considering the amount of energy required to produce animal based foods and goods, should humans change their?

Question

habits so they consume products closer to the bottom of the food chain because it is more efficient?

Answer 1

No. We are at the top of the food chain for a reason. I would never give up meat. If you want to, that is your choice. You can eat leaves for the rest of your life for all I care.

Answer 2

In addition to the UN report cited, the U.S. EPA states that runoff from factory farms causes more water pollution than all other industrial sources combined. It takes 10 times the fossil fuels to produce a calorie of meat than a calorie of plant food (soy is 40 times more efficient than meat).

So, yeah, people should absolutely consume fewer animal products if they can't go vegan.

Answer 3

Yes, and it doesn't even require everyone to become a vegan or vegetarian. Just cutting back on the amount of animal products we consume will go a long way to free up the energy, water, fuel used in the meat/dairy industry. Not to mention saving many creatures from a horrible life in factory farms.

Answer 4

It's not really a matter of opinion. Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic heterotrophs, most of which are motile at some point in their life cycle. Humans fit that definition in every regard. Some people might THINK we're not animals, but opinion does not alter facts. Besides, if we WEREN'T animals...what would we be? Plants? No. Protists? No. Fungi? Certainly not. And we're not prokaryotes so we're definitely not bacteria or archaeans. And there aren't any other kingdoms...

Answer 5

absolutely. it would not only benefit our planet's health but our own health as well. if abstaining from meat is too hard to do, at least cut back. for yourself, your world, and your children's world. and all the helpless animals that are tortured and killed in factory farms.

and to byderule, beef farming contributes to global warming because so many acres of land are used for the raising of cattle and even more for the growing of hay for animals being raised for food. i believe it's the #1 reason for the disappearance of the rain forests in south america.

Answer 6

Yes, though our diet is more ingrained than our choice of transportation.

Beef has 7 times the carbon footprint of beans, chicken has twice the footprint. lamb and pork are somewhere in between.

On average, changing to a vegan diet is more environmentally effective than changing from an SUV to a hybrid.

It is also better for your health, just look at the Japanese.

Answer 7

It would certainly be a good idea to head in that direction, especially since raising livestock accounts for 18% of worldwide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. I've discussed this a few times before (linked below).

Answer 8

just change the diet would be enough and change the methods of raising meat

you can raise deer and other animals in Nature ,but under management,under the trees ,with camps (corals)with out harming Nature as such,

Raising Cattle means eliminating Nature and exchanging it for pasture

A CHANGE OF DIET

You do not need to stop eating meat ,just stop eating cows ,they are very destructive .

They are not natural animals but are an invention of man.
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Their feet and weight compact the ground and raise the salt to the surface ,
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They change the natural pampas grasses because of their limited preferences

And they consume a lot of water ,

If not carefully managed ,they over graze and kill the grass by eating it down to the roots.

They are also expensive to raise because of disease and parasites(medicines and tick baths),as well as constant vigilance ,(extra labor)
On top of all that forests are cut down to make way for the grazing land ,

Mexico is being destroyed by tortillas and beef ,
their principal food (they hardly eat vegetables)

And now we are told over and over again that they contribute to Global Warming Although how this is determined beats me ,maybe they got fart meters

So bad cows ,but really bad people not so much the ones who raise them ,they merely respond to the market,but the ones who insist on eating them ,and those promoting the product.
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If only we could be persuaded to change our diets ,maybe make it a new fashion to eat wild life ,but managed and bred.

Wild boar,Rabbits ,Deer(many varieties), Pheasants ,Buffalo, Partridge ,Iguanas,Ducks ,Crocodile tail(delicious)vipers (double delicious)the list is endless,,can all be raised and produced with out harming the Environment under the trees using Natural Flora or Fauna with some extra food and salt licks thrown in. ,

And so turning forests into meat raising and tourist operations(controlled hunting and photography).culling the males ,

Ending up with sustainable situations with multiple benefits ,both economic and Environmental ,the meat ,the hunting ,the Eco tourism ,and the Environment as a whole.

The best example ever ,of sustainable grazing or land use for animals , which offers the maximum benefits, has never been employed ,

People are so clever .

And that was the African veld or prairies ,these places were jam packed with many hundreds of species of animals and grasses ,an immense treasure of meat ,and the food needed to sustain the production included in the landscape, with a quality and disease control build in ,(in the form of predators ).

All we needed to do ,was to protect it and cull the males for the market.

Man in his wisdom killed the animals ,changed the flora ,added cows and destroyed the place within a 100 years

This is what happened in South Africa ,Many places that once were full of wild animals are now deserted(abandoned) ranches because of desertification due to over grazing and over use of subterranean water supplies.

So when we talk about sustainability , Nature is still the master

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NOTE
The hooves of deer are pointed ,they punch holes in the ground (which is one method of reclaiming deserts ,punching holes in the ground)this forms a micro climate where one seed can sustain it self into germination by the one drop of condensation that is created by the hole,