Vegetarian Reasons Raising animals for food is an extremely inefficient way to feed a growing human population. The U.S. livestock population consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than five times the entire U.S. population. One acre of pasture produces an average of 165 pounds of beef; the same acre can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. If Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent, it would free 12 million tons of grain annually for human consumption. That alone would be enough to adequately feed each of the 60 million people who starve to death each year
from www.JustEatVeggies.com How meat hurts the environment. Published Tuesday
August 13, 2002
Sierra Club points to dangers from rapid growth of feedlots,
slaughterhouses
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON - The rapid growth of huge animal feedlots and slaughterhouses in the 1990s has outpaced the power of state and federal regulators to keep them operating safely and cleanly, leading to polluted rivers and lakes, meat recalls and workplace injuries,
a Sierra Club report says.
In its first effort to catalog the environmental, health and safety records of the feedlots and packing plants owned by corporations, the Sierra Club found that most violations occurred in the 1990s, when the meat industry began building large feedlots in rural America from North Carolina to California. The 630 meat factories in 44 states covered by the study included the largest feedlots, which raise millions of hogs, chickens or cattle.
The report, "The Rap Sheet on Animal Factories," is to be released today by the Sierra Club, which has argued for more regulation.
The meat industry criticized the report, saying it failed to reflect the improvements in response to early problems or innovations to improve meat safety. Instead, industry spokesmen said, the report focused on old problems already uncovered by federal and local regulators.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have argued that the regulations were written to cover small family farms, not the huge modern feedlots.
The Environmental Protection Agency is under court order to come up with new federal regulations for feedlots. Most of the environmental problems stem from the waste from the feedlots. The country's cattle, hog and chicken feedlots produce 291 billion pounds of manure a day. That waste is held in open pits, known as manure lagoons. Leaks and spills from these lagoons have caused most of the water pollution and fish kills documented in the report.
The Case Against Meat
Evidence Shows that Our Meat-Based Diet is Bad for the Environment, Aggravates Global Hunger, Brutalizes Animals and Compromises Our Health. So Why Aren?ore Environmentalists Switching to Vegetarianism? To read the complete story from Jim Motavalli Click here The Natural Resources FAQ Use of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: Livestock portion
Amount of water used in production of the average steer: sufficient to float a destroyer.
Gallons to produce a pound of wheat: 25
Gallons to produce a pound of meat: 2,500
Cost of common hamburger if water used by meat industry not subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer: $35 a pound.
Current cost of pound of protein from beefsteak if water was no longer subsidized: $89
Years the world's known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260.
Barrels of oil imported into the U.S. daily: 6.8 million.
Percentage of fossil fuel returned as food energy by most efficient factory farming of meat: 34.5
Percentage from least efficient plant food: 32.8
Percentage of raw materials consumed by U.S. to produce present meat-centered diet: 33 From Hippie.com : Reasons to be a Vegetarian. For more Click here
More Vegetarian Info you can find on www.minoesj.be.tf or
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