Policy Brief
sun897585115
PBSample2.pdf
MEAT, AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE
Meat, An environmental catastrophe
5/21/16
TYPICAL FACTORY FARM OR HOLDING AREA FOR SLAUGHTER
Meat is a huge and important part of almost every Americans diet this is clear from the fact that we consume and average of 270.7 pounds per person a year (Barclay). This meat is largely beef and chicken, much of which is raised in CAFO’ or confined animal feeding operations in which animals are packed in extremely close quarters and are fed harvested grains and other feeds. These animals are then sent to high speed slaughter houses such as state-‐of the-‐art Smithfield Packing Co. in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where 32,000 hogs per day are killed (Flogel). These animals require large inputs of resources and produce large amounts of wastes for the products that we derive from them including but not limited to their flesh. The main ecological impacts from meat consumption are from the direct inputs and dealing with the animal’s wastes.
Animal meat production (including grazing and land for feed crops) now uses 30 percent of earths land mass (PETA). This figure begins to make sense when one considers the
staggering amounts of grain, water and fossil fuels that it takes to produce a pound of meat. It takes thirteen pounds of grain and 2,400 gallons of water (including cleaning and crop growth) to produce a pound of grain (PETA). In contrast it takes around twenty five gallons of water to grow a pound of wheat as well as eleven times less fossil fuels to produce than that pound of meat (PETA). This higher fossil fuel input is due to the necessity to transport feed to many animals and then transport them to slaughterhouses and then to processing plants and then the consumer as well as operating those extra factories that are related to meat production. The amount of resources required for meat production becomes truly scary when coupled with the idea that many developing countries wish to emulate developed ones culture a large part of which is meat consumption. When 32% of the world yielded grains and up to 68% of the grains used by developed countries are being fed to livestock (Elfrink et al.) already one can only imagine the environmental
consequences if worldwide people continue increasing meat consumption. The area of land that would be required simply to grow the grain would be preposterous. Confined food-‐animal operations in the United States produce more than 40 times the amount of waste than humans generated from wastewater treatment plants (Graham and Nachman). This figure gives one the broad scope of the massive amounts of waste that must be dealt with. On average over 2 trillion pounds of animal waste are produced annually in the United States, the vast majority of which goes untreated (Flogel). This waste is largely washed off of the animals and their living quarters and is then deposited in “lagoons”, which can be lined or unlined. If this wastes seeps through the sediment into ground water it can contaminate the water beyond human safety standards. These lagoons also can cause major environmental harm when they spill or rupture due to a structural weakness or environmental catastrophe. One such example is at Ocean view farms in Onslow County,
By Student Y
MEAT, AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE | 2
North Carolina; a waste pit spilled 25 million gallons of feces and urine into the New River, twice as large a volume as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (Flogel). This spill killed 25 million Fish and closed 365,000 acres of coastal wetland to shell fishing. Some animal fecal matter is sprayed or spread onto fields and this can affect ecosystems from the chemicals and hormones that come out in the animal’s excrement. Poultry litter (i.e. excreta, spilled feed, feathers, soil and bedding material) is applied to land for the large part, 90% in fact (Graham and Nachman). In many states, poultry litter is also used as a feedstuff in beef cattle production (Graham and Nachman). This brings up broader concerns about the cleanliness and healthiness of our meat producing methods. However these are not topics of this paper, but if an animal is eating feces that contain lots of chemicals that were being fed to another animal and then the animal receives its own chemicals from and antibiotics and other growth chemicals, this animals fecal matter will then contain and even more dangerous mixture of chemicals that would contaminate the environment.
Above: storage “lagoons” such as this are used to store animal wastes
Table 1 right: shows the various concerns people had with meat production and consumption
Breaks in lagoons such as this above can cause massive species degradation from acute poisoning. Top: massive fish die off due to agricultural pollution causing a dead zone
Based upon the facts about meats impact on the environment, it is clear that something must be done to fix this source of degradation. Some might say make the factory farm process cleaner or more efficient, or make animal waste management similar to human waste management. However these solutions would not effectively address the problem of meat production, they would take large amounts of energy to implement and maintain, and any solution such as these will not affect the amount of grains and water it takes to grow an animal in our farming system. The best solution to the huge environmental degradation caused by meat production is getting people to eat less meat. The best way to get people and student specifically to significantly reduce their intake of meat is through education. This education would encompass all areas of vegan/vegetarian lifestyle from what it means to be
concerned about Number of 50 percent
health effects form meat consumption 36 72 animal welfare related to meat production 38 76 ecological impacts from meat production 42 84
Argument for change
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vegan/vegetarian to how to cook vegan/vegetarian and of course what impacts meat consumption has. The first two educational points would be the most valuable at fostering the development of a culture that accepts and understands the desire to not eat meat. This cultural development must be made because many vegans feel like outsiders in American culture (Hirschler). Lack of education is also evident in a recent survey preformed at the University of Denver in which fifty students were asked a variety of questions pertaining to meat’s impacts and the student’s willingness to go vegan/vegetarian. While almost 84% of them said they were concerned about the ecological impacts from meat production 78% weren’t knowledgeable about the huge inputs of natural resources into meat production (Tables 1, 2).
