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Earth Day is about carbon emissions — and cows

With Earth Day and the March for Science completed and climate change and politics having been addressed, it is time we confront the people who are complacent in detrimentally impacting the environment everyday — ourselves. This goes beyond waste: “reduce, reuse, recycle,” is everyone’s mantra now; it’s been working people’s livelihood since the beginning of modernity. What is up for question are the conscious choices we make, led by our taste buds and stomachs — the food we buy and eat has real effects on the planet, not just our toilet.

Since the turn of the millennium, studies have revealed the impact livestock has on the environment. Everything from carbon emissions, water use, waste and deforestation have been cited as problems in the ongoing discussion over livestock industries. The methods used, primarily those concerned with keeping livestock, have been proven to be out of proportion and unsustainable.

It is time to give up the goat. Transitioning to a plant-based diet is necessary to reverse the adverse effects meat industries have on the environment, and ourselves by extension.

A 2016 article by NPR articulated how much it takes to produce a quarter-pound hamburger: 6.1 pounds of grain, 52.8 gallons of water (for drinking and for watering the feed crops), 74.5 square feet of land, and 1,036 British Thermal Units worth of energy (for feed production and transportation.) Multiply that by U.S. meat consumption alone, which was a projected 52.8 million pounds in 2012, and you have a mess.

This, as the article makes clear, does not even cover the amount of carbon and methane emissions produced by livestock. Nor does it count chicken (which has moved up the ranks to the most eaten meat, according to The National Chicken Council) and pork consumption.

A June 2016 article in Law Street elaborates that fossil fuel pollution resulting from transport of meat only accounts for 6 percent of emissions. “Ten percent comes from manure storage and disposal, 39 percent comes from food processing and production and 44 percent comes from enteric fermentation. Enteric fermentation is the process by which a cow’s stomach digests its food and releases greenhouse gasses as a result.”

Cow farts, people. Both corn-fed and grass-fed cows release these emissions, and as ironically as the article proves, grass-fed cows release up to four times more methane than those who are fed unnatural alternatives. Meaning that your organic, grass-fed steak is still negatively affecting the environment — with methane having reportedly 88 times more in heat trapping power than carbon dioxide.

As if it weren’t bad enough, estimations for the amount of greenhouse gases produced by livestock remain inconsistent. Law Street states that The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations only reports that livestock accounts for 14.5 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases  — however, the FAO has been criticized for being affiliated with international meat and dairy groups, as well as having its studies committed by livestock specialists rather than environmentalists. Meanwhile, World Bank Group’s environmental specialists offer that livestock produces 51 percent of global emissions.

With so much to lose from livestock and meat production, and with the very institutions which produce meat controlling the conditions which they occupy, it is time we put the power back in plants. Plant-based diets are becoming more and more popular, but it is going to take more people to bring meat industries to their knees.

As someone who grew up eating McNuggets on weekends, someone who has worked multiple jobs at both traditional and vegetarian restaurants, I can attest that the road to plant-based is a  bumpy ride. One which is bogged down with negative language from both “carnists,” or omnivores, and vegans alike in the ever-growing food debate.

Omnivores often criticize vegan or “whole-food” diets as being associated with privilege and wealth. Diets which rely on expensive meat substitutes like nuts or fresh produce are viewed as unsustainable for low-income families. This also goes hand in hand with discussions over organic produce versus genetically modified organisms; organic simply is not affordable, even if the benefits are worth it.

This, funnily enough is the same argument plant-based advocates make against meat  — that animal products are often pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones like rBGH (used to make cows produce more milk) which, while approved by the Food and Drug administration, have been contested by research that links the hormone to cancer and other health disease.

What was once primarily fit within the context of animal rights has evolved into a complex way of dieting for physical health. In fact many athletes and celebrities have already hopped aboard the vegan train to maintain, or even better their performance. Great Vegan Athletes has published a growing list of vegan athletes including every sport from bodybuilding to baseball  — the proof is in the people.

Super athletes favor plant-based diets for the fundamental purpose of improving their health. And with good reason, animal protein has been found to increase inflammation, which causes heart disease, stroke and cancer according to a 2014 article in Prevention.

As conscious beings, it is our environmental duty to educate ourselves on the harmful effects meat consumption has on the world. And with so many advantages that meat-free diets have, it is about time we make the switch to sustainable living by unlocking the power of plant-based protein.

Mass agriculture is still risky business, one which is plagued with worker abuse, GMOs, harmful pesticides which are depleting bees and other environmental factors like monoculture. One solution involves revisiting a chapter in American history  — the Victory Garden, a propaganda effort during WWI and WWII to get Americans to grow their own vegetables in order to aid the war effort.

I say, f*ck the war effort, the victory is in the vegetable. But these gardens are an essential key to the destabilization of damaging industry and agribusiness, and a fulfilling way to sustain our bodies and our environment.

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