The Environmental Impact Of Eating Beef And

Dairy Products Essay, Research Paper

The Environmental Impact of Eating Beef and Dairy Products

There are currently 1.28 billion cattle populating the

earth. They occupy nearly 24 percent of the landmass of the planet. Their

combined weight exceeds that of the earth’s entire human population. Raising

cows for beef has been linked to several environmental problems, and eating beef

can worsen your health. The Dairy Industry puts not only your health in danger

from consuming their products, but the lives of the cows that produce them.

There is severe environmental damage brought on by

cattle ranching, including the destruction of rainforests and grasslands. Since

1960 more than 25 percent of Central America’s forests have been cleared to

create pastureland for grazing cattle. By the late 1970’s two-thirds of all

agricultural land in Central America was occupied by cattle and other livestock.

More than half the rual families in Central America-35 million people-are now

landless or own too litle land to support themselves. Cattle are also a major

cause of desertification around the planet. Today about 1.3 billion cattle are

trampling and stripping much of the vegetative cover from the earth’s remaining

grasslands. Each animal eats its way through 900 pounds of vegetation a month.

Without plants to anchor the soil, absorb the water, and recycle the nutrients,

the land has become increasingly vulnerable to wind and water erosion. More

than 60 percent of the world’s rangeland has been damaged by overgrazing during

the past half century.

Cattle ranching has also been linked to Global Warming.

The grain-fed-cattle complex is now a significant factor in the emission of

three of the gases that cause the greenhouse effect- methane, carbon dioxide,

and nitrous oxides- and is likely to play an even larger role in Global Warming

in the coming decades. The burning of fossil fuels accounted for nearly two-

thirds of the 815 billion tons of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere in 1987.

The other third came from the increased burning of the forests and grasslands.

When the trees are cleared and burned to make room for cattle pastures, they

emit a massive volume of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Commercial cattle

ranching also contributes to Global Warming in other ways. With 70 percent of

all U. S. grain production now devoted to livestock feed, much of ot for cattle,

the energy burned by farm machinery and transport vehicles just to produce and

ship the feed represents a significant addition to carbon dioxide emissions. It

now takes the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of grain-fed

beef in the United States. To sustain the yearly beef requirements of an

average family of four requires the use of more than 260 gallons of fossil fuel.

Finally; Nitrous Oxide, which accounts for 6 percent of the global warming

effect, is released from fertilizer used in growing the feed; and methane, which

makes up 18 percent, is emitted from the cattle.

The final victims of the world cattle complex are the

animals themselves. Immediately after birth, male calves are castrated to make

them more “docile”, and to improve the quality of their meat. To ensure that

the animals will not injure each other, they are dehorned with a chemical paste

that burns out their horns’ roots. Neither of these procedures is done with

anesthesia.

There are about 42,000 feedlots in 13 major cattle-

feeding states in the United states. The feedlot is generaly a fenced-in area

with a concrete feed trough along one side. In many of the larger feedlots,

thousands of cattle are crowded together side by side in severely cramped

quarters. To obtain the optimum weight gain in the minimum time, feedlot

managers administer a variety of pharmaceuticals to their cattle, including

growth-stimulating hormones and feed additives. Anabolic steroids, in the form

of small time-release pellets, are implanted in the animals’ ears. cattle are

given estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. The hormones stimulate the

cells to produce additional protein, adding muscle and fat tissue more rapidly.

Today 80 percent of all the herbicides used in the United States are sprayed on

corn and soybeans. After being consumed by the cattle, these herbicides

accumulate in their bodies and are passed along to the consumer in finished cuts

of beef. beef now ranks number one in herbicide contamination and number two in

overall pesticide contamination. Some feedlots now expiriment with adding

cardboard, newspapers, and sawdust to the feed to reduce costs. Other factory

farms scrape up the manure from chicken houses and pigpens and add it directly

to cattle feed. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials say that it is not

uncommon for some feedlot operators to mix industrial sewage and oils into the

feed to reduce c

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