Meat will be the death of us

By Roxy Costello-Ross

The meat and dairy industries are two of the most substantial causes of climate change in the world today, yet they are also arguably two of the most ignored. Unfortunately, when it comes to food many people will not budge on their chosen diets, even If they are contributing to a trail of destruction across the planet; from climate change to forest fires and even human rights abuses.

In the UK, the majority of meat bought is mass-produced in intensive factory farms such as JBS – the largest meat processing company in the world. Supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, as well as popular fast-food chains like KFC and McDonald’s buy their meat from companies that are owned by JBS. Through its meat production, JBS produces around half of the carbon emissions of massive fossil fuel companies such as Shell or BP and is spearheading deforestation in the Amazon. To make matters worse, suppliers to JBS such as cattle ranch and soya producers in Brazil have been found to have a history of profiting from modern-day slavery.

The industrial meat industry is the single biggest cause of deforestation globally as it requires a huge amount of land to sustain itself. Forests are deliberately slashed and set alight, particularly in South America, to make space for grazing cattle and crops to feed the billions of farmed animals in the UK. When this happens, immeasurable amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere and fallen trees are left to rot or are burned, creating further emissions that massively contribute to climate change. If deforestation in the Amazon continues at its current rate it will no longer be able to sustain itself as a rainforest. This will cause mass devastation for the people and animals who live and depend on the forest and could lead to less rainfall, therefore affecting drinking water and irrigation across South America.

Not only this, but the amount of water needed to grow crops for animals to eat, drink, and clean factory farms is enormous, and growing every day as the amount of farmed animals increases. A single cow being used for milk can drink up to 50 gallons of water per day, which doubles in hot weather, and producing just one gallon of milk takes 683 gallons of water. Industrial meat is the most inefficient way to eat food, as over a quarter of the world’s entire land area is used for grazing or growing food for those animals – crops that could’ve been used to feed people. By switching to a plant-based diet, one person can save approximately 219,000 gallons of water, and in countries like the UK it is paramount that we cut down on our meat consumption; if we aren’t eating 70% less meat and dairy by 2030 we cannot prevent a climate breakdown.

Greenpeace is calling on supermarkets such as Tesco to halve the amount of meat in their stores by 2025 and replace industrial meat with plant-based food options. These supermarkets play a huge role in encouraging and supporting unsustainable meat and dairy consumption, especially by buying meat from suppliers linked to deforestation, and this needs to be stopped. The global demand for dairy products has increased dramatically in recent years, partly due to population growth, rising incomes and the urbanisation and westernisation of Asian diets. At any given moment, circa 264 million dairy cows are living on dairy farms around the world. All of these cows and their manure will produce tons of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. According to the USDA, the waste from just 200 dairy cows produces as much nitrogen as the sewage from a community of up to 10,000 people. If manure and fertilisers are not handled properly, they can degrade local water resources and unsustainable dairy farming can lead to the loss of prairies, wetlands, and forests - all ecologically important areas.

Most people are not educated on some of the practices that go on in dairy farms today, and how the food they eat actually gets onto their plate. From an ethical standpoint, dairy cows are some of the most mistreated and abused animals out there, being forcefully impregnated from a young age and throughout most of their lives until they are slaughtered when they can no longer produce milk.

These cows will produce an average of 600 million tons of milk. Male cows are often torn from their mothers soon after birth and slaughtered as it is cheaper than raising them, and others will go on to be raised for veal.

Because of the urbanisation of cities, there is a major disconnect between these industries and the everyday person, and it is well east time that we are all educated on the reality of where our food comes from so that, hopefully, the next time we do the weekly shop we can make more informed decisions.