ipl-logo

Comparing The Cattle Industry And Global Climate Change

657 Words3 Pages

The Cattle Industry and Global Climate Change
Bella Brannon
Ocean View High School Instructor: Robert Gonzalez
June 5, 2018

Introduction: Steak, hot dogs, and hamburgers. They’re engraved into the very fabric of American lifestyle and culture, it’s hard to imagine a life without beef products. Then again, imagining a life with damaged rainforests, rising sea levels and blazing temperatures seems far in the future as well, but that’s where we’re heading. Staggering heat and global climate change are upon us. In one year, the United States alone emitted 15.1 trillion metric pounds of greenhouse gases into our fragile atmosphere. Thirty-three percent, a significant portion, was produced by the meat, specifically the cattle industry. …show more content…

Enteric fermentation is the digestive process when carbohydrates are broken down into easier absorbed compounds, the waste in this process is released as methane. Like carbon, methane is a greenhouse gas, but with an environmental impact of 25 times that of carbon. As the human population rapidly increases, so does the need for food. Thus the amount of cows directly relates to the amount of methane released into our atmosphere. Disaster is imminent if change is not made soon. Research Question: Does the release of methane in the cattle industry have an effect on global climate change? Hypothesis: If cuts in the meat industry occur, then there will be a significant reduction inthe amounts of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere; which will be a major leap towards ending global climate change. Materials: Computers

Show More
Related
699 Words | 3 Pages

Is eating meat a detrimental threat to the environment? This debate over meat’s involvement in the global warming crisis was what inspired Nicolette Hahn Niman to write, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma.” Niman hoped writing, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma,” would cause her audience to understand that eating meat, raised on traditional farms, was a superior alternative to vegetarianism. Niman supported her claim by explaining how industrialized farms and vegetarians produce more of the three greenhouse gases that caused global warming, than that produced by traditional farms. Niman’s article fell short of being effective due to flaws in her supporting evidence and conclusion.

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

In the article ‘The Climate Crisis at the End of our Fork’ Anna Lappe, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, has drawn on research to determine that a “full eighteen percent of the worlds global warming effect is associated with ‘land use changes’” (Lappe 753) such as livestock emissions and the destruction of rainforests. According to Lappe, these changes in land are used for livestock and pastures for cattle. This poor management of land significantly impacts climate change which produces food for consumers. Therefore, Lappe suggests that people look more closely at what they eat and where it comes from.

Read More
795 Words | 4 Pages

The article was written in response to the statement farming and food production is leading to climate change. Niman, being a rancher who raises cattle, goats, and turkeys, effectively frames the situation logically by providing credible statistics and examples to help the reader better understand the impacts of different methods of food production. She does this by providing specific information regarding the greenhouse gases involved, being carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides. Niman, the rhetor, has written this article to try and inform the readers about the differences between traditional style and industrial style methods of food production. She has directed the article towards those concerned about the carbon footprint, we as individuals, are leaving

Read More
248 Words | 1 Pages

According to the article, new studies show that half the world's greenhouse gas is created by livestock. One of the greenhouse gases is methane. The EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, believes methane gas released by livestock is a serious problem. The Con side of this issue argues that eating less meat could actually harm the environment.

Read More
506 Words | 3 Pages

Kip Anderson of the movie documentary “Cowspiracy” shares a UN study states that the meat and dairy industries, and factory farming currently taking place on the planet emit more fossil fuels into the atmosphere than our entire transportation sector, including cars, boats, trains, planes. The study claims that as much as 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture, while transportation exhaust totals 13% of all emissions. These emissions are split between three main contributors: carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide, and methane gases. With each gas, animals emissions comes out as a leading contributors with 51%, 32 billion tons, of CO2, 65% of nitrous oxide, and 26% of methane gas emissions directly or indirectly from our

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

There is an excess in food produced that is never eaten. All the resources put into the meat production

Read More
697 Words | 3 Pages

The Locavores blame this to the outside production and transportation of products such as meat or vegetables. They have decided that the consumption of local food will help in reducing global warming because the distance of transportation of products will be small compare to outside production. Still, this is not completely true. The transportation of products is not greatest factor in climate impact in fact one of the greatest contributor to the Greenhouse gas emission is the production of foods (Source D). Also, the difference of CO2 produce by outside production and local production might be minimal if not the same.

