Globally, we eat a lot of meat. 350 million tons per year, to be exact. This has doubled in the past year and is still expected to rise. However, the amount of production needed to sustain this growing industry is draining to the environment.

For one, animals need food, and that food needs to be cultivated from somewhere. Large amounts of forests need to be cut down in order to produce farmland where food can grow. This is not sustainable and can be detrimental to the environment because trees store so much of the carbon in our atmosphere (more details in the last article). It also destroys the habitat of the animals who already live there.

The farmland is covered in toxic chemicals and fertilizers, which has negative effects as the excess runoff goes into existing waterways and causes algal blooms, killing aquatic organisms and disrupting ecosystems.

And manure releases methane and carbon dioxide emissions as it decomposes, directly contributing to climate change.

Using the soil as much as we need to for the industry causes it to degrade, which can create emissions and increase flooding.

Meat production also uses a significant amount of water. It takes around 1,847 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef.

Then, materials are used and emissions are created to transport, store, and package this meat. It’s even worse to consider that much of it gets completely wasted. With all of these factors combined, it is clear to see that the extent of this industry is very harmful to our planet.

There are also other reasons why excessive meat consumption is bad. More than 6 million animals are killed for human consumption every hour. Many of the animals are treated cruelly and are loaded with antibiotics to assist with their growth. And, eating large amounts of red meat can have negative health effects and can lead to higher risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

I’m not going to tell you to eliminate meat from your diet and to go vegetarian or vegan. I couldn’t do that because I myself eat meat. If you want to, that’s great! But this doesn’t work for everyone. Meat is affordable, it’s nutritious, and it’s easy. Finding other options, while not tremendously difficult, can still be tough, especially when you’ve eaten meat all your life. However, I think what is important is to simply reduce it from your diet. By purchasing even slightly less meat, you are making an impact. But what is even more necessary is promoting better farming practices. It is large corporations that do much of the damage to the environment, and the only way the issue is going to be solved is if policy is put into place to prevent them from being so harmful. Advocating for these changes in the best ways you can is going to make the biggest difference.

Sources: DIW Berlin, Clean Water Action, Future Learn, WWF, Harvard Health Publishing