Welcome to our article on veganism and the environment, where we look at what a vegan way of living contributes to the planet.
Our environment is in serious trouble. We are in the midst of a terrifying ecological collapse.
Raising animals for food is the single largest human-driven source of destruction to our environment. It is the biggest source of greenhouse gases and land use, and the number one driver of water pollution and rainforest destruction.
It also contributes significantly to air pollution, ocean dead zones, habitat loss and species extinction.
And when we include all the additional resources that go into raising animals for food — land, fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, fossil fuels, fresh water and feed — animal agriculture is astonishingly inefficient. It is a costly, wasteful use of our very limited natural resources.
The solution is veganism.
Resource Consumption
A diet and lifestyle that includes animal products doesn't just come at a high price for animals; it comes at a high price for our environment too.
From the air to the land to the water, the world's resources are being exploited to feed the animal agriculture trade — with genuinely disastrous results.
Land
Raising animals for food requires vast amounts of land. It uses 45% of the Earth's total land, and with one to two acres of rainforest cleared every second, it is responsible for 91% of all Amazon destruction. These numbers matter because rainforests are a vital part of the world's ecosystems.
The Amazon rainforest covers more than a billion acres spanning areas of Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It is so large that if Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
Commonly called "the lungs of our planet", rainforests provide twenty percent of the world's oxygen, roughly 10% of the world's biodiversity and 15% of its fresh water.
Deforestation threatens the Amazon rainforest's existence
Of all the Amazon countries, Brazil holds the most significant share of the rainforest.
Satellite-based research found that 277,607 square miles — 17.5% of Brazil — had been cleared by 2008, and that 62% of the deforested area is now occupied by cattle pasture. Brazil, currently the world's largest exporter, supplies about a quarter of the global beef market.
Pasture land outweighs cultivated cropland five to one.
For every hamburger sourced from animals raised in the rainforest, roughly 55 square metres of forest were destroyed.
After Brazil, Peru holds the largest expanse of the Amazon; nearly half the country is forested.
The highest concentration of deforestation is in the Huánuco region, and here again cattle ranching is the main culprit. Satellite images of the area deforested between 2013 and 2015 revealed that Huánuco lost around 20,000 acres of rainforest in those years. For comparison: an acre is roughly the size of a football pitch.
And it isn't just rainforests. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been set aside specifically for the animal agriculture trade.
Carbon Sinks
Of all the roles trees play in climate change, the most important may be as carbon sinks.
A carbon sink is anything in nature that captures or stores more carbon than it releases — like trees. They manage this by acting like a sponge, absorbing carbon and other greenhouse gases that would otherwise be free to wreak havoc on climate patterns.
Trees then use photosynthesis to convert the stored carbon dioxide (CO2) into sugar, cellulose and other carbon-containing carbohydrates they use for food and growth. Forests — especially vast tropical forests like the rainforests — can store enormous amounts of carbon.
Unless the forest is cleared. Then not only do the trees disappear, causing habitat loss and all manner of environmental chaos, but all the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere.
Deforestation releases about one billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year. Clearing the world's forests would release more than three trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide — more than the world's entire reserves of oil, coal and gas.
Other Effects of Deforestation
Forests are diverse, complex ecosystems that touch nearly every species on the planet. When they are degraded, a catastrophic chain of events can follow — both locally and globally.
Habitat loss and species extinction: Eighty percent of land animals live in forests, and deforestation is costing them their homes. Habitat loss leads to species extinction, with populations dying off slowly over generations.
Soil erosion: Tree roots anchor the soil. Without them, earth can wash or blow away, which leads to problems for plant growth. After clearing forest, crops like coffee, soy and palm oil are planted — crops whose roots lack the strength to hold the soil. The more extreme the soil erosion, the more extreme the flooding and landslide problems become.
Water quality: Speaking of soil erosion, it can carry silt into water sources such as lakes and streams. This added sediment degrades overall water quality and contributes to poor health in affected communities.
