How the Food we Feed Farm Animals is Destroying the Environment

Jenna Bardroff
September 18, 2014
ONEGREENPLANETEARTH MONSTER
The sun provides energy for grass to grow, herbivores eat the grass, and carnivores eat the
herbivores. This is how the most basic food cycle works, right? Right unless the herbivores in this
situation are actually livestock a group of herbivores that humans have overproduced specifically
for their own consumption.

Livestock can be defined as any domesticated animal that is used as a commodity for agricultural
purposes. In the United States, common livestock include cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry, and fish.
Over 99 percent of which are raised on factory farms for the food industry. Seeing these animals as
commodities, they are mass produced in large highly-efficient facilities.

Farming animals in this manner disrupts the delicately balanced food cycle creating more
herbivores then there are plants (or more readily, space), and more carnivores (i.e. humans who eat
meat). Industrial farming has also shown to have a number of detrimental environmental impacts,
including high greenhouse gas emissions, extreme water usage and land exploitation, and air
pollution.

How could this news get any worse? Wellturns out weve altered the natural food cycle so much
that even the foods used to raise livestock are damaging the environment and consequently, causing
harm to other animals (including YOU!).

Dont Most Farm Animals Eat Grass?
When many of us imagine farms the way our childhood storybooks described them to us, we often
think of vast rolling green pastures with soft wooden fences and gentle red barns. Along with this
image, animals are frolicking, grazing, rooting, or pecking around in the grass. According to cultural
media, this all seems fine and dandy. So, why are animals being fed corn, soy, wheat and other
grains, bi-products of the remains of other factory farmed animals, andchicken manure?!? (not to
mention added hormones and antibiotics).

Corn and soy are protein-rich food bases that cause animals to quickly reach market weight, and are
much cheaper than other food options due to government subsidies. In the United States, 47
percent of soy and 60 percent of corn is used for livestock consumption. Corn is considered very
productive and can be grown in a variety of environments.

But wait! Arent most farm animals, especially cattle, goats, sheep, and other ruminants naturally
supposed to eat sprouted grasses? Well, who cares about farm animal health anyway? Certainly not
factory farms. Because if they started to care about the health of the animals they raised, that could
cut into their profit margins. It is much cheaper and efficient to feed animals a mixture of corn and
soy then to allow them the freedom and space to roam out in pasture.

Seeing as animal agriculture corporations dont care about the health of their animals, then we cant
really expect them to care about the environment. But just because they dont, doesnt mean we
shouldnt. Our survival depends on protecting the environment, however, it is becoming more and
more apparent that animal agriculture, and our meat-centric diets are making this a tricky task. In
order to produce enough feed to fatten up the billions of livestock being raised on Earth, companies
resort to clear-cutting rainforests to make way for crop fields. It is estimated that 33 percent of
arable land on the planet is used to produce livestock feed!

And the crops of choice of the industry are none too environmentally friendly themselves. Lets look
at how the food that livestock eat is contributing to environmental damage:

Corn
Corn is immensely overproduced due to government subsidies and thus, is grown across about 97
million acres of land in the United States alone about the size of California. Thats a lot of land! In
fact, corn uses more land than any other U.S. crop. Corn also accounts for more than 1/3 of the
United States overall food production by calorie content.
Corn is a grown in large monocultures, meaning there is little or no crop rotation and thus, corn is
more vulnerable to insect infestations. In order to successfully mass-produce nutrient-hungry corn
for livestock, more nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides are required than any other crop. Can you
believe that every year, over six million tons of nitrogen is used on corn through chemical fertilizers
and manure? Corn also reduces soil fertility, rendering the land it is grown on unsuitable for other
plant species.
Chemical fertilizers used for corn production run into lakes, river and streams, and coastal oceans,
causing algae to grow and spread, depleting the waters oxygen. As a result, dead zones, or areas
with less oxygen dissolved in the water, kill many organisms.
Genetically modified corn, also known as Bt corn, contains toxins intended to kill pest insects. When
pollen or other parts of the plant are washed into various bodies of water, the insect populations
within these ecosystems are affected. Since insects are essential to aquatic food webs, many other
species are also put at risk. According to researcher and Assistant Professor Todd Royer from Indiana
University, If our goal is to have healthy, functioning ecosystems, we need to protect all the parts.
Water resources are something we depend on greatly.
Care about water conservation? Cornfields use massive amounts of water every day and consume
over six billion gallons of freshwater each year in the United States.
Can you guess which cereal grain is the largest element of global trade? You got it: corn! And most of
it is used as animal feed. The United States takes the prize for being the largest corn producer and
exporter in the world. One acre of corn is responsible for using on average approximately 60 gallons
of fossil fuels for production and distribution.
Soybeans
Due to the rise of demand for meat, dairy, and eggs in the 1960s, soy production increased to meet
the needs for cheap, high-protein livestock feed. Similar to corn, methods of mass soy production
led to monocultures and thus, heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Land that once
supported important ecosystems in countries such as Argentina and Brazil is now useless to soys soil
degradation.
In the year 2000, 75.2 million pounds of herbicide were used for United States soybean production,
according to the USDA. Unfortunately, with further demand for livestock feed, the amount of
chemical insecticides used will continue to increase.
Deforestation to make room for soy plantations takes a tremendous toll on the environment by
accounting for about fifteen to twenty percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions,
contributing to global climate change. Since rainforests store all of their nutrients within living
matter, destruction of these forests discharges immense amounts of carbon. In Brazil, for example,
over 473 million tons of carbon dioxide was released to make room for soybean plantations.
Soybeans are being produced on fragile systems of land, susceptible to soil erosion. Furthermore,
soy production causes soil compaction, exhausting the soil of its nutrients and value to the
ecosystem. In the late 1990s, over 100 thousand hectares of land in Bolivia were abandoned
because they were so damaged from growing soybeans.
Soybean production requires immense quantities of water. Approximately 530 gallons of water are
needed to produce a mere two pounds of soybeans.
If Not Soy or Grain-Fed Livestock, What Should We Eat?!
As much as many of us would like to believe that consuming grass-fed livestock is more ethical and
environmentally sustainable, it is important to consider that this may not be true at all. In fact, many
grass-fed animals are still fattened up with soy, corn, and other grains. Perhaps you should check
out how livestock are harming the environment simply by grazing on 41.4 percent of U.S. land and
45 percent of the Earths entire terrestrial space!

Fortunately, we all have the opportunity to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock feed by
reducing or eliminating our demand on animal product consumption. Making changes in your eating
choices could even benefit your health! Take a look at some of Green Monster Annalisa Palmers
suggestions for meat-free and soy-free options by clicking here.

Image source: Jim Champion/Wikimedia Commons

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