LIVESTOCK CONSUMPTION NOTES
Animal treatment in North America… research on Chromebook Opening Information - Interesting Facts
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
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How much do we need?
Is it possible to raise livestock humanely?
Outline:
What is the livestock and meat production industry?
It is a whole industry of people who raise animals and kill them for food.
How might the livestock industry benefit people?
Half of the 768 million people living in poverty worldwide depend directly on livestock. It provides 14% of the total calories and 33% of the protein in people’s diets at the global level.
In the United States, 30% of calories come from animal-based foods like meat and dairy.
Why is it a problem for people, animals, and the planet?
We eat too much meat causing many animal deaths
The average American will eat the equivalent of 800 hamburgers in 2018. https://qz.com/1171669/the-average-american-will-eat-the-equivalent-of-800-ham
USA.com: 150 MILLION animals are killed a day.
Animalkillclock.org Daily deaths US:
43,109,000,000 shellfish
7,958,900,000 chickens
3,797,000,000 fish
226,580,000 turkeys
123,686,000 pigs
35,810,000 cattle
28,620,000 ducks
6,880,000 sheep
The deaths of livestock are cruel.
How Pigs are Slaughtered:
An average pig lives up to 15 years, but a factory farm pig only has 6 months before it is slaughtered.
Pigs are often tased and beaten to get them into the truck, and many die on the way to the slaughterhouse because they breathe in the exhaust of the truck and are not given any food or water. More than 1 million pigs die from transport to the slaughterhouse.
On average, a slaughterhouse kills around 1,100 pigs every hour.
Many pigs are still conscious when they get scalded with water to soften their skin.
How Cows Are Slaughtered:
The industry of beef transport to the slaughterhouse is just as terrifying as the slaughterhouse. As the cows get loaded onto the truck, they are forced to be in a truck with not enough room for them to move.
When cows get to the slaughterhouse, they often have to wait a long time and can hear the squeals of the other cows being killed, so the tension builds up.
A lot of cows can even smell the blood of the corpses.
Most leather comes from cows raised for both beef and milk. Cows raised for beef spend most of their lives on extremely crowded feedlots. Studies have found that ranchers maximize profits by giving each steer less than 20 square feet of living space — the equivalent of putting 12 half-ton steers in a typical American bedroom!
The animals are subjected to painful procedures such as castration, branding (which causes third-degree burns), tail-docking, and dehorning — all without painkillers. They are deprived of veterinary care and exposed to the elements without any shelter. These breathing, thinking, feeling beings, who feel pain just as humans do, suffer immensely. They are also fed a steady diet of hormones to fatten them and antibiotics to keep them alive in extremely poor living conditions. https://www.kinderworld.org/videos/meat-industry/cow-slaughter
How Chickens and Turkeys are Slaughtered:
We raise too much livestock in bad conditions
How chickens are raised:
Free-range chickens have a little door they can go out of, but it’s so crowded that they can't go outside.
Pigs are raised in a cage:
Pigs in a factory farm stay in a cage for most of their life and never get to go outside, so when they do walk around, they often just fall over on their face.
Rise of mega-farms:
How the US model of intensive farming is invading the world.
Intensive farming size:
The US has led the world in large-scale farming, pioneering the use of intensive livestock rearing in hog farms, cattle sheds, and sheep pens. There are now more than 50,000 facilities in the US classified as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), with another [250,000 smaller] industrial-scale facilities….. According to the UN, globally, CAFOs account for 72% of poultry, 42% of egg, and 55% of pork production. According to the Worldwatch Institute: In 2016 there were “about 24 billion livestock in the world, with the majority of eggs, chicken meat, and pork produced on intensive farms.”
Intensive farming advantages in cost, healthcare, land use:
Intensive farming of livestock offers many advantages over traditional open ranges, not least economies of cost, more efficient healthcare for the herds and flocks, and ultimately cheaper food. “Advocates of large livestock facilities point out that they have advantages in terms of animal welfare: for instance, the warmth, humidity, and levels of daylight can be centrally controlled, predators and potential disease carriers – such as badgers – are excluded, and veterinary expertise is often on-site."
According to Defra, to raise one billion poultry a year: “If these birds were raised according to free-range standards, they would take up an area twice the size of Copenhagen; to house these birds organically would require a space the size of [an island country].”
Farmers struggling with feed costs, energy prices, and the pressure from big supermarket buyers have been increasingly abandoning small-scale farming. Food prices have risen in recent years while wages have stagnated, meaning a larger proportion of the family budget is having to be spent on food, and people on low incomes face a choice between eating and other essentials such as heating and housing. In these circumstances, measures to keep food cheap [are very important to people].
Intensive farming problems in healthcare and ethical treatment of animals:
The reality is an increasing number of livestock are “zero grazes,” spending all or almost all of their time indoors in large warehouse-type facilities.
