References and resources regarding animal agriculture and climate / environment
GENERAL INFO ON CLIMATE AND ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
Scientists’ 2nd Warning to Humanity – The World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice , signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries.
From an Oxford University study – VEGANISM IS ‘SINGLE BIGGEST WAY’ TO REDUCE OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ON PLANET, STUDY FINDS
From Princeton and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – Beef-eating ‘must fall drastically’ as world population grows
From Harvard University – Nationwide shift to grass-fed beef requires larger cattle population
From Harvard University – Climate-Friendly Beef Is a Myth. Don’t Buy It.
From The Smithsonian Institute, The Worldwatch Institute, The Sierra Club, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization – Is the Livestock Industry Destroying the Planet?
Veganic permaculture – Anything Cows Can Do, Elk Can Do Better
The Guardian – Goodbye – and good riddance – to livestock farming
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS & Animals Agriculture
From the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) – Livestock’s Long Shadow
Oxford University Study – Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth
Inside Climate News – Nitrous oxide burns 300 times hotter than CO2, and stays in the atmosphere for more than 100 years; animal agriculture is a significant source.
WATER AND ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture – Water Requirements of Livestock
The U.S. Geological Survey – The Water Content of Things: How much water does it take to grow a hamburger?
The World Economic Forum – This is how much water is in your burger
TREES, LAND USE, AND ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
The Guardian – Revealed: fires three times more common in Amazon beef farming zones
Yale University – Cattle Ranching in the Amazon Region
World Resources Institute – Agriculture Drove Recent Record-Breaking Tree Cover Loss
Oxford, and other Universities – Grazed and Confused
Searchinger et al, from Princeton, Chalmers, Humboldt and other Universities and Institutions – Assessing the efficiency of changes in land use for mitigating climate change
The World Economic Forum – This is how many animals we eat each year
LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY AND WILD ANIMALS
The Guardian – Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study
The United Nations FAO – THE STATE OF THE WORLD’s BIODIVERSITY THE STATE OF THE WORLD’s BIODIVERSITTY FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
National Geographic – One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns
EFFECTS OF FISHING ON OCEANS / WATERWAYS
Dalhousie University – Seafood May Be Gone by 2048, Study Says
The Guardian – Oceans losing oxygen at unprecedented rate, experts warn
National Geographic – The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Isn’t What You Think it Is
IS FREE-RANGE THE SOLUTION FOR THE PLANET? A RESOUNDING NO!
These reports say no, we can’t afford free-range either, and that it’s as damaging to the planet as factory farming. Better in some ways, worse in others…and we essentially have no time for either method at this, the 11th hour.
research regarding free-range
From the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; the Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, and Cambridge; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; Chalmers University; University of Twente in the Netherlands; The Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna – Is “regenerative grazing” the new “clean coal”?
From the Food Climate Research Network Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, with these participating institutions … Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Cambridge, and Wageningen; the Centre for Organic Food and Farming (EPOK) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland; and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia – Grazed and Confused
From George Mionbot, who explains it with UN and other references – The best way to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy
ANIMAL AGRICULTURE SUBSIDIZED, RATHER THAN TRANSITIONED
Although the United Nations and every major university is telling us we need to transition away from animal products for the sake of the planet, our federal and provincial governments continue to subsidize animal agriculture rather than subsidizing a transition to sustainable agriculture.
NATION RISING IS A CANADIAN GROUP DEDICATED TO ENDING GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
Animal agriculture subsidies & grants in southern ontario
Cargill in Guelph (processes 1,500 beef and dairy cows per day)
Conestoga Meats in Breslau (processes 7,000 pigs per day)
$10 million interest-free loan
$5.3 million grant + $350,000 grant + $1.5 million grant
Sofina Foods in Mitchell
New Maple Leaf Foods Plant in London will cause the closure of 3 other slaughterhouses in Toronto, Brampton and St. Mary’s. (expect to kill 500,000 birds per day)
$34.5 provincial grant & $28 million federal grant
8 million litres of fresh water will be used per day at the plant.
Up to eight million litres of sewage will be dumped into city sewers.
21000 L of toxic chemicals will be created per week.
The site straddles an environmentally sensitive creek.
The site is on a rare indigenous historical site.
And endangered barn swallows have been displaced because of the construction.
Dairy subsidies
First round of dairy farmer payments unveiled
Why Canadian Dairy Won a Massive Subsidy Despite Falling Demand