ANIMALS and the ENVIRONMENT

You try to do your part for the environment. You recycle, you conserve water, but you still eat meat?

The meat industry causes more water pollution in the US than any other industry because the animals raised for food produce 130 times the excrement than the entire human population - 86,000 pounds per second. A typical pig factory farm generates raw waste equivalant to that of a city of 12,000 people. Sewage systems are common in US cities, but they don't exist in US feedlots. That waste has to go somewhere.

Of all agricultural land in the US, 87 percent is used to raise animals for food. On an acre of land, 20,000 pounds of potatoes can be grown, but only 165 pounds of beef can be produced.

Raising animals for food consumes more than half of all the water used in the US. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. Cost of common hamburger meat if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by US taxpayers: $35 a pound.
Current cost for pound of protein from wheat: $1.50 a pound.
Current cost for pound of protein from beefsteak: $15.40
Cost for pound of protein from beefsteak if US taxpayers ceased subsidizing meat industry's use of water: $89

It takes as much land to feed a single meat-eater as it does to feed 20 vegans. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, which is more than the Earth's population. 60 million people starve to death each year. If we reduced our intake of meat by only 10% we could feed 60 million people.

Rainforests are being destroyed at a rate of 125,000 square miles per year to create space to raise animals for food. For every quarter-pound fast-food burger made of rainforset beef, 65 square feet of land are consumed.

Raising animals for food requires more than one third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the US. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles and enough water for 17 showers. If 10% of the population became fully vegetarian, we would not have to import oil. If all humans ate meat-centered diets our petroleum stocks would last only 13 years, if all humans were vegetarian they would last for 260.