Impacts of Animal Products Consumption: Feedlots, Aquaculture & Environmental Ramifications

2. What kinds of meat do you consume? Beef, chicken, turkey, pork, duck, other fowl, buffalo, deer, other game, fish, shellfish • How often do you eat meat? • 1x a week or less - 1x a day • more than 1x a day - never • What kinds of other animal products do you consume? Milk and dairy, eggs, honey, gelatin (in Jello, some candy), glycerin (in toothpaste)… • How often do you eat other animal products? • 1x a week or less - 1x a day • more than 1x a day - never

3. Eating animal products has significant impacts • As wealth and commerce increase, so does consumption of meat, milk, and eggs • Global meat production has increased fivefold • Per capita meat consumption has doubled • http://www.themeatrix.com/

4. Feedlots (factory farms) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) • Huge warehouses or pens designed to deliver energy-rich food to animals living at extremely high densities • Over ½ of the world’s pork and poultry come from feedlots

5. The benefits and drawbacks of feedlots • Benefits • Efficient- more food, less land used • Drawbacks • Pollution- water and air • Disease in runoff from manure • Heavy uses of antibiotics to control disease • Animal treatment concerns

6. Energy choices through food choices • 90% of energy is lost in each step of food chain • Some animals convert grain into meat more efficiently than others • Eating lower on food chain = less energy lost

7. Environmental ramifications of eating meat Land and water are needed to raise food for livestock

9. Aquaculture • raising aquatic organisms for food in a controlled environment • open-water pens or land-based ponds

10. Aquaculture is growing rapidly • The fastest-growing type of food production • Provides a third of the world’s fish for human consumption • Most widespread in Asia

11. Benefits: A reliable protein source Sustainable Protects wild fish Energy efficient Drawbacks: Diseases, antibiotics Reduces food security Waste Disease introduced to wild populations The benefits and drawbacks of aquaculture