I understand it is harder on the environment than not being a non vegetarian. Wild animals are very efficient at harvesting their food supply and require no gas and oil for energy.
Below is just one of many items on the extreme cost to the enviroment to eating meats. P.S. Eating vegetarian is less costly for me, 1/3 the food budget, because I eat less by obtaining my vitamins etc. When one does not get the required vitamins and minerals their body seeks, the body states it is hungry when in fact it doesn't need more and more food, it needs nutrients. http://www.emagazine.com/view/?142 Environmental Costs Energy-intensive U.S. factory farms generated 1.4 billion tons of animal waste in 1996, which, the Environmental Protection Agency reports, pollutes American waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Meat production has also been linked to severe erosion of billions of acres of once-productive farmland and to the destruction of rainforests. McDonalds took a group of British animal rights activists to court in the 1990s because they had linked the fast food giant to an unhealthy diet and rainforest destruction. The defendants, who fought the company to a standstill, made a convincing case. In court documents, the activists asserted, From 1970 onwards, beef from cattle reared on ex-rainforest land was supplied to McDonalds. In a policy statement, McDonalds claims that it does not purchase beef which threatens tropical rainforests anywhere in the world, but it does not deny past purchases. Circle Four Farms, a Utah-based pork producer, hosts a three-million gallon waste lagoon. When lagoons like this spill into rivers and lakes as happened in North Carolina in 1995, the result can be environmentally catastrophic. © AP Photo / Douglas C. Pizac According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), livestock raised for food produce 130 times the excrement of the human population, some 87,000 pounds per second. The Union of Concerned Scientists points out that 20 tons of livestock manure is produced annually for every U.S. household. The much-publicized 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska dumped 12 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, but the relatively unknown 1995 New River hog waste spill in North Carolina poured 25 million gallons of excrement and urine into the water, killing an estimated 10 to 14 million fish and closing 364,000 acres of coastal shellfishing beds. Hog waste spills have caused the rapid spread of a virulent microbe called Pfiesteria piscicida, which has killed a billion fish in North Carolina alone. More than a third of all raw materials and fossil fuels consumed in the U.S. are used in animal production. Beef production alone uses more water than is consumed in growing the nations entire fruit and vegetable crop. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fuel to drive 20 miles and causes the loss of five times its weight in topsoil. In his book The Food Revolution, author John Robbins estimates that youd save more water by not eating a pound of California beef than you would by not showering for an entire year. Because of deforestation to create grazing land, each vegetarian saves an acre of trees per year. We definitely take up more environmental space when we eat meat, says Barbara Bramble of the National Wildlife Federation. I think its consistent with environmental values to eat lower on the food chain. --------------------------------- Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
