Transcript The Truth Behind Meat

The Truth behind
MEAT
It is not about religion it is about caring for
the environment, about
loving yourself, your
children and animals.
Once you know the
real cost of meat, would
you still have the same
appetite for it?
The real COST of
Meat eating
Our Forests
Rainforests are burned to make room for cattle grazing
and growing crops for animal feed.
Rainforests are vital to all lives on Earth,
however…
• 70 % of Amazon forests have been
turned over to grazing land or to grow
soybeans to feed to cattle and chicken.1
• An area of rainforest the size of
7 football fields is destroyed EVERY
MINUTE to make room for grazing
cattle.2
• 100 species become extinct every day
due to tropical deforestation.3
Our Land
• The Livestock sector occupies 30% of the
land surface.2
• 80% of the agricultural land in the US are
used to raise animals for food4, only 7% are
used for growing plant foods for humans.5
• In the same time span, the same amount of
land can produce6:
 1 kg of meat
 160 kg of potatoes
 200 kg of tomatoes
Our Climate
• Livestock generates 18% of greenhouse gas
emissions, more than all forms of transportation
combined (13.5%). It is the NUMBER ONE source
of human-caused methane (37%), nitrous oxide
(65%)2. Global warming causes rising sea levels,
serious natural disasters, food shortage, etc.
• 64% of ammonia emissions originate in livestock
production2 and contribute to AIR, SOIL AND
WATER POLLUTION, ACID RAIN and damage to the
OZONE LAYER.
Ammonia contributes significantly to acid rain, which can
cause a mass killing to trees, aquatic animals, and has
significant impacts on freshwaters, soils and human health.
Our Energy
• Fruits, vegetables and grains require 95%
less raw materials to produce and can
provide a complete, nutritious diet7.
• The same amounts of fuel can produce
1 hamburger or 27 soy burgers.8
• In 2002, more than 1/3 of all fossil fuels
produced in the U.S. are used to raise
animals for food.9
Our Food
• More than 70% of the cereal crop
produced in developed countries
is fed to animals raised for food.10
• At least 80% of the world’s soybean
crop and more than 50% of all corn
go to global livestock.10
• It takes 13 kg of grain to produce only
1 kg of beef.11
Our Lives
• 820 million hungry people in developing
countries go to bed hungry every night.13
• Every 5 seconds a child dies of starvation.13
• In the U.S., food eaten by livestock could
feed 1.3 billion people.14 In the UK, food
for livestock can feed 250 million people.15
• If Americans reduced their intake of meat
by 10%, it would free 12,000,000 tons of
grain - enough to feed 60,000,000 people.14
Our Water
The agriculture sector use nearly 70% of world’s
precious freshwater12, within which the heaviest
water use is by the animals we raise for meat.5
To produce
1 pound of lettuce
1 pound of wheat
1 pound of apples
it takes19
1 pound of chicken
1 pound of pork
1 pound of beef
23 gallons of water
25 gallons of water
49 gallons of water
815 gallons of water
1,630 gallons of water
5,214 gallons of water
Our Environment
• Globally, livestock and poultry industry
continually produce billions of tons of manure,
which contain a considerable amount of
nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium),
drug residues, heavy metals and pathogens.17
• Animal waste often seep from lagoons and
spray fields into groundwater or accumulate in
the soil, pose serious threats to human health
and the environment.
Our Animals
• During the past 50 years, worldwide meat
production has increased fivefold.1
• 56 billion land animals are slaughtered
globally for human consumption per year,
and it is expected to double by 2050.10
• In the U.S. alone, more than 9 billions
chickens are raised for flesh every year,
a million killed each hour. 18
Our Ocean Ecosystems
• 90% of large fish populations have been
exterminated in the past 50 years.20
• Modern fishing method, such as “bottom
trawling” is destroying our ocean floor and
emptying our ocean.
• THE WORLD WILL RUN OUT OF SEAFOOD
BY 2048 if steep declines in marine species
continue at current rates.21
Our Health
• The meat, dairy products, fish, and eggs
in the market today are loaded with bacteria,
antibiotics, dioxins, hormones, and other
toxins that can cause serious health problems
in humans.
• A meat-based diet is the main source of many
diseases, such as heart disease, high blood
pressure, diabetes, cancer, strokes, obesity,
bird flu, mad cow disease, pig's disease,
shellfish poisoning, osteoporosis, etc.
Our Conscience
We, as loving and intelligent
human beings, forget and ignore
that whenever we eat a piece of
meat, an lovable and sensitive
being had suffered the fear of
being slaughtered and ceased
to breathe, because of us.
Alec Baldwin
Hollywood actor & award-winning
producer; environmentalist &
animal-right’s activist
“Every time we sit down to eat, we make
a choice. Please choose vegetarianism.
Do it for animals.
Do it for the environment.
And do it for your health.”
Go Veg
Be Green
Save the Earth
Links recommended:
 Supreme Master Television
The most loving, constructive and noble TV channel on Earth
http://www.suprememastertv.com/
 Go Veg.com
A website with a lot of information on vegetarianism
http://www.goveg.com/index.aspx
 Vegetarian recipes
Beautiful recipes with pictures
http://al.godsdirectcontact.org.tw/recipe/menu.htm
Sources:
1. http://www.ciwf.org.uk/publications/reports/Global_benefits_summary.pdf\
2. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment
3. http://www.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_Information/Species_Extinction/
4. http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp
5. http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EP174A.pdf
6. http://www.vegetarismus.ch/video/vsuk_skripte.htm
7. Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth
8. http://www.ciwf.org/publications/reports/The_Global_Benefits_of_Eating_Less_Meat.pdf
9. http://wwcpd.org/2008/wasted-resources/
10. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2367646
11. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/78/3/660S#R30
12. http://www.climate.org/topics/water.html
13. http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html
14. John Robbins, "Diet for a New America"
15. http://www.flex.com/~jai/articles/101.html
16. http://www.climate.org/topics/water.html
17. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0701e/a0701e00.pdf
18. http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_chickens.asp
19. http://www.suprememastertv.com/
20. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecline.html
21. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110200913.html