We grow enough food to feed ten billion people. Factory farming is an extremely inefficient industry. If we stop using land, water and edible crops to feed nonhuman beings who are bred and killed for food, and we ate the crops, everyone in the world would have enough to eat.
We all know that factory farming is second only to fossil fuel usage as the cause of the climate and environmental crisis, but factory farming also wastes natural resources.
Factory farming uses about 75 percent (three quarters) of all agricultural land which is 30 percent of the land surface of the planet! Accordingly, factory farming of nonhuman beings is the biggest cause of deforestation.
In addition to land, we use about ten times more fossil fuels (for transportation, etc.) to produce one calorie of nonhuman flesh, byproducts and secretions than one calorie of plant protein. (Factory farming produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation industry of the world.)
Third, regarding water,
to produce one pound of beef, we use 1,799 gallons of water;
to produce one pound of pork, we use 576 gallons of water;
to produce one pound of chicken, we use 468 gallons of water;
to produce one pound of soybeans, we use 216 gallons of water;
to produce one pound of corn, we use 108 gallons of water;
and to produce one egg, we use 53 gallons of water;
not to mention the use of fossil fuels for transportation.
A one quarter pound hamburger requires over 660 gallons of water to produce which is enough water to shower for two months.
Domestic water usage in the United States measures 5% compared to factory farming usage of 55%.
Approximately one billion people or 1/6 of the earth’s population do not have enough to eat, but 40 percent of the world’s grain is fed to livestock.
Grain (predominately corn and soy) that could feed the hungry human beings is used to quickly fatten up nonhuman beings in factory farms to grow big and fat and profitable. The amount of grain that would feed 50 people produces one eight ounce steak.
As long as “Big Ag” pays more than developing countries for grain to feed nonhuman beings to slaughter for food because human beings in affluent countries have insatiable appetites for butter, cheese, ice cream, chicken, ham, bacon, sausage, etc., human starvation will continue.
Furthermore, with respect to sustainability, if the population continues to increase the way it has increased during the last few decades, we will not be able to produce enough nonhuman flesh, byproducts and secretions to sustain a diet of meat, fish, dairy and eggs in ten years.
If we all eat a plant based diet starting today, we refuse to support a system that perpetuates human starvation with our dollars, and fosters peace in the world and in our hearts and souls.