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Date: 14 March, 2001
It takes sixteen pounds of grain and soybeans to produce a pound of feedlot
beef. This is a statistic quoted regularly in introductory environmental
science classes. A corollary bit of information is that it takes only one
pound of grain to produce a pound of bread. In 1992, John Robbins (Diet for a
New World) calculated just how wasteful the feed conversion ratio for beef
is. By cycling our grain through livestock and into beef, we end up with only
6 percent as much food available to feed human beings as we would have if we
ate the grain directly.
The environmental consequences of this nation's affection for beef are
mind-numbing. Just as the Earth has difficulty sustaining growth in human
population, it is struggling - witness the recent outbreak of
foot-and-mouth-disease in Europe - to sustain the present global population
of four billion cows, sheep, pigs and goats, plus nine billion fowl.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 40 percent of the
world's grain products and 70 percent of U.S. produced grain are fed to farm
animals.
Animal agriculture also consumes a staggering amount of water. According to
the "Eating with Conscience" Manual of the Humane Society of the United
States, to produce that 'pound of flesh' requires from 300 to 500 gallons of
water. Animal agriculture is also a major cause of water pollution - about 2
billion tons of animal manure are generated each year in the U.S., resulting
in serious effects for wildlife and the ecology of lakes and streams.
Only 11 percent of the land area of the planet is suitable for agriculture.
An estimated 200 million acres of U.S. cropland have already been degraded or
abandoned. Globally, the Earth is losing 77 billion tons of topsoil each year
due to soil erosion associated with deforestation, dam construction, and
irrigation. In If You Love this Planet, Helen Caldicott notes that "Our
global treasure is being lost into the sea."
What can individuals do to both improve their eating habits and benefit the
environment? American PIE urges people to more regularly eat lower on the
food chain and join the thousands of caring people across America who will
observe the 17th Annual Great American Meatout on March 20. For a free action
kit, call 1-800-MEATOUT and reach FARM, the campaign's organizer, in
Bethesda, MD. FARM's e-mail address is farm@farmusa.org; their U.S. postal
address is Box 30654, Bethesda, MD, 20824. Website: http://www.meatout.org.
Act today on this EcoAlert, and thank you for your environmental responsibility.
American P.I.E.
Public Information on the Environment
124 High Street, P.O. Box 340
South Glastonbury, CT 06073-0340
Telephone: 1-800-320-APIE(2743)
E-Mail: Info@AmericanPIE.org
EcoAlert subscribe/unsubscribe at our web site: http://www.AmericanPIE.org
American PIE
http://www.AmericanPIE.org
Return to American PIE Index on EHN's site
http://ehnca.org/www/ampie/ampieind.htm
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