Meat eating and even animal agriculture has long been a part of our human history, and it made sense for our ancestors trying to survive before modern luxuries, especially in harsh climates. Chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia about 10,000 years ago and cattle were first domesticated in Mesopotamia a few thousand years ago, and the practice was brought to the Americas by the conquistadores.

However, a rising population with such a desire for meat is making animal agriculture unsustainable. Today, humans make up 36% of the world's mammals, but we enslave 60% of them (and 70% of all birds on earth) for our own consumption and use. This unsustainable practice is luckily no longer necessary with society and modern technology.

Land usage

About 75% of the world's farmland is used for animal agriculture. The area of US, China, Europe and Australia combined could be enough farmland to feed the entire world with only plants, no animal products. Meat and dairy use 83% of farmland but yield only 18% of calories from food and 37% protein; the rest of the world's calories comes from plants.

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Greenhouse Gases: Methane not CO2 is the dangerous emission

Animal agriculture, especially beef and dairy have the highest GHG and water footprint; the only thing comparable is produce imported by plane. Even "environmentally-friendly" meat has a bigger footprint than most vegetables or grains. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs): CO2, methane and nitrous oxide are estimated to increase 80% by 2050. Most of these GHGs come from animal agriculture, especially methane, the most destructive. Although transportation results in more CO2 emissions, they are not as prevalent or harmful as methane. Industry is responsible for 13% of GHGs but animal agriculture is 18%.

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Water Footprint

80-90% of water use in the US goes toward animal agriculture (feeding animals and preparing meat). A Canadian beef cattle consumes 15-67 L/day of water. A milking cow typically consumes over 100 L/day of water, which produces about 32L of milk. Livestock production, especially beef and dairy, has a huge water footprint, much more than soy.

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Soy vs. beef and dairy

Soy has a much smaller water and GHG footprint and takes up much less space per nutritional yield than beef and dairy. Organic soy contains phytoestrogens (act as estrogen receptor modulators to balance not raise estrogen levels) which prevent cancer and phytosterols which lower cholesterol.

Beef and dairy on the other hand are known causes of heart disease and cancer, especially estrogen sensitive types like prostate, gynecological and breast cancer. Most mylk, cheeze and fake meat products are just made of plants you should already be eating: nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, etc.

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Sources:

• http://cases.open.ubc.ca/environmental-impact-of-meat-consumption/
• https://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:CONS200/2016w2/Wiki_Projects/Environmental_Impact_of_Meat_Consumption
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study
• http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/engineer/facts/07-023.htm
• https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1704S/4596965#app2
• https://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Report49-WaterFootprintSoy.pdf
• http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2016/02/cattle-domestication-from-aurochs-to-cow/
• https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/domestication/