The meat industry (especially in the United States) is causing serious damage to our planet. I understand that humans have been eating meat since the beginning however, maybe it's time for that to change. Our food industries have evolved past the need for meat as you can find plant-based proteins and vitamins fairly easy these days. You don't have to eat meat to survive. For this post, I want to disregard the ethics of eating meat and focus solely on its environmental impact.

     One of the issues with the meat industry is that it is economically driven. This creates importance on the economy over the well being and sustainability of our planet. The idea that money is more important than our planet is the idea in the CEO's head of the company that got your food to your plate. Of course, this isn't true in every case, but the ego of some drivies our planet to an unsolvable situation.

     To keep the animals we eat feed, it requires a massive amount of water and land. It would take much less land, water, and energy if we were to sustain ourselves from only plants. We need to find a way to sustain the growing population. Cattle's methane gas emissions contribute to 14.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Your lifetime of carpooling will not even make a significant "dent" in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the food industry. We do small actions to save the planet when we could reorganize our systems to sustain life on earth. After all, we are evolving...don't you think our policies should too?
Ryan Jones - Florida, U.S.A.

Sources:
https://agreenerworld.org/a-greener-wor … n8EALw_wcB

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/envi … nge/#close