Why buy ethical meat

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  • Meat has a much higher “energy footprint” than any other food. It takes 75 times more energy to produce meat than corn (1).
  • It takes an area of vegetation 7 times the size of the EU to produce food for the cattle and other livestock animals in Europe (2)
  • One hectare of rice or potato cropland can feed between 19 and 22 people in one year. For beef one hectare can feed only 1 or 2 people (3).
  • It takes an estimated 2-3 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of protein from soybeans, corn, or wheat. For beef it takes 54 calories of fuel to produce 1 calorie of protein (4).
  • Almost HALF of the world’s harvest is fed to animals.
  • It requires at least 15,500 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of beef. In less than 40 hours the water used for meet production is enough to provide drinking water for everyone on earth for a year (5) 
  • Half of the world’s pork and poultry is raised on factory farms (6). 
  • The burps and farts by cattle and other livestock animals account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (7).
  • US meat and poultry is widely contaminated with drug-resistant staph bacteria (8).

Sources

(1) http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6252

(2) http://www.ciwf.org.uk/resources/publications/environment_sustainability/default.aspx

(3) http://www.unep.org/yearbook/2009/ , p ii

(4) http://www.ciwf.org.uk/resources/publications/environment_sustainability/default.aspx

(5) http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/productgallery&product=beef , http://www.amiiko.com/world/food_and_beverages/water_use_in_meat_consumption

(6) World Watch Institute: State of the World 2004.

(7) http://www.ciwf.org.uk/what_we_do/factory_farming/eating_the_planet.aspx

(8) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110415083153.htm

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