Debunking Myths: Hard to Swallow Facts about Meat-Dairy Production and Animal farming
- Current Human Population: 7.7 billion (Projected to be 9billion by 2050).
Current livestock population: 27 billion (3.5x times) - Current average rate of human death: ~8.2%/year = 0.63 billion/year;
Rate of killing farmed animals = 74 billion/year (117x times) - We have killed more animals in the last 1.5 years than all the humans that ever existed on this planet.
- Chicken population at any given time:
23 billion (3x times current human population) - Pig population at any given time:
1 billion (13% of current human population) - Sheep & Lamb population at any given time:
1-2 billion (13-26% of current human population). - Cow/Buffalo population at any given time:
1.5 billion (20% of current human population).
Cow/buffalo population in the US is 42 million. - Effective total protein available in animal meat sold = only 4% of the total protein fed to animals over their entire lifetime.
- Effective total calories available in animal meat for consumption = only 3% of the total calories fed to animals as feed over their entire lifetime.
- To yield 1Kg of beef; a cow/buffalo releases 26.61Kg of greenhouse gases and needs to be fed:
->25KG of grains and
->15000L water (3.85x amount required for chicken) (13.66x amount required for wheat) - An average adult sized cow/buffalo releases 5200Kg (11,450 pounds) of greenhouse gases and yields ~200kg (440 pounds) of meat, requiring resources of 5,000Kg (11,000 pounds) of grains/feed and 3,000,000 liters of water to raise it.
- For yield the same amount of food insects require ~15x less feed and cause 100x lesser greenhouse effect compared to cows/buffalos.
- Cows/buffalos are ruminant animals; meaning they produce gas (methane) while digesting food (like humans do but unlike chickens and pigs who do NOT produce gas) and their GMO corn and soy feed/diet causes them to be more bloated and therefore produce more gas.
- Methane has a 21 times stronger NEGATIVE climate changing effect (of increasing global temperature) than CO2.
- Cows/buffalos all over the world produce more greenhouse gases than 800 million cars (2/3rd of all cars on the road right now).
- Cows/buffalos all over the world produce 18 billion tonnes of manure/year (110x times that of humans/year).
- Cow manure accounts for 2/3rd of all nitrous oxide on earth; which has a 300 times the global warming effect to that of CO2.
- 17 billion pounds of Nitrogen fertilizer is used to grow feed for cows; which runs into rivers and then oceans where algae-based deoxygenated dead zones are created where sealife (fishes, etc) cannot stay alive.
- Accounting for hidden costs of water required, healthcare costs, greenhouse gases; 1 cow/buffalo costs citizens $266 (Rs1,86,000) through taxes and other indirect payments. Thus, 1Kg (2.2pounds) of beef costs citizens $13.3 (Rs930) after paying for the beef itself.
- Meat and dairy production takes up:
A) 27% of the world's total fresh water consumption.
B) 30% of the world's total land area (8 times the land needed to grow plants/food for humans):
->Indirectly (for growing animal feed only) or
->Directly (for food for pasture of animals). - Meat and dairy products make up 15% of the world's total greenhouse emissions.
- Meat and dairy products make up 18% of the world's total calorie consumption.
- Meat and dairy production takes up 80% of the US's total antibiotic drug consumption.
- Calories required to feed animals for Meat and dairy products can feed 45% (3.5 billion) of the world's current population.
Note: Admittedly those calories will be derived from food which is not optimal for human health and/or consumption but the resources used to grow that animal feed can be invested into growing direct food (plants) for humans rather than indirect food (animals).
Here are some infographics detailing the environmental effect of meat and dairy production:
References:
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/your-kitchen-and-the-planet-the-impact-of-our-food-on-the-environment
- https://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/climate-and-environmental-impacts/
- https://skepticalscience.com/animal-agriculture-meat-global-warming.htm
- http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/Shifting_Diets_for_a_Sustainable_Food_Future_1.pdf
