The Truth about Factory Farming

Sources

1. 10 billion animals are slaughtered each year in the U.S.
   Livestock & Meat Domestic Data.” USDA ERS - Livestock & Meat Domestic Data, 28 Apr. 2020, www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-meat-domestic-data/livestock-meat-domestic-data/#Livestock%20and%20poultry%20slaughter.
2. Globally, animal agriculture uses about 77% of the world's farmland, but only produces 18% of our calories.Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216
3. Animal agriculture is a leading cause of deforestation and climate change.Ritchie, H. (2020, September 18). Sector by sector: Where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from? Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector
   
   Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216
   
   Springmann, Marco et al. “Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits.” Nature (2018).
4. While large scale farms emit high levels of greenhouse gasses, they are exempt from the Clean Air Act and the EPA does not place limits on the pollutants that come out of these farms.Erickson, B. E. (2018, April 2). Livestock emissions still up in the air. Cen.acs.org. Retrieved February 14, 2022, from https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/Livestock-emissions-still-air/96/i14
5. Black and Latino communities are disproportionately affected by water and air pollution from factory farms.Inaki. “San Joaquin Valley Residents Express Their Concern over Drinking Water Contamination.” El Tecolote, 9 July 2010, eltecolote.org/content/news/san-joaquin-valley-residents-express-their-concern-over-drinking-water-contamination/.
   
   Chakraborty, Jayajit & Collins, Timothy & Montgomery, Marilyn & Grineski, Sara. (2014). Social and Spatial Inequities in Exposure to Flood Risk: A Case Study in Miami, Florida. Natural Hazards Review. 10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000140.
6. 99% of all animals raised for food in the U.S. are raised on factory farms.Anthis, J. (2019, April 11). US factory Farming Estimates. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estimates
7. Farmed animals are selectively bred to grow at unnaturally rapid rates. Pigs can live up to 20 years, but are slaughtered when just 6 months old.Natural resources Conservation Service. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2021, from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/livestock/afo/
8. The amount of water used to make one hamburger is equivalent to a month of showering.Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2012). A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Ecosystems, 15(3), 401-415. doi:10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
   
   Krider, J., Rickman, J., Barth, C., Powers, T., Herbert, N., Stettler, D., . . . Hickman, D. (2008, March). Chapter 4 agricultural Waste Characteristics. Retrieved May 3, 2021, from https://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/OpenNonWebContent.aspx?content=31475.wba
9. Plant-based foods like lentils, beans, tofu, chickpeas, tempeh, quinoa, and seitan are all protein-rich.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26797090/ "Chronic high protein intake (>2 g per kg BW per day for adults) may result in digestive, renal, and vascular abnormalities and should be avoided."
10. By replacing half of meat and dairy consumption with plant-based options, we could cut agricultural GHG emissions by 31%.
    Kozicka, M., Havlík, P., Valin, H. et al. Feeding climate and biodiversity goals with novel plant-based meat and milk alternatives. Nat Commun14, 5316 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40899-2