a day, more than a hundred times that of the human population, and far more than our land can possibly absorb. -
http://www.alternet.org/environment/47668


Livestock production is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
They are the source of 37% of all human induced Methane and 65% of Nitrous Oxide.


Livestock now use 30 per cent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 per cent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment

The U.S. has roughly 5% of the world’s pop. But uses nearly 30% of all resources, emits 28% of greenhouse gases, and consumes 20% of the beef – Sunfood Living by John McCabe


In large developing countries like China, India and Brazil, consumption of red meat has risen 33 percent in the last decade. It is expected to double globally between 2000 and 2050.



Dioxins are formed as a result of the combustion process, such as commercial or municipal waste incineration, and from burning fuels (like wood, coal or oil). Dioxins travel long distances, finally settling in our ground water, soil, and grass (cow’s favorite food). These dioxins break down very slowly as compared to other environmental toxins and can now be found in the fat cells of most humans and animals.
The FDA warns us that “Although dioxin is an environmental contaminant, most dioxin exposure occurs through the diet, with over 95% coming through dietary intake of animal fats (including meat, fish, and dairy)”.


In 2007, consumers spent more than $4 billion on hot dogs and sausages in U.S. supermarkets.
During Hot Dog Season, Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans typically consume seven billion hot dogs or 818 hot dogs consumed every second during that period. – The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council
On Independence Day, Americans will consume 150 million hot dogs, enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. over five times.
http://www.hot-dog.org/ht/d/sp/i/38579/pid/38579


Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. While atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen by about 31% since pre-industrial times, Methane concentrations have more than doubled.
Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of Methane a year.
Unlike carbon dioxide which can remain in the air for more than a century, Methane cycles out of the atmosphere in just eight years, so that lower Methane emissions quickly translate to cooling of the earth. - Earthsave



Whereas E. coli was almost unheard of in the 1970’s it now infects 80% of all cattle on American feedlots and is working its way into our raw vegetables as well by cross contamination.



"Without much publicity or government concern, growth hormones like testosterone are routinely administered to about 80 percent of the nation's feedlot cattle, accelerating their weight gain and making them profitable to slaughter at a younger age. The practice is legal in the United States but banned throughout the European Union, due to concerns about its effect on human health" -
Eric Schlosser author of Fast Food Nation


Factory Farming:

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs):

According to the EPA CAFO's are "Facilities where large numbers of poultry, swine, cattle or other animal types are confined within a much smaller area than traditional pasture operations. The concentration of the wastes from these animals increases the potential to impact air, water, and land quality.
Failures to properly manage manure and wastewater at CAFOs can negatively impact the environment and public health. Manure and wastewater have the potential to contribute pollutants, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, organic matter, sediments, pathogens, heavy metals, hormones and ammonia, to the environment" -
http://www.epa.gov/region7/water/cafo/cafo_impact_environment.htm


“In terms of scale, ethanol is dwarfed by the livestock industry, which vacuums up more feed than all other end users combined (more than a third of the two million tons of grain produced world-wide in 2006 was fed to animals) and will continue to be the dominant end user for decades to come” – The End of Food by Paul Roberts


When emissions from land use are included, the livestock sector accounts for 65 percent of human-related Nitrous Oxide, which has 300 times the Global Warming Potential of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Most of this comes from manure and nitrate rich fertilizers
And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced Methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain. –
Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tones in 1999/2001 to 465 million tones in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tones. -
2006 UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report - Livestock’s Long Shadow–Environmental


Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman OR., the world’s largest dairy and Oregon’s largest factory farm, is 93,000 acres and home to over 55,000 cows (16,000 owned for milking). Dean foods, owner of Silk soymilk and Horizon Organics buys milk from Threemile canyon, McDonalds buys potatoes from Threemile.
Waste from the farm is equivalent to a city of over a million people.
The farm releases over 5.5 million pounds of ammonia each year. –
From Interview with Eric Nicholson Pacific Northwest Director for the UFW (United Farm Workers of America), 2006


Feedlots can turn a six-month calf into a 1350 lb. steer in about four months, while grass fed cows take two years to reach a slaughter weight of 1100 lbs. – The End of Food by Paul Roberts


In Eastern and Southeastern Asia alone, an estimated 6 billion broiler chickens are reared for meat - many of these birds are raised in proximity to the regions’ rapidly growing cities.



About 25 million pounds of antibiotics are are pumped into U.S. livestock each year, primarily for growth promotion, not to ward off disease -
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report


The Worldwatch Institute notes that 70 percent of all antibiotics in the U.S. are fed to factory farmed livestock, or eight times (by volume) the antibiotics consumed by Americans themselves.

In his bid for the Democratic nomination John Edwards backed a nationwide moratorium on the construction or expansion of new livestock facilities.
"Family farmers are the people who've worked, in many cases, for generations on the land to build a life for themselves and for their families," Edwards explained. "These big corporate farming operations, in many cases, they're getting millions of dollars in subsidies."
"I think we need a national moratorium on CAFOs - these concentrated animal feeding operations - so that we're not expanding them and we're not building new ones,"