Lily+A’s+2017+OpEd+Article

It’s no secret that our planet is in serious harm. It’s also not a secret that the ones harming it is us. We all know it. The average human being seems to think that them alone can’t help. But there’s an easy solution that some people wouldn’t even think about doing. The solution would be to 1) stop eating meat completely or 2) lower your meat consumption. It seems we always blaming pollution on cars, factories, and trash. And those are all contributions to pollution. But pollution from animal farming is also a major source. The average American eats 207.7 pounds of meat in a year. Of course there are vegans and vegetarians that don’t eat any but an average of 207.7 pounds, is huge.



The amount of resources that go into making meat is mind blowing. Large amounts of food, water, and land go into producing meat. 2,400 gallons of water are used to make only one pound of meat, along with 10 pounds of grain to make that pound. California just (almost) got out of a very severe drought. Yes, California isn’t the biggest state for meat farming, but if it hadn’t had millions of cows to provide water for, then the drought would not have had such an effect on our lakes that went completely dry. These large meat companies are taking up so many precious resources that we need to survive, and it is possible to survive without meat. Just imagine if at least half of the American population stopped eating meat. There would definitely be a noticeable change. If we just keep carelessly eating food and not taking the time to think about where exactly it’s coming from then Mother Earth isn’t going to heal. And if we keep going down the same road of eating abnormally large amounts of meat, then we will eventually reach a point where “saving the planet” won’t even be possible There’s also the pollution aspect of animal farming. For example, the state of Nebraska has approximately 6.3 million cattle used for meat production. There is no sewage system for cattle waste. So where does it go? Honestly it doesn’t really go anywhere, all it does is create a large amount of pollution. 51% of greenhouse gases are from the farming of animals. All their waste just sit and drains into runoffs, and eventually pollutes, lakes, rivers, and even oceans. So it’s not only a gas form of pollution, it also infects everything around it.  I didn’t write this to force everyone to be vegetarian or vegan, but to make you aware of where your food is coming from. Make you aware about what you are putting inside your body, and how you aren’t the only one affected when you eat a hamburger.