May 01 2008
Fast Facts About Meat
Reducing the amount of meat you consume every day can help the environment. Producing meat is a wasteful process, and the following statistics explain why:
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66 percent of grain harvested in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter; this grain could be used to feed humans.
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Large amounts of water are wasted to clean and hydrate livestock.
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Manure from livestock results in nitrate polluted runoff.
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40 percent of the world’s agricultural lands are seriously degraded.
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Meat eaters take in 14 times more water and use 20 times more energy since that water and energy went into producing the meat for human consumption.
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86 percent of food poisoning outbreaks originate from animal food sources.
