Most people go vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, some will go vegetarian or cut red meat out of their lives for health reasons.  But what about the environment?

As more and more people are starting to think about where their food travels from (my banana came from where?!) and what treatments they’ve underwent (what hormones are in this?!), the implications of eating meat are starting to be realized.

Some fast facts about what it takes to “grow” cattle in the U.S. today:

• It takes a gallon of gas to produce a pound of beef.
• Eighty percent of U.S. grain production goes towards feeding livestock.
• Most pesticides fall on the grain and grass used to feed cattle (which means you’re ultimately consuming them).
• A single cow produces twenty-five pounds of waste per day. There are typically thousands of cows on lots (that’s a lot of crap!).
• Seventy percent of the water use in the eleven western states is designated to watering cattle.
• A single cow produces four hundred quarts of methane gas every day.  Methane gas is one of the most significant contributors to the “greenhouse effect.”
• Seventy percent of the rainforest clearing in the Amazon is to make way for cattle.

Cattle production can be linked to water shortages, dust storms in the Middle East, the widening of waterways, the destruction of grasses and trees, the elimination of fish, the contribution to global warming, and more.

The human loss due to cattle growth is staggering as well.  In a world where so many people are without fresh, clean water and enough to eat, we’re using sixteen pounds of grain and four hundred gallons of water to produce a single pound of meat.

Meat is incredibly inefficient to produce and transport, requiring cattle ranchers to resort to extreme practices—the use of more and more antibiotics and pesticides.

In Mad Cowboy, cattle rancher turned vegan Howard Lyman says, “To be an environmentalist who happens to eat meat is like being a philanthropist who doesn’t happen to give to charity.”

What can you do?

It’s a very personal and gut choice to become vegan or vegetarian, I don’t expect anyone to make such a commitment without a great deal of thought.  However, doing so is one of the most significant lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your carbon footprint.

Not consuming meat means that you will reduce the need for four hundred gallons of water to be used for meat, sixteen pounds of grain, endless clearing of the rainforests, the list goes on and on.

Even if you make one day a week a vegetarian day, you are still helping the cause.  Start small and think about the big impact you’re making.

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