Animal Agriculture

- Animal agriculture is the practice of breeding animals

for the production of animal products and for
recreational purposes. The meat we eat, the milk we
drink, and even the down we wear are a result of
Animal Agriculture. And the demand for products
which require intensive animal farming is rising daily
due to societies laziness and misunderstanding when
it comes to the harm that we are doing when we use
any animal derived products

- Animal agriculture doesnt only harm animals. It is

having a huge impact on the wellbeing of our world,
and it is our fault.

- But why does animal agriculture affect the

environment? We have always eaten meat, you say,
so why are we being told to reduce that intake now?

Well while carbon dioxide is typically painted as the

bad boy of greenhouse gases, methane is roughly 30
times more potent as a heat-trapping gas. And this gas
is produced in mass amounts each day because of the
amount of animals in agriculture currently.

Animals used for agriculture and their by-products

account for 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas
emissions. These emissions are increasing the
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temperature of the atmosphere thus making animal

agriculture a leading cause to climate change

In Latin America, especially in rainforest areas that

are home to thousands of plant and animal species,
commercial agriculture has clear-cut about two-thirds
of forest. Similarly, agriculture is responsible for
deforestation in tropical Asia, as well as Africa.

- The thing is, this can all be stopped. This is all

unnecessary, because nowadays we simply do not need
to harm innocent animals for our consumption. Today
we have so many substitutes, which can allow us to
obtain all food groups like protein, at less
environmental cost, and with less toll on our health.

- The dairy industry is often brushed off as being

NATURAL because people are mislead to think that
cows produce milk all of the time. This could not be
farther from the truth.

- Dairy cows are shoved into tiny cages and made to

stand for hours on end whilst milk is derived from the
udders.

To keep them lactating at maximum yields, cows are

artificially and repeatedly impregnated year after
year.

The calves, which are a product of these mass

pregnancies, are often stolen from their
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mothers within hours of birth and taken to veal farms,

in order to maximize profit.

- So why do we actually drink milk? How is it seen as

normal to drink what is essentially Cows breast
milk? Is it because we need the calcium? Or because
it is good for us?

- This is illogical for more reasons than one.

There are so many sources of calcium, which would not
torture cows in any way. For example fortified,
unsweetened soya, rice and oat drinks and raisins or
bread, none of which are derived from any animal, and
neither do they instigate metabolic disturbances in
human bodies.

- Cows milk contains most of the same components as

human breast milk; however, these components are
not in the same amounts.

- There are two important proteins in milk; Casein and

Whey. Cows milk has twenty times more casein,
meaning it puts a huge pressure on human digestion
as it coagulates and forms dense curds which our
stomachs are not used to, whereas cows digestive
systems are.

- The bottom line is, cows milk is meant for small

calves to grow into huge cows, not for humans. We
are really not meant to be drinking cows milk, at
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least not in the quantities that we do and especially

not into adulthood.

- To make matters worse, human milk is getting more

and more contaminated by pesticides due to the meat
and dairy that makes up a mothers diet.

- Now, how is meat actually taken from a field, to end

up on your plate?

Lets talk first about beef. Cattle who survive feedlots,

dairy sheds, and veal farms face a hellish trip to the
slaughterhouse. They are crammed onto trucks where
they typically go without food or water, for rest for the
duration of the journey, which can sometimes be days
or even weeks
Many cows collapse in hot weather; in the cold, cows
sometimes freeze to the sides of the truck until workers
pry them off with crowbars.
By the time the exhausted cows reach the
slaughterhouse, many are too sick or injured to walk.
These cows, known to the meat and dairy industries as
downers, often have ropes or chains tied around their
legs so that they can be dragged off the trucks.
Of those animals who arrive at the slaughterhouse
healthy enough to walk, many are frightened and dont
want to leave the truck, so they are shocked with
electric prods or dragged off with chains.
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Uncooperative animals are beaten, they have prods

poked in their faces, says a former USDA inspector.
Imagine a world where everyone was vegan. Animals
were no longer used in any detrimental way to their
health, and climate change would dramatically slow
down.
Emissions would drop by 70% by 2050 if everyone
became Vegan; this is because the emissions of
livestock used in intensive farming would no longer
be present.

- Although the idea of everyone adopting a vegan diet

might sound extreme, in the last decade, the number
of people in the UK following a plant-based diet has
risen dramatically by a total of 300%. There are now
over 0.5 million British vegans with around 20% of
16 to 24-year-olds in the UK following a vegetarian
or vegan diet

- The less demand we make, the more land would be

saved, and fewer animals would have to go through
this torture every day and the more moral values we
would gain back

Before I became vegan, I asked myself a very

important question, could I treat animals like this
directly? Could I personally torture each cow for
their milk, each chicken for their meat or each
duck for their down? the answer was no, so I
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decided that I would no longer force others to do

this dirty work for me.

I am not imposing my lifestyle onto you in any

way; all I wish to do is to instigate thought about
what you eat and to make sure that you are
comfortable with the way we are living, because if
you are not, you have the power to change it. As
young people, we can be put off things like
veganism or vegetarianism as it is always looked
as a negative thing, which takes mass amounts of
effort and planning, but it is really not as complex
as people like to make it out as. If veganism or
vegetarianism is something you are interested in
changing about your lifestyle, try introducing the
idea of cutting down meat consumption in your
household, you could maybe talk about other
sources of protein which are healthier, or you can
talk to your family about this being something you
are interested in, and they may decide that it is
something you an do together.
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1. How does intensive animal farming have an impact

on our landscape and the future use of that land?
In the United States alone, over 260 million
acres of forest have been cleared to make room for
crop fields, most of which are used to exclusively
grow livestock feed. This is not a practice that only
occurs in the U.S., land clearing in Brazil to grow
chicken feed is responsible for the destruction of
about 3 million acres of rainforest. And these
numbers only account for land cleared to feed
animals, not pasture them.

As a primary driver of global warming more than

cars animal agriculture is directly affecting the
global ocean. First, the rising atmospheric
temperature is raising global ocean
temperatures leading to widespread coral bleaching
and the dying off of many sea life species, creating
ocean dead zones.
These ocean dead zones affect the future use of
many areas across the world. Without the beautiful
Great Barrier Reef for example, Sydneys tourist
attraction would lower, and many economical
problems may arise. Furthermore, the land, which
is being used for animal agriculture purposes, will
be so worn after years of waste in the ground, and
pesticides in the feed, that it will be highly unlikely
that we will be able to utilise it in the future.
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2. Do you think that all of us should become vegans,

would this create healthy people?
Yes, I am vegan like I said before, and I do believe that
we should all become vegans.
One of my favourite documentaries cowspiracy
which explains the advantages of cutting animal
agriculture out, says this:
'When you take the animal out, what you also take are the
greenhouse gases, and you take the food safety issues
out, but the amazing thing is, you also put our moral
values back in. Values like compassion and integrity and
kindness, values that are natural to human beings.'

If people knew the damage they were doing when they

consumed animal farmed products, I highly doubt they
would look at their choices in the same way.
People say that they just couldnt give up cheese for
example, because its just so good. But is that second of
pleasure worth it for the lofty price our environment
pays?
Veganism is not hard, what is hard is coming to terms
with the truth, which says that our ignorance has ruined
the world.
I decided that instead of eating others, I would eat for
others, and do a whole lot of good for not just my
health, but also our planets health and for the fellow
creatures of our world.