What Killing Billions Of Animals For Meat Is Doing To The Environment
1. Do you eat meat ? How many times a week do you eat it ? What is your favourite meat ?
2. Listen to the short audio clip, what is it about ?
3. What do these words mean ? Use your translator to find out.
Opposing
Pesticides
Feedlots
Degredation
Awareness
Agriculture
Slaughter
Extracting
Destruction
Livestock
Greenhouse gas
Excrement
Methane
Emit
4. Listen to the audio clip again and fill in the blanks on a seperate sheet of paper.
Global food production today is a mess. Not only do we have millions of people 1.________________ major biotech corporations for their use and production of GMOs and 2._________________ (for good reasons – backed by science), we are also completely destroying our environment with intensive animal farming.
They are called 3._________________, officially referred to as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation” (CAFO) and more commonly known as factory farms. They house thousands of animals in horrid conditions that breed disease and massive environmental 4._____________________. Despite this fact, they remain a -issue to several major organizations whose job it is to raise 5.___________________ on the various issues contributing to our planet’s destruction at an exponential rate.
According to FarmForward, after examining the numbers from the U.S. Department of 6.___________________ they determined that 99 percent of farmed animals in the U.S. are raised on feedlots. We are talking about billions of animals raised for 7._________________ every year, and that is in the U.S. alone. Globally, more than seventy billion of these animals are raised for slaughter every single year.
“Feedlots are a brilliant representation of how abstract our food industry has come. It’s an efficient system for 8.___________________ the maximum yield from animals. That’s the world we live in now. We want to extract the maximum yield from everything, no matter what business you are in.”
Did you know that the leading cause of rainforest 9.___________________ is our own food supply? We tear them down to make room for food crops and 10._________________ grazing, and are doing so at an approximate rate of an entire football field’s worth of forest every single second. Every single day, close to 100 plant/animal/insect species are lost because of this practice.
Another Important Fact About Factory Farms That Nobody Talks About
Did you know that in 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined? Did you know that 51 percent (or more) of global 11._____________________ emissions are caused by animal agriculture?
“The billions of chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows who are raised for food each year in the U.S. produce a tremendous amount of 12._____________________, releasing methane and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. 13.____________________, which is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, accounts for 9 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in this country. And the 523 million chickens raised and killed each year in Delaware and Maryland alone generate enough waste to fill the dome of the U.S. Capitol about 50 times in a single year – or almost once a week. And each cow 14.________________ approximately 66 to 79 gallons of methane every single day. There are currently 88 million cattle in the United States. You do the math. Together, these cows reportedly produce more methane than landfills, natural gas leaks and fracking.”
If we are talking about human activity as one (of what could be many) factors contributing to environmental destruction and global climate change, why is it that factory farming is not included?
Below you will see one example of what factory farming is doing to the environment. The chemicals excreted from animal waste turn the landscape into giant cesspools.
This picture comes from Mishka Henner, and you can view many more of these shocking and disturbing photos of feedlots here.
5. Finally, listen to the audio clip and read along at the same time to see if your answers were correct.
Global food production today is a mess. Not only do we have millions of people opposing major biotech corporations for their use and production of GMOs and pesticides (for good reasons – backed by science), we are also completely destroying our environment with intensive animal farming.
They are called feedlots, officially referred to as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation” (CAFO) and more commonly known as factory farms. They house thousands of animals in horrid conditions that breed disease and massive environmental degradation. Despite this fact, they remain a non-issue to several major organizations whose job it is to raise awareness on the various issues contributing to our planet’s destruction at an exponential rate.
According to FarmForward, after examining the numbers from the U.S. Department of agriculture they determined that 99 percent of farmed animals in the U.S. are raised on feedlots. We are talking about billions of animals raised for slaughter every year, and that is in the U.S. alone. Globally, more than seventy billion of these animals are raised for slaughter every single year.
“Feedlots are a brilliant representation of how abstract our food industry has come. It’s an efficient system for extracting the maximum yield from animals. That’s the world we live in now. We want to extract the maximum yield from everything, no matter what business you are in.”
Did you know that the leading cause of rainforest destruction is our own food supply? We tear them down to make room for food crops and livestock grazing, and are doing so at an approximate rate of an entire football field’s worth of forest every single second. Every single day, close to 100 plant/animal/insect species are lost because of this practice.
Another Important Fact About Factory Farms That Nobody Talks About
Did you know that in 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a report stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined? Did you know that 51 percent (or more) of global greenhouse-gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture?
“The billions of chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows who are raised for food each year in the U.S. produce a tremendous amount of excrement, releasing methane and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Methane, which is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, accounts for 9 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions in this country. And the 523 million chickens raised and killed each year in Delaware and Maryland alone generate enough waste to fill the dome of the U.S. Capitol about 50 times in a single year – or almost once a week. And each cow emits approximately 66 to 79 gallons of methane every single day. There are currently 88 million cattle in the United States. You do the math. Together, these cows reportedly produce more methane than landfills, natural gas leaks and fracking.”
If we are talking about human activity as one (of what could be many) factors contributing to environmental destruction and global climate change, why is it that factory farming is not included?
Article by Arjun Walia taken from collective-evolution.com for use only as an English language learning tool...........and to help people awaken and expand their consciousness.
"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian"
Sir Paul McCartney
“Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.”
George Bernard Shaw