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The Pros And Cons Of Animal Agriculture

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“Animal Agriculture is one of the largest industries on the planet, with the biggest environmental impact,” says Will Potter, an independent journalist and TED senior fellow. The shocking fact is that no one is talking about this issue. Some of the biggest environmental agencies such as Greenpeace, Amazon Watch and Oceana do not have anything anywhere about this problem (Cowspiracy.com). Climate change is not just being caused by fossil fuels or keeping the lights on too long anymore. The animal agriculture industry is a ticking time bomb for the Earth. The statistics are everywhere proving that we are producing more Carbon Dioxide in the livestock business than by fossil fuels. The animals are being tortured while we turn a blind eye to them. …show more content…
Currently animal agriculture is producing thirty-two million tons of CO2 or fifty-one percent of all greenhouse emissions per year (Goodland and Anhang). This is compared to the thirteen percent that fossils fuels emit (EPA.com). Cow’s produce 150 billion gallons of methane per day (Ross). Both of those statistics are projected to increase by eighty percent by 2050 (Tillman and Clark). Methane is also twenty to one hundred times more destructive than CO2 on a twenty year time frame (Shindell). Let’s say we did stop using fossil fuels and totally converted over to solar and wind power. That would take twenty plus years and cost forty-three trillion dollars (Chang). Even without fossil fuels, we would exceed the CO2E limit by just 2030! (Oppenlander). That is all just by raising animals. The production of one calorie of animal protein has more than ten times the fossil fuel input than that of one calorie of plant protein (One Green Planet). The U.S. food industry produces nearly twenty percent of CO2 emissions (IPCC). That is more than the exhaust from all transportation combined. Often, people say that if we stopped animal agriculture, we would have a huge surplus of animals. Obviously, it is not going to go away overnight. Gradually, the breeding of animals for mass consumption of food would slow and the population numbers would go down to a normal …show more content…
Livestock or livestock feed uses about one third of earth’s ice-free land and cover about forty five percent of earth’s total land (Livestock is a Major Threat to the Enviroment). Sadly, industrial animal farming is the leading cause of habitat and destruction, species extinction, water pollution and clear dead zones (Oppenlander). A daily amount of feed for a meat-eater requires 4000 gallons of water, for a vegan, only 300 gallons (The Mindful Word). The water pollution caused by these farms is awful. Three-fourths of the world’s fisheries are depleted and we could see completely fishless oceans by 2048 (UN). For every one pound of fish caught five pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as a by-kill (Shrimp Trawl Fisheries). That is 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals killed every year by fishing vessels (Oceana USA). Animal agriculture is responsible for up to ninety-one percent of the Amazon destruction (Margulis). That is one to two acres being cleared every second. The land required to feed a vegan is one sixteenth of an acre. A meat eater is eighteen times that amount (Shrink That

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