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

With climate change and global warming taking a toll on Earth, the environment is deteriorating: Droughts and heat waves are frequent, natural disasters are intensified, and the temperature continues to rise. Thus, the leading causes of climate change need to be examined and changes need to be executed to salvage the Earth and save it from being slowly uninhabitable. While there are many approaches to the issue, promoting a non-beef diet is the best approach in decreasing carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change and global warming. The production of beef requires significantly more resources than other meat such as chicken and pork.

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

In this day and age science and technology have been greatly improved over a short period of time, one thing you don’t often think of is how this has an impact on animals and farm production. In this essay we will be talking about how technology has affected cattle and feed production. Many new technologies have been introduced into the farming and cattle industries that are more high tech and complicated than you could ever image, some tech that we have doesn’t seem necessary. Many advances made include better vaccination programs, feed production and mineral supplements , and the new and improved tech in farming equipment. Minerals and mineral supplements are very important in the beef cattle industry, it has been shown that beef cattle have no wisdom in the amount of nutrients, and which nutrients they must consume, so producers must introduce the necessary nutrients to the herd to ensure adequate mineral consumption.

Read More
1348 Words | 6 Pages

The natural reaction is to answer yes, because even if red meat is only a (large) fraction of total meat consumption, its production has proportionally the biggest impact on the environment. First, red meat requires a lot of resources to produce. One kilo of feedlot beef requires 15 500 L of water, about 7kg of grain and every kcal of beef requires 57 kcal of energy (mostly fossil). Even if range beef does not require grain and requires less energy per kcal, it still requires more water than their industrialized counterparts (even if the water footprints are completely different). These statistics reveal that red meat production and especially beef are eroding considerably our available natural resources: energy, water and

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

The documentary Cowspiracy, overall, wants to tell us about the truth behind animal agriculture, which heavily affects the survival of our planet. Basically, the documentary said that animal agriculture is responsible for most of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, which also affects our planet. The goal of this documentary is to make us believe that the meat industry, and by extension the fast food industry, are the causes that lead to most of our environmental issues. Also, the documentary stated that the amount of water that is used for cows and other livestock is way too much and our planet will gradually face a lack of water. The solution that they propose is just to become vegetarians, which will solve everything.

Read More
808 Words | 4 Pages

As mentioned in the article, Deforestation and methane emissions are the two negative consequences of the meat and dairy production. The production brings

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

Veganism is a foolproof method to provide the answers the Earth needs, especially as the world’s population continues its inefficient and environmentally damaging methods of energy usage. People tend to focus on the political sides of climate change, however, the biggest problem the world faces in energy consumption is not transportation emissions but is how we go about out food systems and daily food choices. Evidence has surfaced about how daily food choices impact the climate severely. According to an assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the livestock sector of global greenhouse gases surpassed that of transportation.

Read More
1038 Words | 5 Pages

Humans today pollute the air all the time by driving cars, using electricity, flying on planes, and from factories. In the last ten years alone, CO2 emissions have risen 42%. Carbon Dioxide is a big problem because it traps heat into the Earth’s atmosphere (“Climate Change Indicators”). It all goes back to the greenhouse effect. The

Read More
1352 Words | 6 Pages

Food wastage not only affected the economy, also the environment. The GFG emissions occurred in the food supply chain, usually during the production stage and the final phrase (Food Wastage footprint and Climate Change, 2016). For example, the cow at the production stage, till it reached to consumer. From production stage, farmer feed the cow, to the transportation, to the restaurant, the ingredients used to cook the beef, and the end to the customer. In this long process assembled extra gas and methane, produce by the ruminant along the suppl chain.

Read More

More about Comparing The Cattle Industry And Global Climate Change

Related Topics

Open Document