Beef Myths & Facts
Every year throughout the United States, Earth Day celebrations offer an opportunity to increase awareness about environmental issues and conservation. Despite efforts to broaden awareness, some myths remain and are debunked below.
Meat production destroys natural resources
Cattle are often blamed for the deterioration of the earth’s resources when in reality they are an important tool for land management and environmental preservation. Cattle have been unjustly blamed for a variety of environmental concerns including: water quality, erosion and greenhouse gases. In fact, the biggest contributors to surface water pollution are industrial waste, human sewage and runoff from urban and rural areas. Cattle actually help combat erosion since most soil erosion occurs when farmers plant row crops on land that is too steep, while pasturelands grazed by cattle are managed grasslands that serve as good ground cover and hold the soil in place, thereby mitigating environmental issues related to erosion. Finally, greenhouse gas concerns cannot fairly be attributed to cattle since only about 2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2001 were from methane produced by all domestic livestock.
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The American meat habit is a driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests. (read more)
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Number of acres of U.S forest which have been cleared to create cropland for a meat-centered diet: 260 million. (read more)
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Meat-based diets are the leading cause of deforestation. An acre of U.S. trees disappears every 8 seconds. (read more)
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By far the most visible sign of human alteration of the planet has been the destruction of the forests. This destruction has largely been to satisfy the world’s demand for more and more meat.
(read more)
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40,000 acres of U.S. cropland are lost each year to soil erosion. 85% of U.S. topsoil loss is directly associated with livestock raising.
(read more)
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- Length of time world’s petroleum reserves would last:
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- if all human beings ate a meat-centered diet: 13 years
- if all human beings ate a vegetarian diet: 260 years
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Concentrations of atmospheric methane are now nearly triple what they were when they began rising a century ago. The primary reason is beef production. (read more)
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The American meat habit is a driving force behind the destruction of the tropical rainforests.
According to USDA’s Agricultural Statistics 2005, less than one percent of the total 2001 U.S. beef supply was imported from “rainforest countries” (South and Central America). In addition, the largest fast-food chains in the United States have long had policies against buying beef from rainforest countries.
“Seldom have forests been cut to pasture cattle, for a very good reason: cattle don’t generate more profit than trees.” – Dr. Dennis T. Avery, the Hudson Institute
“The underlying causes of deforestation in developing countries are poverty, skewed land distribution (due to historical patterns of land settlement and commercial agriculture development), and low agricultural productivity. These factors, combined with rapid population growth, have led to increasingly severe pressure on forest lands. Developing countries frequently have forestry policies, such as direct subsidies and lenient forest concession terms that foster unsustainable use of forest resources.” – “Deforestation: An Overview of Global Programs and Agreements,” J. Lyke, U.S. Forest Service and S. Fletcher, Specialist, International Environment Policy.
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Number of acres of U.S forest which have been cleared to create cropland for a meat-centered diet: 260 million.
This statement is from a 1984 Vegetarian Times article written by two vegetarian activists. The source of the figure is a mystery. According to USDA’s Agricultural Statistics 2005 (which cites 2003 forestry figures), there currently are 748 million acres of forest in the continental United states. The U.S. Forest Service archives show that in 1920, there were 732 million acres of U.S. forest land. So according to 2003 figures, we actually have 16 million more acres of forest land than we did in 1920.
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Meat-based diets are the leading cause of deforestation. An acre of U.S. trees disappears every 8 seconds.
If this statement were true, almost 4 million acres of forest would disappear each year. However, USDA statistics show that between 1907 and 2003, there has been a net loss of only 10 million acres of forest in the United States. In addition, more and more land is being set aside for protection by federal agencies and previously forested land is being replanted at ever increasing rates. There actually are 16 million more acres of forest land today (748 million acres) than in 1920 (732 million acres).
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By far the most visible sign of human alteration of the planet has been the destruction of the forests. This destruction has largely been to satisfy the world’s demand for more and more meat.
A comprehensive report published by the Conservation Biology journal in 1998, “Consensus Statement on Commercial Forestry Sustained Yield Management and Tropical Forests,” noted that the fundamental causes of deforestation are related to misguided government policies, overpopulation, insecure land tenure, inequitable distribution of land and wealth and the need to put land to more intensive use. These factors give rise to the more proximate causes, i.e., logging, mining, hydroelectric dams, agriculture and encroachment. Deforestation is related to world demand for wood, energy and minerals.
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40,000 acres of U.S. cropland are lost each year to soil erosion. 85% of U.S. topsoil loss is directly associated with livestock raising.
In a 1990 Report entitled “Current Issues in Food Production: A Perspective on Beef as a Component in Diets for Americans,” Professor Murray H. Milford of Texas A&M’s Department of Soil and Crop Science noted that, while soil erosion is a significant problem in the United States, it is not due to animals or the feed they consume. The most extensive soil erosion occurs with crops grown for direct use by man, such as cotton. Cotton is the world’s major crop associated with the largest erosion losses – 19.9 tons/acre/year, more than two and a half times greater than corn. In addition, one of the best ways to prevent soil erosion is to grow grass on the land and pasturelands grazed by cattle are managed grasslands that serve as good ground cover and hold the soil in place.
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- Length of time world’s petroleum reserves would last:
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- if all human beings ate a meat-centered diet: 13 years
- if all human beings ate a vegetarian diet: 260 years
The 13-year projection is an ‘interpretation’ of a statement made in the 1970s by David Pimental of Cornell University. Pimental speculated on how long petroleum reserves would last if the whole world followed U.S. agricultural practices, not specifically meat production. Further, according to Dr. Floyd Byers of Texas A&M University, this is a substantial exaggeration which also ignores reality. Byers noted that, based on the average per capita U.S. food energy consumption of 34 X 109J and a world population of 5 billion, the energy from oil reserves alone could totally fuel all world food production for 35 years.
The statement is totally unrealistic because it assumes: energy technology development will cease; only oil energy will be used for food production; alternative fuels will not be developed and that world political/economic systems will mirror those of the United States with respect to incentives and economics for food production. In the United States, 2 percent of the population feeds the rest of us. In many countries, switching to a system where only 2 percent of the population is involved in food production would put the majority of people out of work, not allowing them the income to purchase food produced with fossil energy.
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Concentrations of atmospheric methane are now nearly triple what they were when they began rising a century ago. The primary reason is beef production.
Landfills are the number one source of methane emissions. In fact, landfills, natural gas and oil systems and coal mining accounted for about two-thirds of U.S. methane emissions in 2003 (Environmental Protection Agency’s “U.S. Emissions Inventory 2005: Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, 1990-2003”).
In terms of pollution and ozone depletion, the focus should be on total Greenhouse Gasses (GHG). EPA data show 2003 methane emissions from all sources accounted for just 9 percent (8.9%) of all 2003 GHG emissions in the United States. In addition, methane emissions decreased 10 percent between 1990 and 2003. Eating less beef would have an insignificant effect on greenhouse gas emissions since methane produced by all domestic livestock accounted for less than 3 percent (2.5%) of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2003.
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