Impact of Animal Agriculture on Climate Change

By 2050, the human population is predicted to rise from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion (UN, 2013). This implies a 33% increase in population, but as the global quality of living rises, demand for agricultural products will rise by 70% in the same time span (FAO, 2009a). 

Meanwhile, the overall global cultivated land area has remained constant since 1991 (O'Mara, 2012), despite increased productivity and intensification initiatives. Livestock products account for 17% of world calorie consumption and 33% of global protein consumption, making them an important agricultural commodity for global food security (Rosegrant et al., 2009). 

The cattle industry supports the livelihoods of one billion of the world's poorest people and employs nearly 1.1 billion people (Hurst et al., 2005). 

The "livestock revolution" has been coined to describe the fast rise of livestock products in developing countries (Thornton, 2010; Wright et al., 2012). However, all these rising demands truthfully contribute negatively to climate change and that’s why we want to emphasize on the severity of our topic.

GHG emissions, which result in atmospheric warming, are the primary cause of global climate change (IPCC, 2013). According to Gerber et al. (2013), the cattle sector generates 14.5 percent of global GHG emissions, which might lead to increased land degradation, air and water pollution, and biodiversity loss (Bellarby et al., 2013; Reynolds et al., 2010; Steinfeld et al., 2006; Thornton and Gerber, 2010). 

Simultaneously, climate change will have an impact on livestock production due to competition for natural resources, feed quantity and quality, livestock illnesses, heat stress, and biodiversity loss, while demand for livestock products is anticipated to increase by 100% by the mid-twentieth century (Garnett, 2009). 

As a result, maintaining a balance between productivity, household food security, and environmental preservation is a challenge (Wright et al., 2012). Understanding the relationship of climate change and agricultural productivity is generating a lot of interest, which is driving a lot of research (Aydinalp and Cresser, 2008).

Agriculture is not something that comes naturally to us as a species. People lived in cultures centered on hunting and gathering throughout much of human history. 

Although the earliest signs of agriculture date back to around 12,000 years ago, agriculture has taken on an entirely new face since the Industrial Revolution, with intensive practices such as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) creating truly heartbreaking conditions for farmworkers, animals, and surrounding communities. 

Agriculture, dubbed humanity's worst mistake by some because of the resulting hard labour, poor nourishment, and social injustice, has now presented the world with a new dilemma: environmental degradation on magnitude that can no longer be ignored. 

CAFOs generate massive volumes of excrement, which collects in gigantic open-air lagoons that can be breached by severe weather or slowly seep into groundwater. CAFO water pollution can generate algal blooms, which can wreak havoc on entire marine ecosystems. CAFOs pollute the air by vaporizing manure, which sends poisonous wafts through the air to surrounding towns. 

Monocrop fields are also responsible for a variety of environmental issues, including air pollution. Pesticides and herbicides are sprayed in large quantities, resulting in a variety of debilitating ailments, including cancer, among farmworkers and the surrounding community. 

Soil depletion is another major concern. Monocropping and the usage of agrochemicals such as synthetic nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers are denying fields a fallow time or crop rotation. Over time, these practices deplete soil productivity. Soils can take hundreds, if not thousands, of years to recover their fertility.

Now, we will discuss the significant topic of our essay which is animal agriculture's impact on climate change. Agriculture is one of the most significant contributors to climate change among all human activities. According to estimates, the sector would contribute 37 percent of global GDP by 2020. 

A few important elements accounting for climate change emissions from human-cased agriculture will be explained thoroughly. Agriculture takes up half of the world's livable land — that is, territory that is both ice-free and fertile. 

There is no other human activity that consumes greater space. All urban areas, on the other hand, account for about 1% of livable land use. Grazing and the area needed to generate their feed, which includes enormous monocrops of species like corn and soy, account for a whopping 77 percent of agricultural land. 

Clearing forests and grasslands, which are carbon sinks due to their ability to absorb carbon, is used to bring land under cultivation for any sort of agriculture - be it livestock or crops for people or animals. 

Trees currently absorb around a quarter of all anthropogenic CO2, but as more forests are chopped and burned to make room for pastureland or monocrops, less carbon is absorbed, resulting in faster climate change.

Farm animals, often known as livestock, account for about 14% of all anthropogenic emissions, with annual emissions estimated to be around seven gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. Raising cattle for meat and dairy accounts for the majority of these emissions, accounting for 60% of total livestock emissions. 

Cows consume a lot of resources, require a lot of area for pasture (in the case of beef cattle), and produce a lot of dung, hence they produce a lot of emissions. Nitrous oxide and methane are found in cow manure, with the latter being one of the most potent greenhouse gasses due to its exceptional ability to absorb heat. Methane is around 30 times more effective than carbon dioxide at absorbing and trapping heat in the atmosphere. 

Furthermore, fish, shellfish, shrimp, and other marine life are harvested in massive quantities from the waters. Nets the size of jumbo jet jets are pulled through the ocean or across the seafloor, collecting everything in their path. 

In 2011, direct fishing activities, along with the energy used to transport, process, and chill carcasses, resulted in an estimated total of 179 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that is expected to rise as demand for seafood grows.

Significantly reducing, and finally eliminating, animal agriculture is the most effective strategy to minimize the sector's greenhouse gas impact. While this may sound "extreme," the state of industrial animal agriculture marked by brutal CAFOs, pathogen-infected waste lagoons, and massive land and feed inputs is much more so. 

This isn't to argue that putting an end to animal agriculture will be simple. Because more people are switching to plant-based diets, demand will have to fall. The ease with which these diets can be adopted varies by individual. 

Many low-income areas in the United States are designated as food deserts, where the lack of grocery shops leads residents to rely on relatively restricted options, such as gas stations.

Agriculture may easily be humanity's gravest error since it may be our undoing due to its tremendous impacts on the climate and ecosystems around the planet. 

Unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced, the planet will become a much more difficult environment to live in. Reducing animal agriculture demand and switching to a plant-based diet are two of the most essential steps anyone can take.