Reducing your meat consumption is one of the solutions to climate change

Research on climate change: Causes and solutions

The IPCC panel, an expert panel of experts, called for action to combat climate change in the food system. Even if all fossil fuels were eliminated immediately, the panel stressed that food system emissions would be detrimental to limiting global warming to well under 2oC, preferably 1.5oC.

Factory farming is often overlooked as a climate problem within the food-and-agriculture sector. World Animal Protection’s research has shown that the climate impact of factory farming is a significant factor in global food and agriculture sector growth. There are ways to combat climate change. One way is to reduce meat consumption drastically.

Factory farming has climate impacts

Despite the staggering number of meat chickens (69 billion) and 1.5 billion pork pigs (1.5 billion) produced yearly, most of them in cruel factory farms, chicken and pork are often ignored as contributing factors to climate change.

The report “Climate Change and Cruelty” analyzed the climate and environmental impacts of farmed chicken and pork production in four major factory farms around the globe: Brazil, China, and the USA (representing Europe).

Researchers gathered data about the production of crops for livestock, including the amount of water and energy used to grow and process the crops, as well as the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and the effects of transport once the crop has been harvested.

The data was also collected from industry experts and existing reports on energy consumption in factory farms for heating and lighting, greenhouse gases caused by animal manure, and transport emissions from the farming industry. These baseline data were then used to create a future climate and environmental impacts in 2030, 2040, and 2050.

According to the research, the current emissions from the factory farming hotspot are equivalent to maintaining 29 million cars on roads for one year.

The production of animal feed is particularly destructive

The production and consumption of crops to feed farmed animals is the leading cause of climate change and environmental impact in the factory farming system. Deforestation is a result of the increasing demand for animal feed crops. Carbon is released into the atmosphere as a result.

Our global food system needs to be more efficient and fixed

Brazil is the largest exporter and producer of soybeans to feed farmed livestock. It also uses feedstock for its farm-farmed animals. If you consider the impact on the climate of Brazil’s meat chicken production that deforestation is used for, it will increase.

The carbon impact of factory farming in countries dependent on imports from Brazil and other countries is also doubled in China.

Ultimately, it is highly inefficient and harmful to use the land for crops to feed farmed livestock that will eventually become our food. While farmed animals consume a lot of ground, it is a wasteful and inefficient practice. Dairy and meat are the only foods that provide humans with food. However, they also use 83% of the farmland. It is better to cultivate crops that humans can use directly through plant-based diets. This is the best way to ensure food security.

Solutions to combat climate change and animal cruelty

Every year, more than 80 million animals are raised. Many of these animals are sent to factory farms, where their lives are short and filled with suffering. Meat chickens are squashed against tens of thousands of chickens and have no space to perch or flap their wings like they would in nature.

A mother pig spends her entire life in a cage. She cannot move around and often bites the steel bars in frustration. This can cause injuries. As soon as her piglets turn 21 days old, they are taken from her, and their tails and teeth are cut. Males are castrated.

Measuring the environmental benefits of eating less meat

World Animal Protection I commissioned this research to determine the climate and environmental benefits of eating less factory-farmed chicken and pork. This was done to end cruel factory farming practices and improve the living conditions of the millions of animals trapped in them.

It found that there is no difference in the climate effects of factory farming. Higher welfare farm farming, where pigs are not kept in cages, meat chickens have more space, are free to roam, and animals are not mutilated, has a lower growth rate.

This means the industry has no excuse to continue using the cruelest practices for animals on factory farms.

The best way to save animals and combat climate change

Rising meat consumption will further affect factory farming over the next decade.

Researchers also looked at the effects of diets with less chicken or pork. They also examined scenarios where people ‘eat more and better.’ This means they not only choose lower-quality meat but also eat less chicken.

Eat less, but eat better

The researchers found that a 50% decrease in chicken and pork consumption by 2040 and a 50% adoption of higher welfare products would reduce the annual climate impact of chicken and pork production in these four hot spots. This would equal taking 45 million cars off the roads in the four hotspots.

The best way to save animals and combat climate change is to stop factory farming. This should start with a ban on new factory farms. Factory farming will be financially damaged if there is a significant reduction in meat production. However, this will also help us create the humane and sustainable future we want.

Factory farming is not a prerequisite for food security. It hinders it. Although our research is focused on particular factory farming hotspots, the overall message is clear: we must rethink the current drive for more factory farms to be built in areas where the demand for meat is highest. More factory farms would be a severe blow to the environment and lead to billions of animals suffering.

World Animal Protection calls on governments to take action against climate change:

Stop approving factory farms. The government is the leading player in subventioning factory farming. They can influence policy and funding decisions to support sustainable and humane food systems and shift factory farming away from their subsidized areas.

Establishing and enforcing minimum farmed animal welfare standards ( FARMS) is essential to end suffering from remaining factory farms.