Livestock and animal agriculture...

Raising livestock produces more greenhouse gases than the emissions of the entire transportation sector. Meaning that the meat and dairy industry produces more pollution than the exhaust of all cars, trains, trucks, boats and planes combined.

Livestock plays a major role in global warming and is the leading cause of resource consumption and environmental degradation destroying the planet.

Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas uses a remarkable amount of water.

• In the United States, 100 billion gallons of water are used each year, solely by humans.
• The staggering amount of gallons of water demanded for the raising of livestock is 34 trillion annually and only in the United States.

Meat and dairy products are insanely water-intensive.

One quarter pound hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce!

We, as humans, need to be mindful of how much water we consume on a day to day basis.

16,000 pounds of animal waste is produced every single second in the United States alone. Enough animal waste is produced annually to cover every square foot in major cities like San Fransisco, New York City, Tokyo, Paris and a few more.

What does this mean for our oceans?

If we as humans, keep living the lifestyle that we live nothing will change in the future. Fishes are a huge part in our everyday lives because in the food chain everything connects back to them. However, at the rate that we are going, fishless oceans are predicted by the year of 2048.

For every pound of fish caught, there is up to five pounds of unwanted species trapped in the fishing nets, including: dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and sharks. This act is known as bi-killing.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture organization, roughly 3/4 of fishery are fully exploited (derive benefit from) or over exploited (make full use of).

If the oceans die, we die.

What's the beef with dairy?

• 140 to 150 pounds of feed is needed per cow weekly.
• 20 tons of grain per week is needed to sustain a few cows.

Why do cows produce milk? A no brainer right? The purpose of cows' milk is to turn a 65-pound calf into a 400 cow as rapidly as possible. A cow's milk is baby calf growth fluid.

A cow needs to have a baby in order to produce milk; all dairy cows eventually go to the beef industry. On the same note, the demand for dairy based produce is only going to increase but there is not enough land on the plant to do so.

What is livestock grazing? Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on plants such as grasses, or other multicellular organisms such as algae. In agriculture, grazing is one method used whereby domestic livestock are used to convert grass and other forage into meat, milk and other products. If we relied on livestock grazing and not depend on feeding cows grain

It was said that livestock grazing is better than having cows consume grain only. This is because water is used to make grain and without having to take that extra step, cows can eat herbivore foods like grass as an alternative. Grazing more animals is projected to be the best means of reversing desertification.

What is the problem and Solution?

The Problem:

Initially, scientists believed the problem was not animal agriculture but the overpopulation of people based on a few facts that include...

• In 1812, there were about 1 million people on the plant.
• In 1912, there where roughly 1.5 billion people on the planet.
• Then, in 2012, only a hundred years later; our population exploded to 7 billion people.

Comparison of Human to Cow Consumption...

• The human population consumes 5.2 billion gallons of water and demand 21 billion pounds of food daily.
• Just cows alone consume 45 billion gallons of water and eat 135 billion pounds of food each day.

However, the real problem is a human eating animals population issue.

The Solution:

If we were to reduce the amount of dairy, meat, and eggs; we could allow all these mono-cropped fields of genetically engineered soybeans to revert back to forest for a habitat to animals.

A plant based diet is the most sustainable in the world we live in today. Having a plant based diet addresses the following...

1. Climate change
2. Human health
3. Animal welfare
4. A change in natural resources

Humans seem to consistently forget that we inhabit this earth with millions of other creatures. We need to share it. A growing human population needs to be efficient. Converting to a vegan lifestyle is the most efficient means of living.

If we all went vegan what would happen? Wildlife would come back, forests, oceans, rivers would run cleanly because humans would no longer need to breed animals for consumption, utilizing less land for grains, and finally the air (oxygen) would come back and health would return. There is no way that we could save our ecosystems and prevent global warming, pollution and more without being vegan.