The real price of meat

Are you willing to pay the price?

The price the planet pays for the meat consumption is really high and, as expected, the problems are increasing over the years. Raising animals for consumption is psychologically shocking, mainly because it is a cruel act, without the least empathy and respect for life, and It is also a disaster for the environment.

One of the biggest disasters is the water crisis. The media usually advises the population to decrease the use of water in their daily activities, but the truth is that only 8% is destined for personal use, 22% is used by industry and 70% by agriculture. If you analyse the whole process, like raising the animal, feeding it, and preparing the meat, it is possible to conclude that 1650 litres of water are used to make a single hamburger.

Undoubtedly, the consumption of meat not only makes the water crisis soar, but it also brings problems as the climatic changes. Producing 1 kilogram of beef in Brazil, for example, involves the emission of 335 kg of CO2, which is equivalent to the emissions generated by driving an average car for 1,600 km (Schmidinger, Stehfest, 2012).

Furthermore, deforestation is another huge problem which is growing fast. The livestock is responsible for most of the deforestation in the Amazon, due to the fact that more than 70% of the deforested land in the Amazon is used as pasture, and a large part of the rest is used for plantations to produce feed.

Most certainly, the best way to dip these problems is having a nourishment based on vegetables, giving the animals the right to live a dignified life, and saving our planet.

References:

SCHMIDINGER, K., STEHFEST, E. Including CO2 implications of land occupation in LCAs—method and example for livestock products. Int J Life Cycle Assess 17, 962–972 (2012). Avalilable at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0434-7 Access: 20 Sep 2020.