Summary: A huge amount of our energy consumption as a nation is related to the production and supply of food. Learn how to reduce this by reading on and becoming better informed about where exactly that energy goes and what its effects are.
- An estimated 19% of the total energy used in the US is from the production and supply of food.
- A 2006 UN report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined.
- Animal agriculture is the leading source of methane and produces 65% of the world's nitrous oxide emissions in addition to being one of the leading emitters of CO2.
- The official handbook for the Live Earth concerts says that refusing to eat meat is the \"single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint\".
- The average American consumes and estimated 3,747 calories a day, 1200-1500 calories over the recommendations, many of which come from animal products and highly processed foods, which use much more energy than potatoes, rice, fruits, and vegetables.
- Better farming practices, such as traditional and organic techniques, greatly lower the energy usage of the food supply.
- Reducing demand for highly processed foods would cut down on food miles and related energy costs.
- US food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it is consumed.
- Indirect effects:
- Consuming resources far out of proportion of the yield
- Accelerates soil erosion
- On lands where grain is produced, soil loss averages 13 tons per hectare, pastures erode only at 6 tons per hectare per year, although overgrazed pastures may erode at more than 100 tons per hectare per year. 54% of pasture land may be overgrazed.
- Affects world food supply
- Grains fed to livestock could feed 800 million people
- Contributes to trade deficit
- If grains exported, could bring in $80 billion a year in whatever year this thing was made
- Livestock fed only grass, instead of grains, could still allow Americans to get more than their recommended daily allowance of meat and dairy protein.
- Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than the production of plant protein, while yielding only 1.4 times more nutrients.
- Energy consumption to protein output for different meats http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/78/3/660S (117) Table 2 has slightly different numbers, use newest or even newer :
- Broiler Chickens - 4:1
- Turkey - 13:1
- Milk Protein - 14:1
- Pork - 17:1
- Eggs - 26:1
- Lamb - 50:1
- Beef Cattle - 54:1
- Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the US:
- Grain-fed beef - 100,000 liters per kg of food
- Broiler Chickens - 3,500 liters per kg
- Soybean production - 2,000 per kg food
- Rice - 1912 per kg food
- Wheat - 900 liters per kg food
- Potatoes - 500 liters per kg food
- More than half the US grain, and nearly 40% of the world's grain is being fed to livestock.
- The 7 billion livestock animals in the US consume 5 times the amount of grain as the US's population.
- More than 302 million hectares of land are dedicated to US livestock, 272 for pasture, and 30 for feed grains.
- About 90% of US cropland is losing soil at 13 times above the sustainable rate.
- The US produces enough animal protein for each person to have 75 grams a day. When added to the 34 grams of available plant protein, 109 total grams of protein are available per capita, compared to the 56 grams recommended daily. This would be reduced to 29 grams of animal protein if switched to grass-fed production. Lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet consumes 89 grams per day.
- Worldwide, approximately 2 billion people live primarily on a meat-based diet whereas an estimated 4 billion live on plant-based diet.
- The amount of feed grains in a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet is about half that of those fed to livestock to produce the meat-based diet Table at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/78/3/660S (117)
- Grains and some legumes, such as soybeans, are more efficient than not only meat, but also vegetables and fruits.
- Americans eat approximately 124 kg of meat per year, the breakdown is:
- 44 kg beef
- 31 kg pork
- 48 kg poultry
- 1 kg of other meats
- In addition to producing the animal protein that we eat, meat diets also have the additional cost of maintaining breeding herds.
- 99.2% of US food is produced on land, less than 0.8% from oceans or other aquatic ecosystems.