Cowspiracy in Usa

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The meat demand of the United States put a significant pressure on the environment. The high rate of meat consumption, especially it is a beef consumption, has been shown to be one of the major leading causes of deforestation, greenhouse gases, water (pollution), and human health issues. A plant-based diet is an essential solution for mitigating risks from animal farming. There are some benefit of a plant-based diet in the human health and the environment. The study showed “that relative to the mean US diet, vegetarian and vegan diets significantly reduce per-capita food-borne greenhouse gas emission (32% and 67%, respectively), blue water use (70% and 75%, respectively) and land occupation (70% and 79%, respectively), primarily in the form of rangeland (Goldstein, Moses, Sammons & Birkved, 2017). Moreover, plant-based diet and vegan diet not only provide the essential proteins and vitamins for human health but also improve human’s health.

The environment

The benefits of animal farming, especially it is extensive farming, are fertilizer production, weed control, etc. Livestock manure can contribute to soil fertility, and it can help to prevent soil surface’s crusting and runoff. Moreover, using the mineral fertilizer can decrease PH, base saturation and aluminum toxicity (Dalibard, 1995). In sugar-cane, orange, coconut, citrus, mango and palm oil plantations, farmer use livestock as herbicides, so the water system does not get polluted by the herbicides chemical (Dalibard, 1995). The benefit of animal farming to environment depends on the sustainable land use and demand rate. However, the cost of current animal farming to environment is significant. According to USDA Irrigation & Water Use, animal agriculture annually consumed 34-76 trillion gallon of water which covers 80-90% of US water consumption. To produce one pound of beef 2,500 gallons’ water is needed. Dairy products such as egg, cheese, and milk need 477-1000-gallon water to be produced. According to the article “Freshwater Abuse and Loss: Where Is It All Going?”, Oppenlander states that “Freshwater constitutes just 2.5% of all water on earth, and in many ways, it is not fully renewable in our lifetime, nor infinite in quantity. Many aquifers are being drawn down at rates as high as 250 times their ability to recharge. Deep groundwater aquifers that took tens of thousands of years to form are rapidly being drained in many areas of the world…As much as 75% of the water withdrawals in these areas are given to livestock”. Many countries and areas in the world do not have fresh water to use, and their lands are drought. Freshwater is scarce and it is an important source of human and animal lives. Animal agriculture not only consumes a huge amount of water but also pollute the fresh water. “The grey water footprint is more significant in the intensive animal production system, which often generates an amount of waste that cannot be fully recycled on the nearby land. A large amount of waste generated in a concentrated place can seriously affect freshwater systems” (Mekonnen & Hoekstra, 2012). Therefore, the fresh water is unsafe to use and it may contain bacteria that affects human health, animals which are surrounding the water sources. Moreover, 65% of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times greater harmful than global warming co2 gas per pound, is from animal farming. Hence, raising livestock produce greenhouse gases more than the entire transportation gas emission combined (Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns, 2006).

According to the NYT on solutions to climate change, plant-based diet is ranked number four climate change solutions (The most effective individual steps to tackle climate change aren't being discussed, 2017). The benefits of the plant-based diet to the environment are reducing land use, deforestation, and gases. Meat industry clears the forest to do animal farm and grow food for the livestock. The land area as big as an entire football field is being cleared in every second, so there are many species lost every day (Deforestation, n.d.). Forest is the lung of the earth, and people destroy it day by day. “The feed a person on an all-plant-based vegan diet for a year requires just one-sixth of an acre of land. To feed the same person on a vegetarian diet that includes eggs and dairy requires three times as much land. To feed an average Us citizen’s high-consumption diet of meat, dairy and eggs require 18 times as much land”  (Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, 2016). Therefore, being a vegan or plant-based diet can help to save 82.5% to 93.5% of lands and forests. Moreover, if people change their diet to plant-based diet or vegan they can help to save 1.6 -1.8 tons CO2 annually (Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, 2016). One of the main leading causes of gas emission is from animal agriculture. With the same amount of grains to feed the U.S livestock, it can sufficient feed 840 million people who are in plant based diet, and to produce 1 kg of animal protein need about 100 times more water than to produce 1 kg of grain protein (Pimentel, 2003). Therefore, if people substitute animal protein with plant’s protein, we can reduce the feed crop, and farming water consumption and increase the food crop. The plant-based diet is less unsustainable than the meat-based diet to the environment.

Human health

Meat-based diet has significant impacts on human health such as heart disease, alzheimer, diabetes type 2, stroke, infections, liver disease, and cancers. Moreover, heme iron, which increases the fatality rate due to cancer and heart disease, presents in meat (Meat consumption linked to nine major diseases in largest study done so far, 2017). Not only the meat consumers have health issues, but also the farmers, meat industry workers, and the general public have health risk due to the animal waste. Meat has high levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and energy density, especially carcinogenic in high-temperature cooking and processed meat (Smith, 2003). In addition, high percentage of daily products can cause breast and prostate cancers, and increase growth factor (IGF-1). The annual cost to treat these diseases is $314 billion, and the ratio of annual Medicare spent for these diseases is 3/5 (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2014). However, meat is the source of vitamin that cannot be found in vegetables such as vitamin B12, creatine, carnosine, DHA, taurine (Arnarson, 2017). Vitamin B12, which is one of the important vitamins for human health, develops red blood cells, nerves and brain function; creatine helps to build body muscle and brain function, but consuming too much creatine could harm kidney, liver and heart function; Carnosine, which is an antioxidant, can be found in heart, brain and other parts of the body. DHA is beneficial for mental health and brain function; Taurine is one of the required elements of protein building block, and it can be found in blood cells, brain, and heart (Arnarson, 2017). Therefore, standard meat consumption is good for human health.