Wasted Resources
Land:
Raising animals for meat involves a great deal of land for grazing and growing crops to feed animals. In the United States, forests are cleared in order to make room for the space needed to grow these crops or allow animals to graze. However, "[v]ast tracts of land are needed to grow crops" for farm animals. Admittedly, I'm no expert, but won't it take just as much (if not more) farmland to feed everyone in the United States? The destruction of forests also endangers many plant and animal species. According to the article, rain forests are often destroyed in other countries to make room for farmland. Obviously this is bad, but there are problems involved with telling other countries what they can and can't do. However, I'm not going to get involved with foreign affairs and international relations at this time.
Food:
Producing food from animals is "grossly inefficient" because animals must eat vast quantities of food to produce enough food to feed humans. This is true, and I won't argue against it. But, don't animals provide nutrients that are difficult to find in fruits and vegetables? I know that cats could only live as vegetarians with many vitamin supplements, would this also be true for humans? Personally, I don't want to be dependent on vitamin supplements for the rest of my life.
Energy:
This is straight-forward enough: raising farm animals wastes energy in the form of fossil fuels used to transport food for the animals, transport animals to be slaughtered, transport the meat to the supermarket, etc.. Of course, won't growing enough crops for the United States waste energy, too? Crops will need to be transported, tractors will need fuel, ... A similar list of wasted fossil fuel energy could probably be developed for a vegetarian society.
Water:
The water required to grow crops, provide drink for animals, clean animals and their living space, are all massive wastes. They anticipated my argument, mostly. The article only takes into account current water demands for crops; much more water would be needed to grow enough food to provide for everyone in the country.
The article also counts rain forests and animal cruelty as wasted resources, but I already discussed those issues.
Pollution
The animals we eat produce feces. Lots and lots of feces. These feces pollute the land, water we drink, the air we breathe, and contribute to global warming. While some of their claims may be a bit exaggerated, there's really not much I can say otherwise...
Works Cited
"Meat and the Environment." GoVeg.com. PETA. 24 Oct. 2008
1 comment:
This argument is closely related to ecopsychology - which is a combination of ecology and psychology.
An ecopsychologist might say that eating meat (especially to the excess people do today) is "crazy". Ecopsychologists define "crazy" as excessive damage to the environment. Lots of land, water, pollution and energy are used everyday to create meat.
As you state in your entry food is grossly "inefficient". I saw a chart once where it showed how much energy was retained from the sun to the plants, to herbivores, carnivores and finally omnivores like us. By the time we eat meat there isn't much energy in the food.
I've heard this argument before and I think its the most convincing in terms of making me feel like I should become vegetarian or eat less meat.
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