Veganism
Compassion
Health
Environment
Eating Vegan
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Environment

Chickens at Farm Sanctuary.

The animal industry isn't only rough on animals, but also on our environment.

Energy

U.S. livestock consume more than six and a half times as much grain as the entire U.S. human population consumes directly. According to the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology, if all this grain was consumed directly by humans, it would nourish five times as many people as it does after it is converted into meat, milk and eggs.

Animal food production is very inefficient in terms of energy requirements. The production and harvesting of animal foods use up almost all the energy in the United States food system.

A vegan diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4200 gallons of water per day.

Water Pollution

Agriculture, crops and livestock is the number one source of water pollution in the U.S. Fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, and livestock waste runoffs all severely pollute the U.S. waterways.
Approximately 1.5 billion tons of manure comes from North American food animals each year.
Animal agriculture is a major consumer of water resources in the U.S. Irrigation, employed mainly for feed crops, uses more than 80% of U.S. water. And agriculture in total uses almost 90% of fresh water consumed annually in the U.S.

Soil Erosion

Intensive animal agriculture practices, such as overgrazing, have so degraded the grasslands that soil erosion rates in the U.S. are now extremely high. about 90% of U.S. cropland is losing soil at least thirteen times faster than the sustainable rate. The amount of topsoil lost may take thousands of years to be redeposited.

Deforestation

Animal agriculture accounts for more than 80% of annual world deforestation.
The U.S. is the world's largest consumer of Central American beef. Cattle ranching has destroyed more rain forest and caused more loss of biodiversity than any other activity in this part of the world.