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• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: New research suggests that the livestock industry is responsible for at least 37 percent of all GHG emissions. Methane — responsible for nearly one-fifth of all the global warming potential over the next 50 years — largely comes from animal agriculture. It’s also worth noting that methane warms the planet at up to 86 times the rate of CO2, making it yet another deadly byproduct of the animal agriculture industry.
   
• Resource Depletion: In 2018, the industrial agriculture industry used over 70 percent of soy crops to feed livestock animals. To make room for feed crops, farmers around the world clear forests, grasslands, and wetlands, which results in deforestation, soil erosion, foregone carbon absorption, and animal habitat loss. Additionally, agriculture uses more than two-thirds of the world’s freshwater resources. About half of that water is used to grow livestock feed crops.
   
• Water Contamination: With over 72 billion animals raised for food each year, fecal waste is inevitable — a lot of it. Most farms store animal waste in open-air lagoons. This waste and the bacteria that live in it can enter local water supplies by seeping into the ground or by flooding. High levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and ammonia from animal waste can further lead to dead zones in the oceans which threaten marine life and biodiversity.

Sentient Media.

Medium.

WSJ.

BBC.

AP News.

NY Times.

Sentient Media.

Iceland Review.

LA Times.

Newsweek.

Vergecast.

NBC News.

AP News.

NY Times.

Well-publicized philanthropy shows how afraid the super-rich are of a larger social safety net – and higher taxes.

Guardian.

Reuters.

“At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.”