Environmental Costs
of Meat Production

'The explosion in meat consumption is paralleled by the global expansion of industrial 'factory farming' of animals. Apart from their environmental impact, such farming systems are based upon the triple insults of selective breeding for high yield, isolation or overcrowding and gross restriction of the animals' natural behaviour.'
Joyce D'Silva, CIWF Trust

'Removing the causes of environmental degradation is often more effective than seeking to control the symptoms.'
Cornelis de Haan, Livestock Adviser to the World Bank

Did you know: A meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet.

Many scientists and policymakers question the sustainability of present agricultural production. Particular scepticism is directed at supporting the increased demand for animal products in the diet of the economically advantaged people around the world. Technological advances have allowed dramatic output increases in modern agriculture with corresponding increases in environmental impacts.

There appears to be a clear connection between dietary preference, agricultural production and environmental degradation. It is important that we understand this connection if present and future food security is to be ensured whilst, at the same time, ensuring long-term sustainability and integrity in agriculture.

Did you know: Each pound of steak from feedlot-raised steers that you eat comes at the cost of 5 pounds of grain, 2500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 25 pounds of eroded topsoil.

In the last 50 years world meat production increased approximately fivefold and meat consumption escalated in countries that are rapidly industrialising, such as China. Livestock production has become the world's largest user of agricultural land. The farm animal population has expanded dramatically to meet demand.

'If present trends of meat-eating continue, then by 2050 the world's livestock will be consuming as much as 4 billion people do: an increase equivalent to the total world population of around 1970, when many were doubting whether such human numbers could be fed at all.'
Colin Tudge, zoologist, author of 'So Shall We Reap' (Penguin 2003)

The current human population of the earth is 6 billion. The population of farm animals is: 1 billion pigs; 1.3 billion cattle; 1.8 billion sheep and goats; and 15.4 billion chickens. Prior to the 1990s, the vast majority of animal products were consumed in rich countries, yet in the past decade many in developing nations have also adopted what was once known as the Western diet. This trend is expected to continue.

Some of the 'environmental challenges' posed by industrial livestock systems, particularly through feed production and manure, are acknowledged in the FAO's Livestock & the Environment Report:

The report lists the following problems created by manure:

There are startling differences in the environmental impacts of meat protein and vegetable protein production. Meat in Western industrialised countries is to a large extent produced on the basis of feed grains and soybeans. Therefore the environmental impacts of meat production include the impacts not only of animal husbandry, but of production of feed grains and soybeans (when these are produced for animal consumption) as well.

Did you know: The combined weight of the world's 19 billion farm animals now surpasses the weight of the human population by over one and a half times.

Land requirement

Compared with soybean production (vegetable protein), land requirements are approximately a factor 6-17 larger for meat protein production. On average 10 gms of vegetable protein are required to generate 1 gm of animal protein.

Water requirement

Water requirements for meat protein production are higher than for the production of vegetable protein. Each 500gms of steak from feedlot-raised steers uses over 11,000litres of water.

Energy requirement

In Western industrialised countries, energy use in agriculture sector is large in both relative and absolute terms. In Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States, the food sector absorbs approximately 17 percent of total energy use. The intensity of the agricultural practices will determine the exact energy use. In European countries, energy use is 6-20 times less for soybean production.

Fish production

In contrast to agriculture, in open fishing there is no application of fertilisers and pesticides and other chemicals. The only impact common to both agriculture and open fishing is the use of fossil fuel. Based on the use of trawlers for fishing, the input of fossil fuels for catching fish, (per gram of protein) is approximately 14 times larger than for the production of vegetable protein. Aquaculture fish production produces many more environmental impacts, the chief of which are water pollution and bioaccumulative toxins.

Modern meat production is both wasteful and destructive. Not only is the consumption of meat not necessary, it creates health problems. Given all the negative impacts to the environment and our health, we need to seriously re-evaluate our diet.

'Nothing we ever do, goes unnoticed. There are traces of me in you, and you in me, and whatever the evening news may say, it's getting better every day. Step by step, little by little, decisions made by common people like you and me are made for eternity….. So WE CAN change the world.'
Graham Connors