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Although meat and dairy are still a popular foodstuff with many people, indeed, they appear to have attributes of addictions to some, consumers express growing concern over some consequences of meat/dairy consumption and production. In addition to health and animal welfare trepidations, many of the main environmental issues (fresh water availability, ocean pollution, biological diversity, rainforest destruction, topsoil erosion, desertification, global warming and climate changes) are directly and severely impacted by an animal-based diet with its intensive agriculture. 

Consumer concerns include:

1. Pollution. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) confine thousands of animals in one facility, and produce staggering amounts of animal waste in the process. Annually, 2.7 trillion pounds of farm animal wastes are produced in the United States. Together with animal feed production, meat and dairy production is responsible for the emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus, pesticide contamination of water, heavy metal contamination of soil, and acid rain from ammonia emissions. For example: Contaminated runoff from large dairy farms south of Fort Worth are the main cause of surface water degradation to the point that fecal coliform and E. coli bacteria levels frequently exceed the state standards. Yet, the state of Texas has severely restricted citizens' rights to block new factory farms or to prevent huge expansions in their localities.

2. Global warming. In the United States, a quarter of all the human-induced production of the greenhouse gas, methane, comes from farm animals and their waste products. Each molecule of methane has 21 times as much global warming potential as a molecule of CO2. British physicist Alan Calvert calculates that the animals we eat emit 21% of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity.

3. Depletion of fishing stocks. Over 75 percent of existing fishing stocks are either fully-exploited or over-exploited according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). In March of 2005, FAO reported there has been a consistent downward trend since the 1950s. The report said that rebuilding depleted wild fish stocks is a "challenging necessity." 

4. Desertification.  This is a process which turns productive land (normally, but not always, productive semi-arid land), into non- productive desert. It is a misconception that droughts cause desertification. Overgrazing is the major cause of desertification worldwide. Plants of semi-arid areas are adapted to being eaten by sparsely scattered, large, grazing mammals which move in response to the patchy rainfall common to these regions. Worldwide, desertification is making approximately 12 million hectares useless for cultivation every year with significant desertification both occurring and forecast for North America. Desertification causes dangerous changes to the environment on a global scale. For example: Dust storms in the Gobi and Sahara deserts cause such diverse problems as respiratory problems in North America and damage to coral reefs in the Caribbean.

5. Rainforest Deforestation. Ranching is a major cause of deforestation, particularly in Central and South America. In Central America, two-thirds of lowland tropical forests have been turned into pasture since 1950. 

6. Nutrition-related diseases and chronic conditions. The world is suffering from multiple diseases of the "knife and fork," particularly when that knife and fork are used to eat meat and dairy products. A few examples: Postmenopausal women with a high dietary ratio of animal to vegetable protein intake have more rapid neck bone loss and a greater risk of hip fracture than do those with a low ratio of animal/vegetable protein. Diabetes II and cardiovascular disease are now responsible for a third of global mortality and are associated with the over-consumption of animal fats. Over-consumption of meat and dairy is probably responsible for a quarter of all ischemic ( ischemia is a condition in which blood flow--and thus oxygen--is restricted to a part of the body) heart disease, or 1.8 million deaths, annually. Quoting the University of Maryland Medical Center, "The same conditions that cause blockage in the blood vessels leading to heart problems may also contribute to erectile dysfunction." Numerous population-based studies around the world have linked multiple sclerosis and juvenile diabetes (IDDM) to dairy product consumption. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) looked at the dietary habits of over 500,000 people across Europe over 10 years time and found that consumption of red or processed meats substantially increased the risk of bowel cancer. The list goes on... and on... and on...

7. Food-Borne Illness. The most common cause of food borne diseases in the U.S. is contaminated meats. Food borne pathogens found in meats, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, pathogenic E. coli, Avian influenza, and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are rampant in the world. In the United States alone, food borne diseases are responsible for over 76 million episodes of illness, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths each year. 

8. Zoonosis. Diseases (e.g., salmonella and rabies) that are shared by, and transmitted between, humans and animals, are called zoonoses. The deadliest plague in human history was the influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed up to 50 million people around the world. The 1918 virus probably jumped species in crowded World War I army camps in Europe where they raised chickens for slaughter. That flu would go on to bury more people than the World War. An avian flu pandemic looms on the horizon of the earth today without adequate antibiotics to stop it. The WHO (World Health Organization) blames the current potential avian flu outbreak on "intensive poultry production." The head of the CDC's International Emerging Infections Program in Thailand opines: "The world just has no idea what it's going to see if this thing comes," but then stopped and said, "When, really. It's when. I don't think we can afford the luxury of the word 'if' anymore. We are past 'if's." 

9. Cost to humans in dollars, disease, and antibiotic resistance. In the United States the annual medical costs related to over-consumption of meat and dairy are believed to be between $30 and $60 billion. A study by University of North Carolina researchers found that people living near large hog farms suffer high levels of upper respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) considers agricultural use of antibiotics for animals to be the major cause of food borne illnesses that resist treatment with antibiotics.

10. Mercury is a highly poisonous heavy metal that poses a serious health risk to developing fetuses, babies, and children. These small humans may suffer brain damage and learning disabilities from prolonged or repeated exposure to minute amounts of mercury. Mercury targets the nervous system and kidneys. Developing fetuses, infants, and young children are at the highest risk from mercury exposure, since their brains and nervous systems are still forming. In addition to children actually eating fish, fetuses can absorb mercury directly across the placenta, and nursing infants can get it from their mother's breast milk. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency of United States) estimates up to 600,000 American children are born at risk for lower intelligence and learning problems due to mercury exposure from their mothers eating fish. Mercury exposure can also harm adults. Extremely high mercury levels can permanently damage an adult's brain and kidneys, or even lead to circulatory failure. 

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11. Inefficient use of resources. Obtaining nutrients from meat, rather than directly from plants, uses considerably more cropland, water, fertilizer, pesticides, and energy. Given the inputs required to house, transport, and slaughter animals; transport and process feed grains; and transport and process meat, intensive meat production is only 25 percent as energy efficient as soybean production. More than one third of the world's grain harvest is used to feed livestock. Raising animals for food consumes more than half the water and requires more than 1/3 of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States.

12. Abuse of farm animals. More than 25 billion animals are killed each year in the United States for the consumption of flesh. The kind of industrialized meat and dairy agriculture which predominates in the U.S. typically relies on crowded, unsanitary, cruel, and stressful growing conditions. Not only are these practices conducive to the emergence of disease, the conditions in which these animals are raised and killed is nothing short of atrocious. 

Although per capita meat consumption in the United States and other developed countries has reached a plateau in recent years, meat consumption in developing countries continues to increase. It has doubled over the last 20 years. When coupled with a growing global population, the future of this planet looks dismal if production of meat and dairy is not curtailed. 

That curtailment starts on the plates of all of us and in the diet habits we teach our children. 

Sources: Sierra Club, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, EPA, World Health Organization, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, USDA Animal Welfare Issues Compendium, University of Maryland Medical Center, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Annals of Neurology 49(1997):55, Journal of Immunology 172(2004):661, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, CNN

Copyright 2005 Sierra Club. Reproduced with permission.

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