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According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more
greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent
– than transport. It is also a major source of land and water
degradation.

The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other
agricultural sub-sector. When emissions from land use and land use
change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of
CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much
larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65
percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the
Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from
manure. And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all
human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is
largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64
percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.
Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface,
mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the
global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report
notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major
driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for
example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been
turned over to grazing.

Please consider a reduction animal agriculture in favor of plant
based agriculture. 

Thank you
Linda Cooper