I WANT TO BE EDUCATED - Land, Deforestation and Water Strains...

All over the world ecosystems are constantly being destroyed simply to make more room to feed and prepare the animals for slaughter. Nearly 50% of the Australian continent is grazed just to raise the animals for human consumption (Foran, B. Manfred, L. Dey, C. 2005). Scientists at the Smithsonian Institute believe that “the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed every minute” due to the worlds constant demand for more meat (PETA 2008, para1).

Enabling the immense amount of overgrazing often leads to:

1. The extinction of indigenous plants and animal species
2. The removal of vegetative cover, which is the most critical factor in preventing soil erosion and desertification of large areas of otherwise arable land.

Within the year 2000, in Australia “8,000 square kilometres of land was used to grow livestock animal feed” to give those animals, destined to be killed and consumed. (Russel, G 2006, p.2). Therefore a reduction in animal industries will lead to increase in land available for native vegetation and sustainable forestry.

The meat producing industry also places severe stress on our water supply.  An immense amount of the world’s water supply is constantly being diverted to animal agriculture for the purpose of cleaning away the filth in the factory farms, washing out the transporting animal trucks and of course in cleaning the slaughterhouses (PETA 2010). Statistics have shown that, “you save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire

year” (Robbins J 2001, p.236). This is because it takes between 50, 000 and 100,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef compared to only 1,550 litres to produce 1 kilogram of rice, and much less for most fruit and vegetables (Swan 2009, para.4). 

Reference list

1. Foran, B. Manfred, L. Dey, C. 2005, Balancing Act: A triple bottom line analysis of the 135sectors of the Australian economy, CSIRO, Australia 
2. PETA. 2008, Wasted Resources: Land, viewed 1 September 2010, <http://www.goveg.com/environment-wastedResources.asp#land>. 
3. Russel, G. 2006, Think you can be a meat-eating environmentalist? Think again!, Vegetarian/Vegan Society. Queensland
4. PETA, 2010, Meat Production Wastes Natural Resources: Water, viewed 23 September 2010 <http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources.aspx>. 
5. Robbins, J. 2001, The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, Random House, California 
6. Swan, G. 2009, Water For Food: How much water is needed to produce food? CSIRO Australia, viewed 22 September 2010 <http://www.clw.csiro.au/issues/water/water_for_food.html>.