陳惟華/愛家自然診所院長、英國牛津大學神經學博士、醫界蔬食聯盟發起人之一
Table 2. The ecological footprints
of plants and animal products.
Items
|
Ecological footprints of plants
vs animal products
|
References
|
I
|
Carbon footprint－emission amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases which cause global
warming
|
|
Agriculture＞1/3 of all anthropogenic
GHG emissions
(Food is the largest source of
global GHG emissions)
|
IPCC AR4
|
|
1.
Petroleum
Industry：26%
|
||
2.
Livestock
industry：14.5%〜18%
(1) Beef production: 41% of livestock sector’s emissions
(2) Cattle milk production: 19%
of livestock’s emissions
(3) Pig meat: 9%
(4) Poultry
meat & eggs: 8%
(5) Other animal products
|
FAO Reports 2006 & 2013
|
|
3.
Transportation：13%
|
||
II
|
Nitrogen footprint－nitrogen and
phosphorus produced by fertilizers & livestock manure, flowing into water to stimulate
overgrowth of toxic algae and deplete water oxygen, cause ocean dead zones (eutrophication potential) and produce
acid rain.
|
|
1.
Dairy products & Red meat：the highest N2
footprint
|
Environ Sci
Technol, 2010;44 (16): 6450–6456
|
|
2.
Poultry、eggs和fishes：the second one
|
||
3.
vegetables：less
N2 footprint
|
||
4.
Grains：the least N2 footprint
|
||
III
|
Food
footprint－Livestock consume 58% of the annual crop yields, this over-reliance on
crops highlights livestock industry is unsustainable.
|
|
1.
Livestock
spent 74% of the world's soybeans and 36% of the grains (enough to feed two billion
population), making one billion people starvation & malnutrition.
|
UNEP Report 2010/6
|
|
2.
|
||
3. 3
kg plant protein fed to pigs produce only1 kg pork protein （losing 2/3 first-hand protein）
|
||
4. Resources of a meat-eater
consumed can feed 20 people.
|
||
IV
|
Water
footprint－Livestock uses nearly 70% of the world's fresh water and it is one of the
major causes of water pollution.
|
|
1.
Led
to 800 million people living without clean water.
|
UNEP Report 2010/6
|
|
2.
Producing
1Kg of animal protein requires about 100 times more
water than producing 1Kg grain proteins.
|
Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78: 660s-663S
|
|
3.
Animal
protein consumes water 5-10 times more than
vegetarian protein.
|
||
4.
Meat
production consume lots of water：production
of
|
||
5.
Huge
amounts of livestock manure contaminate river water.
|
||
V
|
Soil
footprint－Livestock production occupies
70% of the world's agricultural land.
|
|
1.
Livestock
production occupies 38% of the global iceless arable land.
|
UNEP Report 2010/6
|
|
2.
Land required
for meat meals is 10 to 20 times more than
that for vegetarian meals.
|
||
3.
Global surface
land is overgrazed for nearly 1/3, resulting in over 50% of the surface erosion &
degradation.
|
||
4. Each year 90% of US cropland loses soil at rate 13 times above the sustainable rate of 1 ton/ha/y.
|
Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78: 660s-663S
|
|
5. It takes approximately 500 years
to replace 25mm (1 in) of lost soil.
|
||
VI
|
Forest
footprint－80% of rainforest
deforestation is due to livestock pasture and planting forage
crops.
|
|
1.
Not only increases 20% of greenhouse
gas emission, but also reduces CO2 absorption from trees.
|
FAO Report 2006
|
|
6.
Eating a ¼lb
hamburger meat razes 6 square meters of rainforest and destroys 20 to 30
different species of plants, 20 to 30 different kinds of birds & animals,
and 100 different insects.
|
||
VII
|
Energy footprints－The
fossil energy
required to produce 1Kcal animal protein is
more than 11 times greater than that for grain protein production (25 vs 2.2 Kcal).
|
Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78: 660s-663S
|
VIII
|
Disease
Footprints
|
See Table 1
|
