Since it is earth month and we are all looking for way to lesson
our carbon foot print, lets think twice before eating meat.
Water:
Nearly half the water used on the US is squandered on
animal agriculture. Its used to water crops to feed the
animals, for drinking water and to clean up the filth
in the factory. It take 4000 gallons of water a day to
produce a meat based diet and 300 gallons a day
to produce a vegetarian based diet.
You would save more water by not eating a
pound of beef than not showering for a year!
Beef production alone uses more water than is consumed
in growing the nations entire fruit and vegetable crops.
Land:
There are more than 20 billion head of livestock
more than triple the number of people.
It takes 4.8pounds of grain feed to produce
1 pound of beef for consumption.
Factory farms generate 1.5 billion tons of animal waste.
According to PETA livestock raised for food produces 130
more times the excrement of the human population.
Air:
According to United Nations report Livestock Long Shadow
Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas
emissions than all cars, trucks, ships, and planes
in the world combined!
*If every American skips one meal of meat per week
the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking
more than half a million cars off US roads
America spends $110 billion more a year on fast food
than on higher education and on movies, magazines,
newspapers, videos and recorded music combined.
Famous vegetarian's:
- Leonardo da Vinici
- Benjamin Franklin
- Albert Einstein
It would take 40 million tons of food to eliminate the
most extreme cases of world hunger yet farm animals
in western countries are fed 540 million tons of food
every year.
What do you say? Are you going to skip the meat?
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4 comments:
it's sick isn't how much is getting used to feed us, and the sicker part is how much of that food is actually wasted in the end!
The Travel Expert(a) and an Expat with a Twist
I already do skip meat and most animal products. What always amazes me (in addition to the eco-aspect) is the fact that people who are passionate about rescuing dogs and cats are some of the biggest meat eaters sometimes...animals are animals.
Great post! There are also a lot of health benefits to a meat-free or reduced meat diet.
Alright, I'm chuckling because I've got "sleeping to save the planet", you've got "eating to save the planet"... now someone needs to do a post on compost toilets... ;)
Thinking of what they would title that blog post is making me chuckle!
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