Canceled.LTroll.20
Banned
To truly "go green," we must start with what's on our plates.
Raising and killing animals for food wastes so many resources and causes so much destruction, it's hard to know where to begin.
The human cost of factory farming -- both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals -- is staggering.
United Nations identifies meat eaters as warming the planet. Humanity needs to radically alter what it eats, according to an expert panel advising the United Nations on the planet's environmental challenges.
Cattle and other animals are fed more than half the world's crops, an appetite the panel says needs to be curbed to provide more food for people and reduce agriculture's environmental impact.
What else do we get from all the grain, fossil fuels and water that go into making meat and milk? More waste--in the form of tons and tons of feces.
Pound for pound, a pig produces four times as much waste as a human does. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, factory farms generate about 300 million tons of manure every year--more than double the amount produced by the entire human population in the U.S.
No federal guidelines regulate how factory farms treat, store and dispose of the trillions of pounds of animal excrement that they produce each year. This waste--untreated, unsanitary and bubbling with chemicals--may be left to decompose in huge lagoons or sprayed over crop fields. Both of these disposal methods result in run-off that contaminates the soil and water and kills fish and other wildlife. There are numerous reports that humans who live near factory farms have been made sick by the pollution--many suffer from respiratory ailments, neurological problems and more.
Today's meat factories also spew out greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change.
A 2006 United Nations report revealed that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gasses than all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world combined. The report attributed 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions to farmed animals, but new research indicates that the figure actually could be much higher.
"A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animals products," says the report to be released by the United Nations Environment Program.
The panel was asked to identify activities associated with the largest environmental pressures and impacts in the world of rising numbers of people, rising incomes and rising consumption.
It identified agriculture as a priority area in need of "transformational change," along with fossil fuel use -- which is helping drive climate change -- and production and use of materials such as iron, steel, aluminum and plastics, which also has a large environmental footprint.
Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater consumption and 38 per cent of total land use, and is a major source of greenhouse gases, phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.
With global population expected to increase 50 per cent to as many 10 billion people by 2050, the panel says changes in diet will be needed to ensure there is enough to eat.
Compounding the situation is increasing affluence, since richer people tend to consume more fossil fuels and eat more animal products.
___________________________________________________
Animals Are Not Ours to Eat
Animals Are Not Ours to Wear
Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On
Animals Are Not Ours to Use for Entertainment
Animals Are Not Ours to Abuse in Any Way
Raising and killing animals for food wastes so many resources and causes so much destruction, it's hard to know where to begin.
The human cost of factory farming -- both the compromised welfare of slaughterhouse workers and, even more, the environmental effects of the mass production of animals -- is staggering.
United Nations identifies meat eaters as warming the planet. Humanity needs to radically alter what it eats, according to an expert panel advising the United Nations on the planet's environmental challenges.
Cattle and other animals are fed more than half the world's crops, an appetite the panel says needs to be curbed to provide more food for people and reduce agriculture's environmental impact.
What else do we get from all the grain, fossil fuels and water that go into making meat and milk? More waste--in the form of tons and tons of feces.
Pound for pound, a pig produces four times as much waste as a human does. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, factory farms generate about 300 million tons of manure every year--more than double the amount produced by the entire human population in the U.S.
No federal guidelines regulate how factory farms treat, store and dispose of the trillions of pounds of animal excrement that they produce each year. This waste--untreated, unsanitary and bubbling with chemicals--may be left to decompose in huge lagoons or sprayed over crop fields. Both of these disposal methods result in run-off that contaminates the soil and water and kills fish and other wildlife. There are numerous reports that humans who live near factory farms have been made sick by the pollution--many suffer from respiratory ailments, neurological problems and more.
Today's meat factories also spew out greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change.
A 2006 United Nations report revealed that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gasses than all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world combined. The report attributed 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions to farmed animals, but new research indicates that the figure actually could be much higher.
"A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animals products," says the report to be released by the United Nations Environment Program.
The panel was asked to identify activities associated with the largest environmental pressures and impacts in the world of rising numbers of people, rising incomes and rising consumption.
It identified agriculture as a priority area in need of "transformational change," along with fossil fuel use -- which is helping drive climate change -- and production and use of materials such as iron, steel, aluminum and plastics, which also has a large environmental footprint.
Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater consumption and 38 per cent of total land use, and is a major source of greenhouse gases, phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.
With global population expected to increase 50 per cent to as many 10 billion people by 2050, the panel says changes in diet will be needed to ensure there is enough to eat.
Compounding the situation is increasing affluence, since richer people tend to consume more fossil fuels and eat more animal products.
___________________________________________________
Animals Are Not Ours to Eat
Animals Are Not Ours to Wear
Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On
Animals Are Not Ours to Use for Entertainment
Animals Are Not Ours to Abuse in Any Way
