According to a 400-page report by Food and Agricultural organization, cattle are bad for the environment. They add to the pollution of our air emitting more than 100 different types of gasses.
This puts over 18 percent of the world’s pollution directly on the cattle for blame. Cattle emit methane which in turn heats up the earth contributing significantly to global warming.
It takes them over 990 liters of water to produce a mere gallon of milk and they aren’t smart enough to defecate in a designated area frequently defecating in the very water that they drink. This contributes to polluted water that flows into our rivers, streams and eventually, the oceans.
This polluted water must first be purified in order to drink sanitary water and provide clean drinking water to many areas. In order to clean the water, more pollution must first take place.
This pollution creates dead zones in our rivers, streams, and oceans affecting aquatic life, coral reefs and more.
To further complicate matters, waste from the fertilizers used to grow food for the cattle, pesticides used on the food to prevent infestations and antibiotics that are used on the livestock all pollute the bodies of water that they are near.
Clearly, something must be done before it gets further out of hand. As more farmers are investing in cattle, more bodies of water are being polluted and more people are being damaged by this pollution.
This pollution also causes acid rain which is choking out our atmosphere and causing people to become ill due to poor air quality. More people are showing up in emergency rooms due to breathing and health issues caused by this air pollution and poor quality air.
Unless something changes, unless more regulations are put in place, this trend will continue.