What’s on your plate? For many Americans, that answer is some type of meat. The average American consumer ate an estimated 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018, the highest amount in recorded history. This seemingly harmless meal is causing a bit more damage than we may have originally thought.
What impact does this have on the planet? Animal agriculture creates huge emissions of greenhouse gasses. These emissions mostly come directly from ruminants, which are mammals such as cows, buffalo, and sheep that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion. The emissions are then released into the atmosphere, which absorbs infrared radiation, warming the Earth and contributing to the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gasses can be natural, such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide, or be made by humans, such as chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons. An excess amount of these gasses in the atmosphere causes the Earth’s temperature to rise. In 2018, an article published by the New York Times stated that “farming is responsible for the equivalent of 574 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States each year.” About 42 percent of agricultural emissions come from, you guessed it, animal agriculture.
So what can we do to help lessen the negative impact of animal agriculture on the climate? By attempting to reduce our meat consumption, we can reduce the greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere. According to PETA, producing just one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 20 miles. A stop to meat consumption is not necessary and simply not practical considering America’s current consumption of meat. However, if meat was viewed as a luxury instead of a large portion of one’s diet, the amount of gas emitted into the atmosphere would be drastically reduced.