Waste_and_Pollution

Waste and Pollution from the Meat Industry When eating a hamburger, people probably don’t worry about where the burger came from or what was involved in its making . And for the dollar or two it cost, they probably figure that their burger was a pretty good deal. Due in part to the enormous growth of the fast-food industry and rising standards of living around the globe, the world consumes more than twice as much beef per capita as it did 40 years ago. The problem is all that meat that people are consuming comes with hidden costs that have a major impact on the environment. People don't think much about where the meat comes from or how it traveled from cow to supermarket. And if they do think about it, they probably picture a cow grazing in a field in the countryside somewhere. For hundreds of years that image was pretty accurate, but it's not anymore. According Schlosser (1996), there's a good chance the burger comes from meat produced in an industrial feedlot where thousands of cows are packed into an enormous livestock,standing up or lying down in their own manure. This kind of huge animal feedlot operation has made the cost of beef low enough that McDonald's can sell you a cheeseburger for one dollar and still make a profit. The environmental problem in the world have their sources nearly in food production or meat production .The environmental consequences from the industrial production of meat include air and water pollution ,land degradation and deforestation. Air pollution According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (2006), about 30 percent of the earth's ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, which generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases. The FAO concluded that the meat industry causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's transportation systems , that's all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined. The meat factory farms also produce massive amounts of dust and other contamination that pollutes the air. Animals in feedlots produce more than 14 million pounds of particulate dust every year and this kind of dust contains bacteria, mold, and fungi from the feces and the feed. The massive amounts of excrement produced by these farms emit toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) reports that roughly 80 percent of ammonia emissions in the United States come from animal waste. As if the chemicals and particulate matter from animal waste weren’t bad enough, the meat industry often knowingly add to the air-quality crisis. Meat factory farms frequently get around water pollution limits by spraying liquid manure into the air, creating mists that are blown away by the wind. People who live nearby are forced exposed to the toxins. Land degradation and Deforestation The meat industry has change the way of raising animals. Cows are no longer grazing. They eat large quantities of grains to speed up their growth. Now it takes only 14 months to rise a cow for consumption. This is why more than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that are grown in the USA are fed to farmed animals. About 20 percent of the world's population, or 1.4 billion people, could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone .The FAO reported that cropland used for feed occupy 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface. Soil compaction and erosion resulting from overgrazing has severely degraded about 20 percent of pastures worldwide. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America .Large part of the Amazon has been deforested to allow the cropping of soybean, which is primarily for chicken feedlot. Such practice has a negative impact on the environment, and it‘s believe to be the leading factor of climate change and global warming. Water Pollution According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. Much of the millions of pounds of excrement and other bodily waste produced by farmed animals every day in the U.S are stored in sprawling brown lagoons. These lagoons occasionally spill over into surrounding waterways and cause massive numbers of fish and other animals to die. The pesticides, antibiotics, and powerful growth hormones that are concentrated in animal flesh are also found in their feces, and these chemicals can have catastrophic effects on the ecosystems surrounding factory farms. In West Virginia and Maryland, for example, scientists have recently discovered that male fish are growing ovaries, and they suspect that this freakish deformity is the result of factory-farm run-off from chicken feces. The EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement have polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. Besides the environmental problems caused by farmed animal waste, the dangerous fecal bacteria from farm sewage, including E. coli, can also cause serious illness in humans. The pollution from animal factories is also destroying parts of the world’s oceans. In the middle of the United States, streams and rivers carry excrement from animal factories to the Mississippi River, which then deposits the waste in the Gulf of Mexico. The nitrogen from animal feces and from fertilizer, which is primarily used to grow crops for farmed animals, causes algae populations to skyrocket, leaving little oxygen for other According to the Natural Resources Defensive council (n.d), the meat industry in Wisconsin has created serious pollution problems throughout the state. Fish kills have been reported on numerous occasions. On June 12, 1998, manure runoff from a large dairy near Cleveland in Manitowoc County created a dark spot in Lake Michigan stretching one quarter-mile offshore. Hundreds of game fish died, along with thousands of minnows, and cool water forage fish that provide food for larger fish. The incident remains under investigation. Fish kills are not a new phenomenon in Wisconsin and neither is the recalcitrance of farmers causing the pollution. Over a 12-year period, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) contacted a large hog farm owner in Grant County 20 times for multiple fish kills in the Sinsinawa River. Illegal dumping of wastewater All the environmental agencies are joining forces to reduce pollution fro m the meat industry. They are enforcing the law and require permits to process meat. This has a very positive impact within the U.S.As the regulation becomes harder, companies are looking at different ways of managing their waste. According to Moyers (1997), companies can out source their waste management, meaning that they can legally found countries that are willing to let them dump wastewater in their waters. According to Moyers(1997), the 1976 Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, provided incentives for sending waste a broad .The countries that accepted to import wastes are mostly third world countries and they do not have the technologies to handle some of the wastes, and there is no international police to regulate such trade. Since then illegal dumping of waste has increased, and it has been noticed in third world countries that lack the means to watch their waters. Conclusion The meat industry a lot of waste around the world, and it is accurate to state that the meat industry is on of the major pollutant .It has been proven the production of meat , pollutes air, water ,and creates deforestation .Meat production is a threat to the environment by being a major factor in generating greenhouse gases. Scientists believe greenhouse gases are causing climate change and global warming.