Environmental Effects of Meat Eating

For 100,000 litres of water
clean water for 2700 people

(According to UNESCO)
~ OR ~
8100 toilet flushes

~ OR ~
1080 baths
~ OR ~
1kg of beef
(Figures from a study financed by the California Beef Council)
Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org
Water required to produce 1kg of food

120000 100000 80000
60000
Litres
40000
20000
Potatoes
Wheat
Rice
Soya Bean
Chickens
Beef
Source: Pimental D et al. 1997. Bioscience 42: 97-106.
Protein conversion rates

How much protein is required to be fed to an animal per kg of animal protein produced?
2 kg 3 kg 5.5 kg 10 kg
1 kg 1 kg 1 kg 1 kg
Source: Council for Agricultural Science and Technology

Land usage efficiency

Usable protein yields per acre
180
Kg protein
160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
Soya beans
Rice
Corn
Wheat
Milk
Eggs
Meat (all)
Beef
A typical meat based diet uses 4 times the land required for a vegan diet, and 2 times that required for a vegetarian diet.
Source: USDA; FOA/WHO/UNICEF Protein Advisory Group
Fossil fuel usage

All food production uses fossil fuel, releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This chart shows how many calories of fossil fuel are required to produce 1 calorie of protein.
2 calories 3 calories
Soya bean Wheat/corn
54 calories
Beef
Cars or cows
Changing from a typical saloon car to a hybrid.
Saves 1 tonne of carbon dioxide per year.
Changing from a typical meat based diet to a vegan diet.

Saves the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report of November 2006 Livestock's Long Shadow, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent 18 percent more than transport. Worldwide, livestock accounts for 16 per cent of all global warming emissions of methane. Methane is 20 times more effective at warming the globe than CO2. Organic beef farming increases methane production!
Is it better to drive your 4x4 to get a veggie burger than to cycle and buy a meat burger?
2.2 lbs. of beef produces the equivalent amount of carbon that the average European car does every 155 miles, burns enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for almost 20 days
Comparison of ways to reduce your CO2 emissions

Halving home energy use
SAVES
1.4 tons
Stop flying
SAVES
0.9 tons
Halving your car use
SAVES
Based on 5.5 hours pa
1.2 tons
Going vegan
SAVES
1.5 tons
How local is British beef?
70% of Europe's animal feed is imported from outside the EU.

Europes agriculture is capable of feeding Europes people but not of feeding Europes animals - the European Commission
The white stuff and the brown stuff

For every 17 litres of cow's milk produced a day, you also get 57 litres of excreta.
Agriculture is the number one water polluter in the UK. Animal slurry can be up to 100 times more polluting than raw untreated domestic
sewage.
World fish stocks

80% of the world's fish stocks are either at or below sustainable levels.
Depleted Overexploited Recovering OK Fully exploited
"We are faced with a paradox. Health recommendations advise increased consumption of oily fish and fish oils within limits, on the grounds that intake is generally low. However ... we probably do not have a sustainable supply of long-chain Omega 3 fats." British Medical Journal March 2006
The ultimate green decision

What is the most effective action a typical Westerner can take to reduce their ecological footprint?
Go to the web site of Earthday network (www.earthday.net) and run your lifestyle through their ecological calculator. It will give you a number representing the number of planets required if everyone lived like you. Run through the calculator once again but this time change just one answer to be the most green choice, e.g. no car, no air flights, all green energy, recycle everything, and see how you foot print reduces. But which one factor will make the biggest difference?
Go Vegan!
require intensive animal production systems would reduce the world demand for cereals. Use of land could be reappraised since cereal consumption for direct consumption by the population is much more efficient and cheaper than dedicating large areas to growing feed for meat production and dairying. Policies should be geared to the growing of plant foods and to limiting the promotion of meat and dairy.
World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1991. Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases, Technical Report Series 797.
Farming policies that do not
An ecological foot print is the amount of land, measure in hectares, required to sustain a given life style. If the planet where shared equally between the World's citizens they would each get 1.8 hectares. The above graph shows what particular life style choices contribute to your ecological foot print in a standard western lifestyle. As can be seen just eating meat exceeds ones whole share.
Data from www.earthday.net.
The importance of unprocessed and local food

These figures show how much land is required to sustain a diet. If the world was shared equally we would have 1.8 hectares each. Data from www.earthday.net.
Using unprocessed and local foods
Meat based diet Vegan diet Difference Meat based diet Vegan diet Difference
1.8 hectares 0.5 hectares 1.3 hectares 1.9 hectares 0.5 hectares 1.4 hectares
Using processed and imported foods
As you can see the environmental impact of the meat is so great that it dwarfs the environment impact of processing and importing the food. To choose locally produced meat is akin to protecting the environment by choosing only local airports.
Difference in life style choices

1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2
hectares
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0 Adopting a vegan diet saves Saving 25 hours flying a year Replacing car with public transport saves Replacing 4x4 with std saloon saves Replacing 4x4 with hybrid saves
Data from www.earthday.net.
The above chart shows that adopting a vegan diet is

more important then adopting public transport. more important than replacing a 4x4 with a standard saloon. roughly compensates for 25 hours of flying.
Greenhouse Flatulence
who is responsible?
Vegetarians? Vegans? Meat eaters?
For milk & meat a cow produces
280 litres of methane a day
For wool & meat a sheep produces

25 litres
A human produces
0.2 - 4
What is the most effect way for YOU to tackle global warming?
You could reduce you house hold energy requirements by 50%. Maybe install 12,000 of photoelectric panels and 4,000 on solar hot water? Replace all your appliance with low energy ones and not use them a 1/3 of the time. Rebuild your house to modern environments standards? Reduce your car usage by 50%. Maybe junk your car for a new hybrid (and ignore the CO2 generated making the new car) and drive a lot less. Maybe wait for the government to spend billions on new infrastructure so you don't need your car so much? Stay at home a lot more? Stop flying for ever Never fly ever again. Just 5.5 hours in the air would be 90% of your yearly CO2 allowance. Go vegan Yes, going vegan has the same environmental impact as the above options and you can do it NOW and it is FREE. And you also get the benefit of extending your life expectancy. Bad news: You may well end up doing them all. The sooner we act to reduce green house gas emission the few changes we will need to make.
These posters were created by Stephen FenwickPaul of Thames Valley Vegans and Vegetarians (aka T3V). Feel free to use and edit them for your own needs. It would be great, but not required, if you could link to http://www.t3v.veggroup.org/downloads/index.html so others can find the originals.

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For 100,000 litres of water

clean water for 2700 people

8100 toilet flushes

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

Water required to produce 1kg of food

Source: Pimental D et al. 1997. Bioscience 42: 97-106.

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

Protein conversion rates

Source: Council for Agricultural Science and Technology

Land usage efficiency

160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Fossil fuel usage

Soya bean Wheat/corn

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

Changing from a typical meat based diet to a vegan diet.

Comparison of ways to reduce your CO2 emissions

Based on 5.5 hours pa

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

How local is British beef?

70% of Europe's animal feed is imported from outside the EU.

The white stuff and the brown stuff

World fish stocks

Depleted Overexploited Recovering OK Fully exploited

The ultimate green decision

Farming policies that do not

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

The importance of unprocessed and local food

Using unprocessed and local foods

Using processed and imported foods

Difference in life style choices

Data from www.earthday.net.

The above chart shows that adopting a vegan diet is

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

For milk & meat a cow produces

280 litres of methane a day

For wool & meat a sheep produces

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

Thames Valley Vegans & Vegetarians www.t3v.veggroup.org

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