What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
The Meat and Dairy Industry's Impact
Close to 15% of global greenhouse emissions come from livestock. Although that may not seem like a large percent, the reality is that the meat and dairy industry are two very large contributors to global warming. A statistic showing the significance of livestock emissions is that 34%, or one third of emissions are from the food industry, and 60% of them are from meat. Methane gas is the biggest contributor from these industries, because of one main animal, cattle. When cows digest food, they burp gasses, releasing methane into the air. Similarly, cows produce large amounts of methane when the expel large intestine contents into the ground, which travel into ponds and lagoons, as well as manure, releasing methane into the atmosphere. A single cow emits between 154 to 264 pounds of methane gas per year. 36 million cattle are killed each year for food in the United States. To put these statistics into a simpler perspective, think about how much land and agricultural resources are needed for livestock, and think about how much water and food are needed for those animals. That percentage of yearly cattle killed is just in the U.S, so to think about the emissions for every other animal and throughout the whole world, proves the point that the meat industry is a very large contributor to global emissions. The dairy industry is similarly responsible for many emissions, because dairy cows require similar if not more resources. Other animals like chickens and pigs have a large carbon footprint as well. There is also a humane side to this argument. Millions of animals are killed every year in the U.S, and there are even more statistics for marine animals. These innocent animals face extreme mistreatment just for human consumption. Although the global problem is not the consumption of meat, it is the way we process, consume, and treat animals in such large amounts. These statistics are often not educated about, because of the fact that so many humans consume meat and dairy. There are many ways to reduce one's carbon footprint, and a very important part of this is to reduce your meat and dairy consumption, and start to eat more plant based food.
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