Is it sustainable to eat meat? Does animal protein have a place in our future diets?
(findings on the impacts of the way meat is produced/consumed – broken down into categories)

HEALTH – several health risks associated with eating meat (especially processed meat) and indirect risks of eating meat is the widespread use of antibiotics which are used to control diseases in animals and increase growth rates

ANIMAL WELFARE – Very few real animal welfare regulations in farming in US- In Europe, battery cages, farrowing cages, beak trimming, and sow stalls have been banned, however, animal welfare legislation is also less advanced in other parts of the world

BIODIVERSITY LOSS: about 85% of global soybean production is used for animal feed (largest growers US & Brazil. In Brazil, soybeans are grown in regions that were once tropical forests → This loss of biodiversity in forests is an indirect effect of meat consumption which requires this grain.

CARBON FOOTPRINT: Contributor to greenhouse gases in many ways. → conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land (releases carbon held in trees and soil into the atmosphere), methane from ruminant animals, decaying manure which also releases methane.

WATER FOOTPRINT: Beef is the most water-intensive food (requires two times as much water as pork and four times as much to grow protein-rich plants like lentils) → Feeding protein-rich crops like soybeans to animals is inefficient because only around one-fifth of the weight of feed is converted to meat, meaning that we are wasting land and water in its production. Livestock production also contributes to water pollution around the world, because manure contaminates water sources.

SOIL CONVERSION: Soil degradation threatens the source of our food. Intensive grazing leads to bare soils and the loss of soil due to wind or rain.