Environmental Writing

The Meat Industry-Revised

By AmandaREO

This is the alternate version to the previous section for younger or more sensitive readers! But feel free to read it if that doesn't account for you, there's some information here that wasn't mentioned in the last article!

I'm sure most of us don't think too much about what we eat. It's just food, after all. But times are changing. What used to be just food now has shocking backstories and devastating effects on domesticated/farm animals, wildlife, the climate, and in total, the earth. It's now more important than ever to look into your impact on the world, educate yourself, and try to make the necessary changes.

For many of us, meat is essential. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as the meat you eat is from a sustainable and humane source. Sustainable meat is generally found in local and small farms. What is sustainable meat, you might ask? It's meat that has a smaller carbon footprint, or takes less of a toll on the planet. Already, the meat industry takes up a huge amount of precious resources such as water, energy, fossil fuel, land, and crops. Meat production will always have a bad effect on our planet, but there are plenty of ways to reduce it. To give you an idea of how many resources meat takes up, let's start with water. Animals need water to drink, to grow their food, and to clean factories. Take cows, for example. All in all, it takes 2,400 gallons of water to accommodate a cow everyday. Now, multiply that by how many cows there are and how many days this has been going on. Yeah, that's a lot. Besides water, land and energy are huge parts of the meat industry. According to National Geographic, farming takes up 40% of the Earth's land!

The meat industry produces 500 million tons of animal waste each year in the U.S. The waste takes up so much space that could be used instead as habitat spaces for wildlife, not to mention it also releases toxic gasses such as hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide that ends up killing fish once it lands in water. Habitats that support millions of animals are being destroyed for the meat industry. 70% of deforestation in the Amazon basin is because of cattle ranching, adding up to a part of the Amazon bigger than Washington state being destroyed for the beef industry! The Amazon is not only home to half of the ten million species known to humans, but is also known as the "Lungs of the Planet" because they supply more than 20% of the world's oxygen. And all of the trees, which are the most vital climate moderators (or reducers of carbon emissions) are being destroyed, all because of our demand for beef.

On top of all that, the meat industry is one of the biggest anthropogenic (human caused) contributors to Climate Change. With the crazy amount of methane that animals produce, the energy and fuel that is used to produce the meat, the trees that are destroyed, and the gases that are emitted from the meat if we waste it, the meat industry accounts for 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions!

The biggest thing we can do to change all this, is to be conscious of where our meat comes from. Often, if it's from big companies, it's unsustainable. It has probably taken up rainforest space, polluting the land and water, and using up fossil fuels. Not only are many big companies unsustainable, they are also inhumane.

When buying meat, I'd advise you to stay away from factory farmed meat. Factory farms are the epitome of inhumane: the animals are abused unnecessarily and the conditions are frightening. Most of the meat found in supermarkets and restaurants is from factory farms, and according to the Sentience Institute, 99% of US farmed animals live in them!

Luckily, we have options. If we all do our research and make changes, we can turn those 99% factory farms into 99% small, humane and sustainable farms. This is an incredibly big issue that involves animal rights and the climate crisis. (Not to mention you'd be supporting small businesses instead of big, rich, corporate ones). Treating animals like living things is a big step towards a better future, just as treating the climate crisis as a real thing is too. So here's my advice: when shopping, look for "100% grass fed," "no hormones or antibiotics," "Animal Welfare Approved," "certified organic," "certified humane," "American Grassfed Certified," and things like that on the product. Or, you can go to aspca.org, which has a list of humane and sustainable products on the "Shop With Your Heart" brand list. And if you eat out, don't be afraid to ask where the restaurant sources their meat. Please don't forget this article. This issue is something that has been ignored for far too long, and we have the power to change that.