Facts about factory farming
Reasons investors might want to avoid the big livestock industry.
Reasons investors might want to avoid the big livestock industry.
"Expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation, especially in Latin America where the greatest amount of deforestation is occurring – 70 percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures, and feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder."
FAO, Henning Steinfeld, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, Mauricio Rosales, C. de Haan, and Pierre Gerber. “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” 2006. http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e.pdf.
"Total emissions from global livestock: 7.1 Gigatonnes of Co2-equiv per year, representing 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic GHG emissions."
"Plant-based meat emits 30%-90% less greenhouse gas than conventional meat (kg-CO2-Eq/kg-meat)."
The Good Food Institute. “Plant-Based Meat For A Growing World,” Accessed October 17, 2019. https://www.gfi.org/files/pb-meat-sustainability.pdf
"Plant-based meat uses 47%-99% less land than conventional meat (m2-yr-land/kg-meat)."
The Good Food Institute. “Plant-Based Meat For A Growing World,” Accessed October 17, 2019. https://www.gfi.org/files/pb-meat-sustainability.pdf
"Mintel research concluded that “Asia is a hot market for new alternative meat formats” and found that “over two in five urban Indonesians followed a plant-based/vegetarian/vegan diet in 2018."
FAIRR. “Appetite for Disruption: How Leading Food Companies Are Responding to the Alternative Protein Boom | Reports.” Accessed October 17, 2019. https://www.fairr.org/article/appetite-for-disruption-how-leading-food-companies-are-responding-to-the-alternative-protein-boom/.
"New SPINS retail sales data released July 16, 2019 shows that grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products have grown 31% in the past two years to reach $4.5 billion."
"Unabated, the livestock sector could take between 37% and 49% of the GHG budget allowable under the 2°C and 1.5°C targets, respectively, by 2030. Inaction in the livestock sector would require substantial GHG reductions, far beyond what are planned or realistic, from other sectors.”
Harwatt, Helen. “Including Animal to Plant Protein Shifts in Climate Change Mitigation Policy: A Proposed Three-Step Strategy.” Climate Policy 19, no. 5 (May 28, 2019): 533–41. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2018.1528965.
"The livestock sector is a key player in increasing water use, accounting for over 8 percent of global human water use, mostly for the irrigation of feedcrops."
FAO, Henning Steinfeld, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, Mauricio Rosales, C. de Haan, and Pierre Gerber. “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” 2006. http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e.pdf.
"The livestock sector is by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land. The total area occupied by grazing is equivalent to 26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet. In addition, the total area dedicated to feedcrop production amounts to 33 percent of total arable land. In all, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet."
FAO, Henning Steinfeld, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, Mauricio Rosales, C. de Haan, and Pierre Gerber. “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” 2006. http://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e.pdf.
"Pasture was the dominant driver of forest area (71.2%) and related carbon loss (71.6%) in South America, followed by commercial cropland (14% and 12.1% respectively)."
V. De Sy et al., “Land Use Patterns and Related Carbon Losses Following Deforestation in South America,” Environmental Research Letters 10, no. 12 (November 2015), https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124004/meta; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, State of the World’s Forests 2016: Forests and Agriculture: Land-Use Challenges and Opportunities (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2016), 20.