The Vegetarian Diet & Its Impact on the Environment

Two years ago I found this information on a website from Australia: www.vegetarianweek.com/au/BenefitsofaVegetarianDiet/. (May no longer be available online.) Here are excerpts from that posting for #14 in Earth Day, Every Day:

• Raising livestock requires huge amounts of water. Most of it is used to irrigate the grains & hay fed to the 17 billion world livestock.
• To produce one pound of beef, 2,464 gallons of water are needed. (Water Ed. Found. using Calif. as the model.)
• Contrastingly, to produce one pound of wheat requires only 25 gallons of water.
• In the year 2000, 40% of fresh water used in the USA was used to irrigate feed crops for livestock. (US Geog. Survey)
• To make beef, you need 20 times more energy than to make tofu.
• Soil erosion means loss of topsoil. The estimate is that 85% of the topsoil loss is related directly to raising livestock (the soil to grow the food for the livestock)
• The Rainforest Action Network reported that 55 sq. ft. of the tropical rainforest are destroyed to make every fast-food burger from rainforest cattle.
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• Livestock produce enormous amounts of manure and urine; this waste pollute our air & water.
• Switching to a plant-based diet or reducing the amount of meat you eat helps save water, energy, keeps the rainforest viable, and reduces pollution & global warming.
• The article also contains health information of a vegetarian diet, which I have or will cover in future postings.