The Relation and Controversy Between American Diet and Environmental Ethics

The Environmental Ethics of the American Diet

We are living in an “era of climate change”; environmental advocacy and sustainability are issues that are increasingly discussed by mainstream media and politicians (Freeman). Greenhouse gases and energy usage are at the forefront of the climate change discussions, and environmentalists are urging the American people to “go green” in an attempt to save our planet. While we constantly are told that electric cars, recycling, and energy-efficient appliances are some of the best ways to reduce our impact on the Earth, our dietary choices are often ignored in sustainability discussions (Williams). However, what we eat has extreme and direct effects on our environment, and our consumption of meat is an especially significant cause for concern. Recently, the UN concluded that “raising land animals generates 18% of the world’s [greenhouse gas] emissions, proving even more damaging than transportation” (Freeman). Meat production and consumption has been steadily increasing for decades, and a whopping 30% of all the land on our Earth is used for the production of animals (Stoll-Kleemann). There is a tremendous need for a fundamental change in the way America eats if we want to preserve our dying planet.

Humans need food. It is our most basic biological need, and eating is the closest way that we connect with the Earth. It only makes sense that we treat our planet- which has provided us with all we need since birth- in a way that is fully respectful and sustainable. When we eat meat, we are contributing to the degradation of our environment, by destroying rainforests, eliminating biodiversity, depleting freshwater, and hindering efforts to curb global world hunger (Stoll-Kleemann).

Meat production- beef production in particular- uses a lot of land. Acres upon acres are needed for the animals to graze, and for the production of crops (like corn) that will be used as feed for livestock. In America, it is common to eat beef everyday, as opposed to viewing it as a special treat only eaten occasionally. More cultures around the globe have begun to also see meat in this way, and beef consumption has increased dramatically over the past decade. The land that is needed to sustain this product is now coming from tropical forests, which has a devastating effect on the Earth. Sarah Roquemore states in her article, Like Deforestation with Your Meal? that the consumption of beef is “ecologically inefficient” because it’s production “uses about 60 percent of the world's agricultural land yet produces less than 5 percent of the world's protein and less than 2 percent of the world's calories”. It is saddening that so much land has been destroyed because of humans’ dietary “needs”. Few companies have policies that regulate where their livestock are permitted to be raised, which easily allows plantations to replace natural forests without any consequences to the business (Roquemore). As a result of deforestation, the Earth’s biodiversity is being threatened and millions of species are losing their habitats.

Livestock production, through deforestation, overgrazing, and land conversion, accounts for 30% of global biodiversity loss (Stoll-Kleemann). It is extremely unsustainable to grow vast amounts of animal feed, because growing one single product on a field for years without fallow depletes the nutrients in the soil. Almost half of bird species worldwide are threatened by the destruction that is caused by growing feed for animals based on monocultures. Susanne Stoll-Kleemann and Tim O-Riordan, co-authors of the article The Sustainability Challenges of Our Meat and Dairy Diets, discuss a study from Animal Production Science:

A study from Australia demonstrates that the beef industry has the largest relative potential contribution to the impact on terrestrial biodiversity in Australia, by both the area covered and the nature of the impacts. This includes the area of native vegetation cleared for grazing, the impacts of overgrazing and trampling, the amount of grain used in high-density feedlots, and the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted.

Reducing the amount of farm animal breeds in order to make room for selectively bred livestock also contributes to species loss globally. Over 20% of remaining livestock breeds are currently in danger of extinction because they have been replaced by specially-bred more-productive animals. Because of the lack of genetic diversity, there is little hope for long-term sustainability of industrial livestock production (Stoll-Kleemann). Along with biodiversity loss, meat production accounts for much of the world’s freshwater shortage.

Agriculture as whole contributes to 92% of global freshwater scarcity. Table 2 shows that animal products in particular have a much larger freshwater footprint than crop products (Stoll-Kleemann). The reason that the animal products’ footprint is so extreme is due to the pollution from animal waste (including excrement and animal blood), fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones, and sediments from erosions (Hribar). The water needed to produce feed for cattle also plays a roll in the footprint of beef. For example, it takes over 15,000 liters of water to produce only 2 pounds of beef. Figure 5, which graphs the water used for meat production by country, clearly shows that the United States is regrettably the top contributor to our freshwater problem (Stoll-Kleemann). Animal agriculture also contributes to world hunger.

44% of the world’s grain is used to feed the animals that are being raised for meat consumption. Plants that could be used to feed humans are instead used by the meat industry. According to Science magazine, “If current crop production used for animal feed and other nonfood uses (including biofuels) were targeted for direct consumption, some 70% more calories would become available, potentially providing enough calories to meet the basic needs of an additional 4 billion people” (Stoll-Kleemann). American diets need to undergo a fundamental change if we want to curb the environmental effects of meat production in our industrial age.

There are many ways that humans contribute to the degradation of our environment, however, one of the most prominent ways is through what we eat. Our needs as meat-eaters are not sustainable and there needs to be a complete shift in diet before the damage inflicted onto our planet becomes irreversible. We cannot sustain a system that produces meat at an industrial scale; plant-based diets are our only option (Vinnari).

By switching to a fully plant-based diet, we can start to reverse some of the negative effects that meat production has on the planet. The production of beef especially hurts our rainforests. By cutting back on the amount of beef that we eat, forests can finally breathe again. Even by replacing beef with chicken will help a great deal, because raising chickens for consumption requires five times less land than raising cows (Roquemore). Millions of species that are endangered from habitat loss due to deforestation will no longer be on the brink of extinction. Decreasing our meat consumption will also bring back biodiversity into our world. By turning fields that are currently used for monocultural animal feed into fields for polycultural food crops, we can return nutrients back to the soil and increase plant diversity. We can create a more sustainable ecosystem by letting biodiversity flourish instead of selectively breeding millions of disposable animals (Aaltola). The water pollution that comes with industrial-scale agriculture will be greatly reduced when we change our diets. Plant-based diets have a much smaller water footprint than diets that are heavily reliant on animal products. By cutting back or completely cutting out all meat products, we can greatly save our freshwater resources (Vinnari). Lastly, our gradual shift to a plant-based diet will greatly contribute to finally ending world hunger. There is no way to stop world hunger if we continue to produce meat on an industrial scale. Without the need for excess meat production, the land that was previously used for livestock feed will be used to grow food crops for direct human consumption. Switching to a plant-based diet is the only way that we can solve major environmental problems, and is extremely important to the preservation of our planet.