Environmentalists are often hesitant to address the ecological problems with animal agriculture—some people will happily drive a hybrid and change their light bulbs, but then plug their ears when told about the impact of their cheeseburgers. In fact, Al Gore has claimed that asking people to give up meat would make his arguments too difficult for the public to swallow.
But when experts have concluded that raising animals for food is a top cause for nearly every ecological problem on the planet, the argument is not difficult at all. For Earth Day, remind your omnivorous friends of what their meat habit is doing to the earth:
- Greenhouse Gases: Ruminants like cows and sheep, regardless of how they are raised, burp up loads of methane, a gas with a global warming potential of over 20 times that of carbon dioxide. The waste of other animals like pigs and chickens also contributes to climate change through nitrous oxide emissions, which is 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
- Waste: Farmed animals produce 130 times as much waste as the entire population of the US. The manure is stored in lagoons and eventually seeps into nearby waterways. “Dead Zones”— large areas of ocean with little to no fish life—can often be attributed to nitrogen run-off from farmed animal manure.
- Land: The standard, meat-heavy American diet requires 20 times as much land as a vegan diet. In order to make room for grazing and to grow crops to feed animals, companies clear-cut rainforests and eventually destroy the soil. In the Amazon, close to 80% of deforestation is directly related to animal agriculture.
- Wildlife: In an effort to protect their profits, farmers and government agencies brutally kill hundreds of thousands of predators every year. This out-dated practice distorts the balance of predator and prey and contributes to the over-population of deer in many parts of the United States.
Make sure to request some of FARM’s newly updated Vegan Earth Day handouts to take with you to your local Earth Day event! These events are a great opportunity to educate the public about the impact their food choices have on animals, their health, and our planet.