Education will be a vital tool for changing people’s meat consumption because “consumers seem to be less aware of the environmental impacts associated with meat production” (Tobler et al.). The same study found that people convinced about the environmental benefits of reducing meat consumption were more likely to change their consumption habits, which is seemingly correlated with the fact that they found the “largest fraction of unwilling consumers in the domain of reducing meat consumption and buying organic food” (Tobler et al.). Much of this unwillingness to change meat consumption is due to a culture in the US specifically that glorifies and demands meat, so if one willingly decides to not eat meat, then they are an outlier and tend to face
negative backlash due to their decision. Family members can be some of the most negative and hardest social group to navigate for recent converts (Hirschler). This culture that discriminates against vegans/vegetarians is also affects people contemplating a change in diet because, taking cues from others, known as Informational social influence has been found to play a “significant role in conformity effects” (Hirschler). Meaning that young people specifically, but also others who may be considering this switch in diet, would be influenced by others who disagree with this diet and would face serious external pressures to continue consuming meat.
Table 2: adapted from data from survey
The vegetarian food pyramid shows how easy it truly is to eat vegetarian and vegan isn’t much harder
Factory farms such as these produce huge amounts of waste which is stored in lagoons such as these 3 pictured surrounding the livestock sheds
78% The percentage of people who were unaware of many of the inputs in meat production
2 trillion The amount of animal waste in pounds that is produced each year in the united states alone
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the basics of veganism/vegetarianism go to the link below
PETA http://www.peta.org/
knowledgeable not knowledgeable
22% 78% FAST FACTS
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Vegans themselves help explain why education is necessary to get more people to think like them. Emily, a recent college graduate and vegan for seven years, I interviewed recently states meat eaters “problem” which is “a preconceived notion about what vegan food is and that somehow without meat you can’t be healthy and have good food”. This feeling is echoed by Edward, a 30-‐year-‐old veterinarian’s assistant, who said, “I think that a lot of people think that it’s too big of a change to make it worthwhile.”(Hirschler) A recent survey that I conducted asked
respondents to gauge their willingness to eat varying levels of meat and the ones that responded that they were completely unwilling to try living without meat were asked why. Many responded with quips about taste and or about meat vitamins being better than plant vitamins, others responded that they don’t like vegetables or that they don’t need the added stress of said diet while they are in college. This clearly illustrates the need for education in all things vegan; people need to be taught how they could eat flavorful beneficial meals that would have the same nutrients and
vitamins as any normal meal with meat. This education would also be able to inform people on how they can make eating vegan or vegetarian fit perfectly with their normal routine and how to do it without adding unnecessary stress to their day.
Many people may make the argument that humans evolutionarily developed to eat meat and therefore we should have to eat meat. However, a person who makes this claim is as off base as the people who think that flavorful vegan meals aren’t possible. This is because humans developed eating meat only rarely when our ancestors were able to take down an animal or came across a carcass. This means that humans weren’t eating meat at any rate near what most Americans do today.
From the many problems that are associated with meat production and consumption it is determinable that something must be done to change these problems. To fix them the best way is through educating people on the impacts of meat production and how they can eat vegan/vegetarian with flavor and with minimal stress. This education would be accomplished on the DU campus
through a, meat awareness week in which I would partner with the DU sustainability club as well as the Vegan/vegetarian club, we would have a week of tabling and some sort of carnival at the end of the week in which there would be games related to sustainability and giveaways. The major goal of this meat awareness week would be to get students to sign up for 30 day pledges to go without meat; this is very similar to something Emily’s club did as well as something PETA does.
Counter arguments
Call to action
MEAT, AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE
Works Cited
Barclay, Eliza. "A Nation Of Meat Eaters: See How It All Adds Up." NPR. National Public Radio, 27 Jun 2012. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/27/155527365/visualizing-a-nation-of- meat-eaters>.
Elferink, E.V., S. Nonhebel, and H.C. Moll. "Feeding livestock food residue and the consequences for the environmental impact of meat." Journal of Cleaner Production. 16.12 (2008): 1227-1233. Web. 20 May. 2013. <http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/science/article/pii/S0959652607001588>.
Floegel, Mark. "The dirt on factory farms." Multinational Monitor. 21.7/8 (2000): 24-28. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
<http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/208865110>.
Graham, Jay, and Keeve Nachman. "Managing waste from confined animal feeding operations." Journal of Water & Health . 8.4 (2010): 646-670. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
Hirschler, Christopher. "“What Pushed Me over the Edge Was a Deer Hunter”: Being Vegan in North America ." Society and Animals. 19.2 (2011): 156-174. Web. 20 May. 2013.
Tobler, Christina, Vivianne Visschers, and Michael Siegrist. "Eating green. Consumers’ willingness to adopt
ecological food consumption behaviors ." Appetite. 57.3 (2011): 674-682. Web. 21 Apr. 2013. <http://0-
www.sciencedirect.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/science/article/pii/S019566631100554X>.
"Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources ." PETA. People for the ethical treatment of animals, n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources.asp&xgt;>
