Pg. 334 "Vegan activists want to rid the food supply of all animal-based products. Would it work? Could it work? A recent report asked that question. Animal-derived foods currently provide 24 percent of total calories, 48 percent of total protein, 34 to 67 percent of essential amino acids, and 23 to 100 percent of essential fatty acids for Americans. Also, the bioavailability of iron and zinc is better from animal-derived products. However, these are just the direct effects of animals on our health. The USDA estimates that a plant-only dietary paradigm could produce 23 percent more food (as it could repurpose grazing land for crop growth); but it would meet fewer of the US population's requirements for essential nutrients, making our nutritional quality worse, particularly for the poor. Thus, removing animal products from the human diet is a bit dicey in terms of physiology and health."
Pg. 335 "In 2014, 89 million head of cattle generated 169 billion tons of methane--equivalent to the weight of 74 Golden Gate Bridges--for an average of 1,900 kg/head. Yet in 1968, 109 million cows generated only 40 billion tons of methane, for an average of 366 kg/head. Why do they make more now? This is the crux of the issue that relates climate to processed food because the problem isn't really the cows. It's what the humans have done to the cows."
Pg. 337 "Back on the farm is where the most egregious greenhouse gas of all is manufactured--nitrous oxide (N2O), which has three hundred times the heat-trapping capacity of carbon dioxide and twelve times the heat-trapping capacity of methane. Most US livestock is fattened on fishmeal, corn, soybean meal, or other grains. So is farmed fish. To make animal/fish feed for the US, it takes 149 million acres of cropland, 167 million pounds of pesticides, and 17 billion pounds of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (usually ammonium nitrate) to grow the feed. When you apply synthetic fertilizer to the soil, it generates big-time nitrous oxide, trapping heat, and seeping into and contaminating groundwater. And the pesticides and herbicides (like glyphosate and atrazine) that are necessary to keep the feed from succumbing to the weeds and the locusts will run ff into the groundwater as well."
Pg. 335 "In 2014, 89 million head of cattle generated 169 billion tons of methane--equivalent to the weight of 74 Golden Gate Bridges--for an average of 1,900 kg/head. Yet in 1968, 109 million cows generated only 40 billion tons of methane, for an average of 366 kg/head. Why do they make more now? This is the crux of the issue that relates climate to processed food because the problem isn't really the cows. It's what the humans have done to the cows."
Pg. 337 "Back on the farm is where the most egregious greenhouse gas of all is manufactured--nitrous oxide (N2O), which has three hundred times the heat-trapping capacity of carbon dioxide and twelve times the heat-trapping capacity of methane. Most US livestock is fattened on fishmeal, corn, soybean meal, or other grains. So is farmed fish. To make animal/fish feed for the US, it takes 149 million acres of cropland, 167 million pounds of pesticides, and 17 billion pounds of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (usually ammonium nitrate) to grow the feed. When you apply synthetic fertilizer to the soil, it generates big-time nitrous oxide, trapping heat, and seeping into and contaminating groundwater. And the pesticides and herbicides (like glyphosate and atrazine) that are necessary to keep the feed from succumbing to the weeds and the locusts will run ff into the groundwater as well."