HOW LIVESTOCK IMPACTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND DIETARY CHOICE essay
The livestock has a considerable impact on the environment as well as the food culture and diet of contemporary people. Traditionally, the livestock was used as the major source of meat, dairy and related products. However, the considerable growth of the population of the world in the 20th century was accompanied by the huge growth of the livestock. Such changes have triggered considerable environmental changes because the increase of the livestock caused considerable changes in agriculture. At the same time, the increase of the livestock naturally contributed to the change in the food production that resulted in the production of meat, dairy and related products. In such a context, the question arises whether the growth of the livestock has positive or negative impact on the environment and dietary choices. In this regard, even though the livestock is one of the major sources of food to the increased population of the Earth but it leads to the change of the natural environment, its pollution, and diet choices, which may increase the risk of such problems as cardio-vascular diseases or obesity, but, so far, alternative sources of food still cannot fully meet the existing demand.
On analyzing impacts of livestock on the environment and dietary choice, it is primarily necessary to clearly identify the major factors and causes that stimulated the consistent increase of the livestock worldwide. First, livestock is the major source of key nutrients needed for the normal development and maintenance of human body. Livestock allows providing many people with food in sufficient quantities. Second, costs of production and benefits of the production of livestock are attractive economically that also stimulate the further growth of the livestock. In such a way, livestock allows feeding many people with the high cost-efficiency. In addition, livestock decreases the impact of the natural factors on the food supply because, even if crops are destroyed, farmers still can find options to supply food for the livestock or simply to turn the livestock into the food products, if there is no option for the supply of the livestock with essential food. However, the main reason for the emergence of the livestock is economic because the livestock brings considerable benefits which outweigh costs.
However, researchers (Gerber et al., 2013) insist that the growth of the livestock has a destructive impact on the environment. To put it more precisely, the increase of the livestock contributed to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, it is the livestock that is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
The rise of the greenhouse gas emissions because of the livestock is the natural result of natural activities of the livestock. For instance, cattle need to breathe and, thus, they emit CO2. The increase of the cattle population leads to the growth of CO2 emission. Similarly, manure is another source of greenhouse gas emissions but manure is the natural result of livestock natural activities. In such a way, livestock may have even greater negative impact on the environment than transport.
Furthermore, livestock contributes to changes in the diet choices. To put it more precisely, livestock shapes, to a significant extent, diet choices made by customers. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that in many countries of the world livestock is the major source of food and many food cultures are oriented on the livestock as the source of essential products and ingredients. In addition, livestock supplies nutritious food that cannot always be compensated by plants, for example. For instance, humans may need to eat twice, thrice or even more vegetables and fruit than they need to eat meat to meet their natural need in food. As a result, they eat less.
However, even though people consuming livestock products eat less, they still face the problem of the negative impact of such diet on their health. For instance, meat alone or livestock-related products cannot supply all essential nutrients needed for human health. Therefore, they still need vegetables and fruit. Moreover, livestock related products, especially meat and fat, lead to the development of serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease or obesity.
In such a situation, some researchers () suggest reducing livestock and increasing crops of vegetables and fruit that can replace livestock. However, the increase of the production of vegetables and fruit will have even more devastating impact on the environment because farmers will need more arable lands and conduct more intensive farming that will have the devastating impact not only on soil but also on water, air and environment at large. At the same time, vegetarian food also cannot supply people with all essential nutrients. Therefore, people will still need livestock to maintain their healthy development.
In such a way, the development of the livestock and the growth of the livestock in the total agricultural production has a negative impact on the environment and human health but, at the moment, the mankind does not have adequate alternatives. Therefore, the livestock production should be retained but its negative impact on the environment and human health still can be reduced. For instance, manure can be processed to generate alternative fuels. Therefore, manure can be used as an alternative source of energy that will allow saving costs and protecting the environment because of the reduction of the consumption of fossil fuels needed to generate electricity.
At the same time, the diet should be balanced. What is meant here is the fact that people should consume all products they need. They cannot shift to extremes focusing either on livestock related products or on vegetarian food only. Instead, people should consume all nutrients which they need but they should not eat meat or other products excessively or misbalance their nutrition. In such a way, health-related problems associated with livestock are not actually the problem of livestock but the problem of the food culture and individual responsibility of people for what they eat.
Thus, seemingly negative effects of livestock on environment and diet choices may be minimized. Moreover, today, people just do not have adequate alternative to cut livestock substantially because, otherwise, the mankind will face even greater risk of starvation with persisting problem of the environment pollution and misbalanced nutrition.
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...