Impact of Farms on the Environment

1. Impact of Farms on the Environment 16-17 Nov 2007 Vege For Healthy Living Regional Congress – Kuala Lumpur

2. Vegetarian Society Singapore • Founded 1999 – non-sectarian • Member of International Vegetarian Union • Objectives: public education; support for vegetarians • Members: 150 – all volunteers • E-Newsletter recipients: 3200

3. Preview • Eating Meat Is Wasting Food! • Meat Gives The Earth Gas = Global Warming Gas!

4. 1st Key Point – EatingMeat Is Wasting Food! • When children grow up, what is the most weight they gain in one year? • How many kgs?

5. How Much Weight Do We Gain? • Adolescence - time of most rapid growth • 12-yr-old girl gains about 4.7kgs • 13-yr-old boy gains about 5.2kgs

6. How Much Do We Eat? • How many kgs of food do adolescents eat in a year?

7. Diet for a Small Planet It takes > 10 kg of grains to produce 1 kg of beef Eating Meat Is Wasting Food

8. The grains and soybeans that are fed to US livestock could feed 1.3 billion people.

9. It takes > 10 kg of grains to produce 1 kg of beef Eating Meat Is Wasting Other Resources • More land • More water • More energy are needed

11. It takes > 10 kg of grains to produce 1 kg of beef …so what happened to the other 9 kg?

12. The animals we eat produce many times more excrement than the entire human population.

13. Meat Pollutes • Animal livestock produces many times more excrement than the entire human population • Waste from meat production massively pollutes the air and water • Single greatest polluter of our waters

14. Meat Wastes Water • Livestock is the key player in depletion of water supplies • Over 8% of global human water use is expended on animals • Takes more than 25 000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef

15. VS 200 Times More!

16. Meat Destroys Forests

17. Meat Destroys Forests • Cleared to grow crops to feed livestock • 70% of Earth's agricultural land is used as pasture or to grow food for livestock • Cattle ranching is the primary reason for deforestation in the Amazon

18. Factory Farmed Fish • Many of the fishes who we eat aren’t wild fishes who live free until they are captured and killed • These fishes are raised in fish farms which are just like the factory farms where chickens, pigs, etc. are forced to live

19. Fishes • 5kgs of wild-caught fish to produce 1 kg of factory-farmed fish • Most of what the fishing fleets pull in isn't even eaten by human beings

20. Global Warming Meat Gives The Earth Gas = Global Warming Gas!

21. Meat Heats Up Global Warming

22. Lee Kuan Yew • Headline: Green future: Why MM is not optimistic (August, 2007)Byline: Lynn LeeA PESSIMISTIC Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said he could not predict what would impact regional growth in 50 years given the damage now taking place to the global environment.

23. ‘Global warming is one big enormous problem that we end up with,' he said, pointing to out-of-whack weather patterns that have spawned droughts, hurricanes and typhoons, and led to glaciers melting.

24. He asked: 'Will we have the wisdom and ability to prevent this degradation of the environment?’

25. 'I have very serious reservations, because I don't see any government telling its people to consume less...less travel, less food, eat more vegetables, don't eat more protein. That's not the way the world is going.'

26. GW – Key Greenhouse Gases • 18% of greenhouse gas comes from production of animal-based food • That’s more than transportation!! • “Livestock’s Long Shadow”, a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation • Carbon Dioxide • Methane – 20+ times more powerful • Nitrous Oxide – almost 300 times more powerful

27. CO2 • Meat production accounts for 9% of carbon dioxide emissions • 70% of agricultural land is used to produce animal-based food • When previously forested areas are converted into grazing land or arable land for feed, a significant amount of carbon dioxide is released • Eating Meat Is Wasting Food!

28. Methane Methane-emitting livestock contribute massively to the Greenhouse Effect and global warming. Animals whom we eat, produce 37% of global methane emissions

29. Methane • Animals like cows and sheep produce methane as they digest food

30. Nitrous Oxide • 296 times global warming power of CO2 • 65% of human related emissions of nitrous oxide are from the nitrogen in animal manure

31. Conclusion Eating Meat Is Wasting Food! Meat Gives The Earth Gas = Global Warming Gas!

32. We are destroying our only home

33. Humans are in some ways the superior species on earth. If we have done wrong to other species and to the planet, we have the responsibility to correct this and not deny or ignore it

34. Many Ways to Slow GW • Most ways to slow GW are inconvenient or worse, e.g., don’t fly, don’t drive, no IT • Eating less meat is relatively easy. To me it’s very easy • For you, it can become easy

35. How Many Times a Week Do You Eat Meat? • 7 days X 3 meals/day = 21 meals in a week • Just increase by 1 plant-based meal/week

36. Virtuous Circle – By Eating Less Meat … • We help our health by eating less meat • We help the env, which enhances our well-being • We show compassion to fellow humans & fellow animals, which helps our psychological health

37. Eat Less Meat

38. Eat Less Meat Save the Earth

39. Upcoming Events • Sun, 3pm, 28 Oct, Library@Orchard – Global Cooling Recipes • 3-18 November – Exhibition at Library@Orchard