Compassion in World Farming said the problems of mega-farms around the world included over-medication, where animals are given antibiotics whether they are needed or not. “Factory-farmed animals are regularly given antibiotics in their feed or water, because of the higher risk of disease when large numbers of animals are kept in these overcrowded conditions. There is strong evidence that this overuse of antibiotics in intensive farming is contributing to antibiotic resistance in human medicine."
Too many resources are used:
Wwf.com or worldwidelife.com: 25% of land used for cows and beef is raised on important land.
World wide: “Livestock is by far the single largest [human] user of land, with up to 26% of terrestrial areas dedicated to rangelands and about 33% of croplands dedicated to fodder production.”
On one acre of land, you can grow 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, and 30,000 pounds of carrots, but only 250 pounds of beef. (Eat for the Planet)
Livestock industry contributes emissions which pollute air, land, & water
Emissions
World wide - The livestock industry is responsible for 14.5% of human-induced GHG emissions. (Eva’s facts on climate change)
42% of the USA farm emissions are caused by livestock animals. (NY Times)
241 million tons of USA greenhouse gases are emitted by livestock. (NY Times)
2/3 of greenhouse gases in the USA are from animals burping and farting methane. (NY Times)
3.4 percent of greenhouse gases in the USA are from livestock. (NY Times)
Most of America's emissions come from power plants and transportation. (NY Times)
Land Use
41% of USA land is used to feed livestock. (Treehugger.com)
Water Use
How much Americans eat annually (average diet for each person) (Eat for the Planet):
Beef – 54 pounds, which uses 97,200 gallons of water (1800 gal/pound)
Pork – 46 pounds, which uses 26,496 gallons of water (576 gal/pound)
Chicken – 83 pounds, which uses 38,844 gallons of water (468 gal/pound)
Potatoes – 142 pounds, which uses 16,898 gallons of water (119 gal/pound)
What companies and institutions are responsible for the livestock industry?
People who buy animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, leather)
Slaughterhouses
Farmers
Corporate food producers - Foster Farms, Oscar Meyer
What organizations are helping with information or direct action?
Educational Organizations:
PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Animalclock.org
World Wildlife Fund
Compassion in World Farming
Protests:
Vigils in Vernon (near LA) around trucks of pigs headed for the slaughterhouse. “The demonstrations are organized by two nonprofit groups, the Animal Alliance Network and L.A. Animal Save. They’re associated with the Save Movement, a network of activists who promote veganism and 'bear witness' outside slaughterhouses around the world to what they say is the innate cruelty of modern-day meat production.”
What can we do about solving some of the problems?
We know that making any large changes is hard. You have to get people’s attention. However, we have made big changes before. For example, the Clean Air Act in 1970 helped get rid of a lot of air pollution from factories and vehicles: a 50% decline in air pollutants since 1990. These big changes can happen, they just take time.
A. Sustainable agriculture:
US Dept of Agriculture: “Organic farming has become one of the fastest-growing segments of U.S. agriculture. USDA... recognizes organic farming practices as good farming practices…”
B. Kinder treatment of animals, including humane slaughtering practices:
Treehugger.com - A Look Inside a Humane Slaughter House - A video presentation about a less brutal way to kill livestock used for food. Comments by Sami Grover on the website: “Believers in humanely-reared meat as part of integrated, sustainable agriculture will most likely be impressed by the evident respect given to the animal, the care with which workers try to avoid unnecessary suffering, and the brutal honesty that this is still about taking a life. Many vegetarians and vegans may see this as yet another reminder of why they choose to avoid meat altogether — even if it is a vast improvement on some of the horrors of factory farming that have emerged in the past.“
C. Help communities worldwide provide safe plant-based foods for everyone.
D. Consume fewer animal-based foods.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION - How much do we need?
Survey on how animals are raised, killed, and eaten for food or used for other products:
1. Do you eat meat every day? If no, how many days per week?
2. Do you eat dairy products or eggs every day? If no, how many days per week?
3. Do you have shoes or clothing made of leather animal products?
4. Would you be willing to only use non-leather or non-animal products in your clothing and shoes?
5. Do you have clothing or bedding made from wool or other animal fiber (like feathers)?
6. Would you be willing to stop purchasing items made from wool or other animal fiber (like feathers)?
7. What if the livestock industry cut production by 50%? Could you manage if you only bought meat and dairy on three days per week (with limited quantities)?
8. What if the livestock industry cut production by 75%? Could you manage if you only bought meat and dairy on a few days per month (with limited quantities)?
9. Would you be willing to pay twice as much money to farmers for meat, so that their animals have a better life before being slaughtered?
Websites to check out:
229 million https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/pigs/pig-transport-slaughter/