Forks Over Knives by Gene Stone Read Free Book Online Page B

recent exposure of the extent and magnitude of farm animals’ suffering has led to a coordinated response by the animal agriculture lobby at the state level. Their position is well summarized in a
New York Times
article titled “States Look to Ban Efforts to Reveal Farm Abuse” (April 14, 2011). That’s not a misprint. Legislators in Florida, Minnesota, and Iowa are working not to ban farm abuse but to ban
revealing
farm abuse.
    The best way to reduce the suffering of farm animals is also the best way to improve your own health: Eat a plant-based diet. It’s that simple!

GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

    The conditions under which farm animals are being bred and slaughtered are slowly becoming known to the public—very slowly, and with increasing resistance from the farms themselves. But there are other negative consequences of an animal-based diet, ones that are having larger, planet-wide effects—effects that may well place not just farm animals but the entire planet in jeopardy.
THE TOLLS OF FACTORY FARMING
Global Warming
    The United Nations has determined that raising livestock for food purposes generates more climate-heating gases than do all carbon-dioxide-emitting vehicles combined—in other words, cows are worse than cars. Some startling figures: The livestock sector accounts for nearly 10 percent of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions, 37 percent of methane emissions (methane is about 23 times more powerful than CO 2 as a greenhouse gas). It also produces 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions (nitrous oxide is 296 times more powerfulthan CO 2 ) and 64 percent of human-induced ammonia emissions, a significant contributor to acid rain.
    While CO 2 is responsible for roughly half of human-related greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution, methane and nitrous oxide (both of which are released via livestock’s natural digestive processes) are responsible for one third.
    Collectively, farm animals themselves are responsible for a fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gases—and this number doesn’t include the carbon emissions that result from the massive infrastructure required to transport livestock. A report in
New Scientist
estimated that driving a hybrid car could save about one ton of CO 2 emissions per year but adopting a plant-based diet would save nearly one and a half tons over a comparable period.
    According to a recent German study, a meat-centric diet is responsible for the emission of more than seven times as much greenhouse gas as a plant-based diet.
Deforestation
    In 2011, livestock operations account for 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface use—much of which has been deforested to create pastureland. For example, nearly 70 percent of deforested land in the Amazon is exploited for grazing, resulting in the destruction of fragile ecosystems and exacerbating excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, because unlike standing trees, which capture and store CO 2 , felled trees release the gas.
    A land area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin every minute. For each hamburger produced from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed.
Waste
    Many of these problems are intensified by the inherent inefficiencies of the livestock industry. The process of rearing animals for slaughter is far less efficient than directly harvesting the same crops for human consumption. Studies have shown that a person living exclusively on animal products requires ten times more land than a person growing his or her own plant-based foods.
    According to a 1997 report by the Senate Agriculture Committee, animals raised for slaughter produce 130 times as much waste as the entire human population. Our waste is chemically treated in sanitation plants, but animal waste is not: Typically, it is sprayed onto land, then much of it runs off to pollute groundwater or streams.
Water Pollution
    A comparable number of issues relate to