Posts by guest writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NoTricksZone. The following post by Sarah Brown looks at the impacts of livestock farming on our environment. Needless to say, some of the claims made are hotly disputed.
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Livestock Farming and its Environmental Impact on Our Planet
By Sarah Brown, Diamond Trailers
When we think of greenhouse gases, the first picture that appears in our mind is that of pollution due to transportation systems. Did you know that livestock farming is the largest source of methane emission in the world? Livestock farming contributes about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which, in contrast to popular belief, is responsible for the emission of far more greenhouse gases than that caused by transportation across the globe.
Some fail to see the scale at which livestock farming is being undertaken worldwide. Did you know more than 6 million animals are butchered for food every hour and about 70 billion farm animals are reared annually? The very next thought that comes to one’s mind is that how it can be such a big problem when domesticating animals has been done by humans across the globe, from thousands of years? You would be surprised to learn that with the advancement in technology humans has completely changed the way in which livestock farming was done historically. Farm animals were reared on small farms buy individual farm owners, and their livelihood depended on the livestock.
The processes of livestock farming have been industrialized now and are done at a very large scale. You would be surprised to learn that farming uses up about 92% of all of our fresh water supply and third of which goes into the production of animal products. For instance, a single cow that is reared for its milk can consume up to 50 gallons of water every day and the number can double up during the summer months. Additionally, water intensive-crops are exclusively grown to feed these animals, which takes more than half the water available in the US.
To put things into perspective, it can be estimated that about 477 gallons of water are required to produce 1 pound of eggs, and to produce one pound of meat 2500 gallons of water along with 13 pounds of grain is needed. The aforementioned figures must have caused ripples in your brain. Be it the issue between Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan for the Jordan river, or between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia for the Nile River, we cannot deny the fact that water is increasingly becoming one of the most scarce resource and the next World War might be fought over water.
Be it for reducing pollution, making water available in areas where it is not readily accessible, or for world peace, water management is a must and reducing the consumption of water by livestock farming can be a great start towards a better water management system. The solution lies in reducing the consumption of dairy and meat products so that its demand is lowered. As demand falls, the scale of livestock farming will be decreased. Try switching to a flexitarian diet, or to a vegan diet, it can really help.
If the aforementioned information struck a chord with you, you might want to check out the below infographic from Diamond Trailers. It shows various other benefits of reducing the scale at which life livestock farming is currently being undertaken and more.
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Sarah Brown works freelance on behalf of Diamond Trailers, which presents an infographic showing various benefits of reducing the scale at which livestock farming is currently being undertaken and more.
The amount of methane in the atmosphere is a mere 1,8 ppm (0,00018%), compared to co2 with 400 ppm (0,04%). Lets stop this nonsense once and for all.
I checked the cattle figures: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263979/global-cattle-population-since-1990/
Even counting chickens and all other domestic animals, her figures are wildly wrong as to population. https://reducing-suffering.org/how-many-wild-animals-are-there/#Livestock
Her water usage figures are also wildly wrong:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Total-water-intake-by-beef-cattle-with-an-ambient-temperature-of-44-3228C-Daily-total_tbl1_269393738
Has anyone done any work to show that cattle produce more methane than wild ruminants, like bison?
“When we think of greenhouse gases, the first picture that appears in our mind is that of pollution due to transportation systems. ”
Sarah Brown is neither wordsmithy nor rational.
She equates “pollution” and ‘greenhouse gases’ apparently not understanding that CO2 and H2O are necessary to grow anything. Further, who is “we”? I don’t first picture transportation as the cause of all her thoughts of evil.
And her problem with methane is a non-problem. One might ask what Bison ate, drank, and passed (or burped). And just how is the water of the North American mountains, now flowing into the Pacific Ocean, going to get to the highlands of Ethiopia.
I think Sarah has joined the Klimate Kult.
It is all just wishful thinking by Vegetarians and their mentally handicapped second cousins, the Vegans
Neither live as long as meat eaters all over the planet.
Therefore they are envious.
P.S
I want my beef watered, well fed, and cooked to my liking.
I’m going to grill a steak today and think about this… for a few seconds.
Termites prioduce more methane than does agriculture. All natural.
Cattle do the job where farming crops doesn’t wok.
Photo: https://il3.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/9621572/thumb/1.jpg?i10c=img.resize(height:160)
Veganism correlated to mental illness :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3466124/
and causing mental retardation :
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/12/veganism-causes-mental-retardation-in-kids-top-danish-doctor-claims.html
I wonder if the author of the article is vegan …
We need total the entire amount of bovine flatulence since the first herd was captured in the plains of Ukraine. Gotta know these things.
I’m gonna go with the Tibetans here and make sure there is a yak cow to milk.
Yogurt, butter, milk, cream, the good stuff.
Probably should go with what does work.
The Chinese have been raising chicken and pork for centuries. Great Wall Beef gives it away.
Arnold Ehret was the original vegetarian.
Add the amounts of water used in agriculture to the amounts used in industry, etc. And you get more than 100%. OK the figures are exaggerated for effect, but might well still be high.
The point is that 100% of all the water used is recycled, mostly naturally so it doesn’t matter how much is used- I’ll all be back soon.
“it can be estimated that about 477 gallons of water are required to produce 1 pound of eggs”
It certainly can but it doesn’t make it right. A pound of eggs would be about 8 eggs, so 8 chickens laying those eggs in one day would drink probably a gallon of water. I have seen it claimed elsewhere that it takes 53 gallons to produce an egg because of the water used to grow the grain to feed the chicken, which gets to the same place as this claim. All highly creative. How about how much water to grow a lettuce? Apparently 3.5 gallons to grow one lettuce.
What a silly stupid text. I wasn’t expecting this from notrickszone.
So the very basics of this propaganda piece is that the water is used-up. Er, no it’s all recycled. Livestock farming is very sustainable using efficient, sanitary, modern methods.
Livestock farming and eating of meat is at the very heart of East African life. The Saho or indigenous peoples of the present day Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The word “Saho” means “nomad,” (“saa” means animals and “hoo” means caretaker), which is also an expression of their previous pastoral way of life. Ownership of cattle, camels and livestock is an indication of status and wealth, and forms the foundation of these peoples economic and social outlook.
The peoples of the Somalia/Ethiopia/Eritrea peninsular have always been meat eaters and cattle herders. No amount of pleading by rich and comfortably complacent Western vegetarians is likely to change their way of life soon.
IMO vegetarianism offer few benefits to most people who already eat meat, it does not radically improve health or improve the environment. It does, as this piece shows, often improves the bowel movement beyond normal methods of control!
In agrazing system CO2 and CH4 are part of a very fast cycle. Grass growth sucks CO2 from the athmosphere cows eat grass and converts into milk meat leather tallow etc and also fooe for humanity. Some CO2 and CH4 is returned to the athmosphere which immediately is captured by growing grass. CH4 is oc=xadisws into CO2 and H2O which is recycled into grass. Cows do not manugfacture CO2 from nothing. CH4 cycle is 8 years the CO2 cycle could be as low as a few months unlike forests where the cycle ic 40 to 100 years depending on they type of tree. Also some of the CO2 is sequestered into the soil which builds and mentains soil. Therefore rumant grazing animals are at worst carbon neutral and we have noy=t taken any account of hedgerows on the farm which are also sequestering carbon. Grassland Farms sequester more CO2 that they could ever generate.