Are you uncomfortable with the size of your carbon footprint? Are you worried about how the food you eat is affecting your health? Or do you feel concerned about how animals are treated on factory farms? Eating less meat is probably the single most impactful thing you can do to improve your health, decrease your carbon footprint and help slow down the demand for intensive, factory reared farm animals. Here is why taking the (M)eat Less pledge will benefit the planet, your health and the lives of animals:

The Environment

The unsustainably large livestock population is having a devastating environmental impact. Often overlooked as a contributor to global warming, livestock production accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as 64% of global ammonia emmissions, contributing to air, soil and water pollution, acid rain and damage to the ozone layer.

Other ecological problems are specific to individual areas. Among the most spectacular have been rainforest destruction in Central and South America in order to rear cattle for the hamburger trade or grow soya for animal feed, and desertification from overgrazing in parts of Africa.

Lack of water is now recognised as the greatest single threat to food security and in particular to yields from arable farms. Each calorie of meat takes far more water to produce than a calorie of grain, so one of the simplest ways to increase the ratio of food produced to water consumed is to reduce dependence upon meat.

Diets high in meat and dairy products have much lower energy efficiency and a greater global warming potential compared to diets high in plant-based foods.The energy input for one portion of cooked pork can be three times greater than the energy input for a portion of cooked beans or pulses.

Choices about diet can affect an individual’s carbon footprint as significantly as choices about transport. Decreasing the proportion of meat and dairy products in an individual’s diet can be equivalent to the difference between a year’s use of a standard car versus an ultra-efficient hybrid.

Your Health

Inappropriate diet is increasingly accepted as a cause of ill-health and morbidity. Meat, meat products and dairy foods make up the greatest percentage of saturated fat intake and there is now general consensus among nutritionists that this contributes significantly to several diseases which have reached epidemic proportions.

The use of antibiotics to keep factory farmed animals healthy enough to get to slaughter, has become routine. University of the Western Cape research in 2009 showed that every single chicken purchased in Cape Town Supermarkets in September that year, tested positive for antibiotic residue. This is leading to antibiotic resistance in humans.

Recent estimates from public health experts suggest that a reduction of around 60% in daily intake of meat in developed countries would help reduce excess weight and obesity and offer other health benefits to individuals and society. Reducing consumption of red and processed meats is also recommended by the World Cancer Research Fund in its 2007 Report, which cites these meats as convincing causes of colorectal cancer.

The Animals

The massive increase in meat production would not have been possible without the development of industrialised methods of farming, which have ignored the rights and needs of animals by depriving them of the opportunity for exercise, fresh air and social interaction. Selective breeding for unnaturally rapid growth has created numerous endemic health problems, particularly from leg deformities and heart weakness.

In South Africa, 14.6 million broiler (meat) chickens are slaughtered each week. 2.6 Million pigs are killed for their meat each year in South Africa alone. 23 Million end-of-lay hens eventually land up at cull outlets, the first time they will ever have seen the light of day. 5.8 Million sheep and goats are killed for their meat annually in South Africa. 2.9 Million cattle are killed for their meat annually in South Africa.

One meat-free day a week translates into 11 200 South African cattle who will not face slaughter each week, 2 million chickens, 10 000 pigs and 22 300 sheep. It is therefore clear that a choice to support one meat-free day a week is a choice that saves lives.

Sources: Global Warning: Climate Change and Farm Animal Welfare (PDF), Eating the Planet and Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat (PDF) by Compassion in World Farming and Animal Voice Magazine (published by Compassion in World Farming South Africa).