Appetite for Destruction, a
study by the World Wildlife Fund, found that large-scale farming of feed crops—such
as soy and corn—for cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals is destroying
natural resources, land, and wildlife.
The study reveals that the amount of land needed to
grow feed crops endangers some of the world’s most susceptible areas, including
the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Himalayas.
“The world is consuming more animal protein than it needs
and this is having a devastating effect on wildlife, says Duncan Williamson, food
policy manager at WWF. He adds:
A staggering 60% of global biodiversity loss is down to the food we eat. We know a lot of people are aware that a meat-based diet has an impact on water and land, as well as causing greenhouse gas emissions, but few know the biggest issue of all comes from the crop-based feed the animals eat.
Last year a report by the World Wildlife Fund and the
Zoological Society of London exposed a troubling
mass extinction. It indicated that animal populations had declined by 58
percent between 1970 and 2012, with losses expected to reach 67 percent by
2020.
What’s more, raising animals for food, including land for
grazing and growing feed crops, now uses more than one-third
of the earth’s landmass. Additionally, according to the World Bank,
animal agriculture is culpable for nearly 91 percent of Amazon destruction.
Even worse, animals at factory farms produce 7 million pounds of
excrement every minute. This waste often pollutes waterways and nearby
ecosystems, killing
wildlife. Animal agriculture also produces more greenhouse gas emissions
than all the cars, planes, and
other forms of transportation combined, exacerbating the dramatic
effects of climate change.
Animal agriculture is not only terrible for the planet but
also unspeakably cruel. Farmed animals are treated like unfeeling objects, and
their short lives are marked by unimaginable cruelties: intensive confinement,
agonizing mutilations, and violent deaths.
While these reports are heartbreaking, thankfully it’s not
too late to take action. We can all withdraw our support from this cruel system
by ditching meat, dairy, and eggs in favor of healthy, humane alternatives.