Quality of life and livelihoods: Many indigenous peoples live in the world's rainforests. In Amazonia alone there are more than 350 indigenous communities that depend on the rainforest. Destroying these forests destroys their homes and their way of life.
The Amazon Tipping Point
The production of animal-derived food is doing enormous damage to the Amazon rainforest. Without action, the impact will only worsen as the world's population grows and more people eat meat-rich diets.
We know that food choices are very personal, and that encouraging behaviour change can be difficult — but the evidence is now clear: if we want a sustainable future, we must change our diets. The fact that it will also make us healthier makes it entirely painless. — Professor Peter Smith, University of Aberdeen
How much deforestation can occur before the rainforest stops supporting its natural water-cycle ecosystem?
The answer is shocking: there is not much time before 50% of the Amazon rainforest degrades into savannah. Deforestation in the Amazon over the past 50 years has affected roughly 17% of its vegetation. If a further three percent is destroyed, the rainforest will pass the point of no return.
Water
Water scarcity — the lack of sufficient available water to meet demand — affects every continent.
More than 1.2 billion people, nearly a fifth of the world's population, lack access to clean drinking water. Another 500 million people are approaching the same situation.
Shamefully, most of the fresh water available for global consumption is claimed by the animal agriculture trade. The volume of resources needed to produce animal products is staggering.
Some quick facts:
- Animal agriculture is responsible for 80–90% of water consumption in the United States — more than every other activity.
- It also accounts for 20–30% of all fresh water use worldwide.
- Growing feed crops for livestock consumes 56% of that water.
- While five percent of water consumed in the US goes to private homes, the animal agriculture business consumes 55%.
- Producing one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water.
- A pound of eggs requires 477 gallons of water.
- A gallon of milk needs roughly 1,000 gallons of water.
- Cheese production is the largest food source of greenhouse gas emissions. A single pound requires 900 gallons of water.
Water Pollution
Global production of animal products is rising fast.
Growing demand puts pressure on the environment — especially on water quality. There is more solid and liquid manure from livestock than ever (more than 85% of the world's faecal waste comes from chickens, cattle, sheep and pigs), and more nutrients, feed additives, hormones, antibiotics, heavy metals, agrochemicals and runoff sediments are entering waterways as a result of expanding livestock and feed production.
In the US, faecal waste from factory farms has contaminated groundwater in seventeen states and polluted more than 35,000 miles of rivers across twenty-two states.
Dead Zones
The widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers in feed-crop production poisons waterways and creates dead zones in the oceans.
Dead zones are areas in large bodies of water — typically the sea, but sometimes lakes and even rivers — where there is not enough oxygen in the water to support life.
The cause is usually eutrophication: a surge of chemical nutrients in the water. Excess nutrients can trigger an overgrowth of algae, which then sinks and decomposes. It is the decomposition process that consumes the oxygen and depletes the underwater resources other marine life depends on.
Dead zones occur worldwide, but primarily near areas where heavy agricultural and industrial activity dumps nutrients into the water and degrades its quality.
There are currently more than 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones around the world as a result of livestock operations. The largest human-caused dead zone in the global ocean is in the Gulf of Mexico, along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. As big as the state of New Jersey, it measures 8,776 square miles.
The Science
The body of science and research on the environmental impacts of animal agriculture keeps growing. A few studies worth noting:
2018 — This research paper covers the most comprehensive analysis to date, combining data from every country to assess the food system's impact on the environment. Substantial reductions in meat eating are essential to avoid catastrophe: in western countries alone, beef consumption needs to fall by 90 percent, replaced by five times more beans and pulses.
2018 — Industrial agriculture is one of the leading causes of water pollution, overtaking contamination from settlements and industry as the main factor in the degradation of both inland and coastal waters. In the US, agriculture is the main source of pollution in rivers and streams, the second in wetlands, and the third in lakes.
2017 — Researchers found that stopping deforestation, restoring forests and improving forestry practices — a "natural climate solution", as they called it — could cut total emissions by 42%.