Meat contributes to climate change

The live stock sector currently occupies thirty percent of land not covered by ice.

The live stock sector uses eight percent of fresh water on the planet.

The live stock sector is responsible for about 18 percent of green house gas emissions.

Gidon Eshel, assistant professor of physical oceanography and climate and co-author of the University of Chicago report, echoed Moncrief’s concern.

Eshel told TNS: “It is probably not a bad idea to suggest unambiguously that if more people used less animal products in their diet than they do today, we would be able to sustain a larger number of people on earth for an indefinite period of time, or afford those who are here a better lifestyle.

The typical American diet adds significantly to pollution, water scarcity, land degradation and climate change, according to a United Nations report released last week.

Written by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),the report is the latest research linking meat-eating with environmental destruction. According to the FAO, the arm of the UN that works on worldwide hunger-defeating initiatives, animal farming presents a “major threat to the environment” with such “deep and wide-ranging” impacts that it should rank as a leading focus for environmental policy.

Posted by Eerik