The Environmental Ethics of the American DietWe live in an “era of climate change”; environmental advocacy and sustainability are issues increasingly addressed by mainstream media and politicians (Freeman). Greenhouse gases and energy consumption are at the forefront of discussions about climate change, and environmentalists are urging the American people to "go green" to try to save our planet. While we are constantly told that electric cars, recycling and energy-efficient appliances are among the best ways to reduce our impact on the Earth, our food choices are often ignored in discussions about sustainability (Williams) . However, what we eat has extreme and direct effects on our environment, and our meat consumption is of particular concern. Recently, the UN concluded that "land animal agriculture generates 18% of global [greenhouse gas] emissions, which is even more damaging than transportation" (Freeman). Meat production and consumption have been increasing steadily for decades, and 30% of all land on our planet is used for animal production (Stoll-Kleemann). There is an immense need for a fundamental change in the way America eats if we are to preserve our dying planet. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Humans need food. It's our most basic biological need, and eating is the closest way we can connect to the Earth. It makes sense that we treat our planet, which has provided us with everything we need since birth, in a fully respectful and sustainable way. When we eat meat, we contribute to the degradation of our environment, destroying rainforests, eliminating biodiversity, depleting fresh water, and hindering efforts to reduce world hunger (Stoll-Kleemann ). Meat production, especially beef production, consumes a lot of it. of earth. Acres and hectares are needed for animals to graze and for the production of crops (like corn) that will be used as feed for livestock. In America, it is common to eat beef every day, instead of viewing it as a special treat eaten occasionally. More cultures around the world have begun to view meat in this way, and beef consumption has increased significantly over the past decade. The land needed to produce this product now comes from tropical forests, which is having a devastating effect on the Earth. Sarah Roquemore states in her article, Do you like deforestation with your meal? that beef consumption is "environmentally inefficient" because its production "uses about 60 percent of the world's agricultural land but produces less than 5 percent of the world's protein and less than 2 percent of the world's calories." It is saddening that so much land has been destroyed because of human “needs” for food. Few companies have policies that regulate where their livestock are allowed to be raised, making it easy for plantations to replace natural forests without any consequences to the company (Roquemore). Due to deforestation, Earth's biodiversity is threatened and millions of species are losing their habitats. Animal production, through deforestation, overgrazing andland conversion, represents 30% of global biodiversity loss (Stoll-Kleemann). It is extremely unsustainable to grow large quantities of animal feed, because growing a single crop in a field for years without fallowing depletes soil nutrients. Nearly half of the world's bird species are threatened by destruction caused by monoculture-based feed cultivation. Susanne Stoll-Kleemann and Tim O-Riordan, co-authors of The Sustainability Challenges of Our Meat and Dairy Diets, discuss Animal Production Science study: Australian study shows beef industry has the greatest relative potential contribution to impact on terrestrial biodiversity in Australia, both by the area covered and by the nature of the impacts. This includes the area of ​​native vegetation cleared for grazing, the impacts of overgrazing and trampling, the amount of grain used in high-density feedlots, and the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. Reducing the number of farm animal breeds to make room for selectively raised livestock is also contributing to species loss globally. More than 20% of remaining livestock breeds are currently in danger of extinction because they have been replaced by specially bred, more productive animals. Due to the lack of genetic diversity, there is little hope for long-term sustainability of industrial livestock production (Stoll-Kleemann). Alongside biodiversity loss, meat production is responsible for much of the global freshwater shortage. Agriculture as a whole contributes to 92% of the global freshwater shortage. Table 2 shows that animal products in particular have a much larger freshwater footprint than plant products (Stoll-Kleemann). The reason the animal product footprint is so extreme is due to pollution caused by animal waste (including animal feces and blood), fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and sediment from erosions (Hribar). The water needed to produce livestock feed also plays a role in the beef footprint. For example, it takes over 15,000 gallons of water to produce just 2 pounds of beef. Figure 5, which plots water used for meat production by country, clearly shows that the United States is unfortunately the largest contributor to our fresh water problem (Stoll-Kleemann). Animal agriculture also contributes to world hunger. 44% of the world's grain is used to feed animals raised for meat. Plants that could be used to feed humans are instead used by the meat industry. According to Science magazine, "if current agricultural production used for animal feed and other non-food uses (including biofuels) were targeted for direct consumption, approximately 70% more calories would become available, potentially providing sufficient calories to meet the basic needs of 4 additional people. billion people” (Stoll-Kleemann). American diets must undergo fundamental change if we are to reduce the environmental effects of meat production in our industrial age. Humans contribute to the degradation of our environment in many ways, but one of the biggest is through our own making. eat. Our needs as meat eaters are unsustainable and there needs to be a complete change in diet before the damage inflicted on our planet becomes irreversible. We cannot maintain a.