Should the livestock industry be limited by legislation due to its effects on air quality, water source, and climate change?

Bailey Douglas, Owyn Blakemore, Page Kioschos, Grant Criteser

The question at issue calls the livestock industry into question, and serves to evaluate how changes in its production would either benefit of take away from the health of the environment. The livestock industry that we specifically refer to is the highly populated, over ran farm working to produce all types of products ranging from food, to clothing.

The production of livestock and livestock-related products (Milk, eggs, cheese) occupies nearly forty percent of the Earth’s usable landmass and places a tremendous amount of strain on the environment (Brian,2013). Livestock production is the number one contributor to the production of greenhouse gases, outpacing manufacturing in total pollutants released. This industry is so successful in creating environmental problems due to the high demand for meat in countries, specifically the United States. Eighty-eight percent of Americans eat meat on a regular basis and the average American eats 122 kg of meat every year (Brian,2013).

http://www.climate-change-knowledge.org/ghg_sources.html

A major greenhouse gas that is a product of the livestock industry is methane. Methane is a naturally occurring gas that causes a warming effect when concentrations reach a certain point. Methane, and other greenhouse gases, warm the planet by releasing energy, in the form of heat, when infrared radiation strikes the molecule (Mooney,2016). The Earth has experienced countless rises and falls of atmospheric methane, but we are now facing the substantial problem of incredibly high levels of methane and other greenhouse gases, collecting in our air. Furthermore, methane levels over the last one hundred years have increased exponentially as the livestock industry contributes more and more air pollution to feed a growing population.

In America and other urbanized industries around the world the production of meat and livestock like cows and pigs are in high demand and as populations grow and food chains and consumers alike focus on meat, the need for more cattle and land for these cattle to graze is going up. A negative factor of this is that cows produce a large amount of methane gas that enters the ozone. A study accounting the amount of emission is produced by this found that, “In 2011, methane from livestock accounted for 39 percent of all the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, according to a report that United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization released Friday. That’s more than synthetic fertilizer or deforestation. Methane from livestock rose 11 percent between 2001 and 2011” (Singh,2014). This extra methane in our ozone absorbs the energy that would normally be reflected off the earth and back out, causing global warm as this imbalance increases. Limits on the amount of livestock can be kept for these purposes and any purposes in general may be needed in order to keep the problem of global warming under control.

The negative effects that livestock have on the environment are clear and well-documented, and the processes that sustain the cattle until maturity too contribute to these high levels of pollution in our environment. Livestock requires an astounding amount of water and food, while the production of that food requires pesticides, fertilizer, and fuel to transport. The possibility of water contamination as a result from spraying pesticide and fertilizers increases with a growing livestock industry. In order to decrease these rates of pollution it is important that legislation limits animal product production, and corporations that contribute to this pollution are held accountable.

Throughout our investigation we consider both sides to the question, should there be legislation to enforce limitations on the livestock industry. We see that by not having legislation issues mentioned above will only continue to damage the health of our earth, but in contrast, we discover that with major restrictions on the industry there could be drastic economical and even environmental changes to follow.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/06/27/155527365/visualizing-a-nation-of-meat-eaters

*This image further demonstrates how much energy goes into produce highly demanded animal products.

 

 

Bryan Walsh. “The Triple Whopper Environmental Impact of Global Meat Production.” Time. Time, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 June 2017. <http://science.time.com/2013/12/16/the-triple-whopper-environmental-impact-of-global-meat-production/.>.

“How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?” Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2017. <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meat-and-environment/.>.

Mooney, Chris. “Atmospheric Levels of Methane, a Powerful Greenhouse Gas, Are Spiking, Scientists Report.” The Washington Post. WP Company, 11 Dec. 2016. Web. 04 June 2017. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/11/atmospheric-levels-of-methane-a-powerful-greenhouse-gas-are-spiking-scientists-report/?utm_term=.79c3874b414f.>.

Singh, Maanvi. “Gassy Cows Are Warming The Planet, And They’re Here To Stay.”NPR. NPR, 12 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 June 2017. <http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/04/11/301794415/gassy-cows-are-warming-the-planet-and-theyre-here-to-stay>.

 

36 thoughts on “Should the livestock industry be limited by legislation due to its effects on air quality, water source, and climate change?

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