Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Reports
The Lancet
, the world's leading
general medical journal, “For the world's
higher-income populations, greenhouse-
gas emissions from meat-eating warrant
the same scrutiny as do those from driving
and flying, especially in view of the great
warming potential of methane in the short-
to-medium term.”
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released into the atmosphere. A Greenpeace report issued in 2008
indicated that land conversion like this is the number-one contribu-
tor of GHG emissions from agriculture throughout the world.
Yet, CO
2
is only one of the greenhouse gases created from indus-
trial animal agriculture. Nitrous oxide and methane, with nearly
300 and 23 times the global warming potential of CO
2
, respec-
tively, are also emitted, mostly from the billions of tons of manure
produced annually by farm animals worldwide. In the United States
alone, cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and other animals raised on
factory farms generate approximately 454 million tonnes of solid
and liquid waste.
Natural manure, when used to fertilize soil, is a key part of
healthy, sustainable farms and landscapes. One of the biggest
crimes of industrial animal agriculture may be its move from
pasture-based farming to indoor confinement. As animals have
been herded inside into massive “grow-out” sheds and ware-
house-like facilities, it is impossible for their manure to be used as
fertilizer. The huge quantities of excrement produced on factory
farms exceed the amount of nearby land available to absorb it,
transforming manure from a valuable agricultural resource into
a toxic waste that threatens soil, water, air quality, and climate.
Storing and disposing of these mountains of manure can lead
