Facts about the meat/dairy industry...?!

Each country has their own laws, except member nations of the European Union who can make multinational agreements. The EU has outlawed the use of battery egg production with all battery facilities to go cage free by January next year ( http://www.europarl.europa.eu/en/pressro… ). They have also outlawed the use of crates for raising veal calves ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/623256… ). However in the US these and other cruel practices are allowed. Veal crates are illegal in Australia but battery egg facilities are the norm.

Global meat production stood at 229 million tonnes in 2000 ( http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006… ) which is projected to increase by 68% by 2030, and milk production increasing by 57% in the same time ( http://www.pnas.org/content/107/43/18237… ) . This growth rate cannot be sustained and the UN Environment Program ( http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/ ) and associated researchers ( http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/0… ) recommend significant reductions in the amount of livestock production undertaken globally .

The IPCC 4th report into climate change indicates that 12% of global greenhouse emissions comes directly from livestock, but they haven't yet factored in the effects of land use changes. A major influence on this is the fact that so much plant material must be produced to raise livestock, particularly large species which have higher energy requirements. There are estimated thresholds for environmental nitrogen and energy production which will be crossed if livestock production increases along the projected trajectory. This will have significant consequences for the affected environments, but the worst part is we don't know what these will be.

"As of 2000, the livestock sector is estimated to have contributed 14% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (18% taking into account land use, land use change, and forestry), 63% of reactive nitrogen mobilization*, and consumed 58% of directly used human appropriated biomass globally. Using simplified and (we believe) conservative models, we estimate that production of livestock in 2050 at levels projected by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO projections scenario) may increase direct livestock-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from meat, milk, and egg production on the order of 39%, biomass appropriation by 21%, and reactive nitrogen mobilization by 36% above reported year 2000 levels." - Pelletier and Tyedmers (2010). Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050. PNAS October 26, 2010 vol. 107 no. 43 18371–18374.

The authors go on to say that replacing resource intensive species like cattle with small species like poultry,"could reduce these anticipated impacts by a modest 5–13%" which could occur through taxes and subsidies.

Anyway there is far more detailed info than this contained in the two UN agency reports linked below. If you want more specific info on production figures than is in the reports just check their sources.

http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a07…

The meat industry takes 87% of Americas agriculteral land, 95% of oats, 80% of grain and 80% of corn, half our fresh water, and food that could feed 800million starving people, when the goverment made the industry they knocked down 160million acres if rain forest killing 1.5 billion animals in the process. For every pound of beef you eat 55 acres of the rain forest have been perminantly destroyed. In all places the workers are usualley ilegle immigrants who are told if they say anything about how the company forces animals into pregnancy than takes their babys away right after birth causing extreem emotional dammage for both of them and placing them in a cage so small they can't move and develop habbits such as knawing on the bars and so on and are finally taken to the slaughter house to be skinned alive they will tell the goverment about the ilegle immigrants working there and they would be deported.

Food.Inc, meet your meat, earthlings, mercy for animals, being vegetarian

ALL of those numbers Dilara Gingerich just stated are Absolutely False!

Here is an example - She said (For every pound of beef you eat 55 acres of the rain forest have been permanently destroyed)

If this were true the rain forests would have been gone YEARS ago! But she is right about one thing, rain forests are being destroyed, for meat AND fruit/vegetable farming.

Typical vegan propaganda

Peta always exaggerate the facts, the meat industry destroys acres of land, but so does the vegetables and fruits industry

Some info about milk:

http://www.goingvegetarian.net/milk-healthy-drink-deadly-danger

You could try watching the documentary named Earthlings. It's on YouTube, I believe it has 10 parts.