Food Our food choices, the environment and social justice

Self-Reflection What do you eat each day? Create a list of the foods you would eat on a typical day.

True or False? The equivalent of 7 football fields is bulldozed each minute to create room for farmed animals.

True or False? 30 % of grain grown in the U.S.A. is used for farmed animals.

True or False? It takes 2 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat

True or False? Fish on fish farms must be fed up to 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish.

True or False It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein.

Stages of raising animals for food 1. Grow massive amounts of grain (tilling, irrigation, etc.) 2. Transport grain on 18 wheeler trucks (use gasoline) 3. Operate the feed mills (requires energy) 4. Transport feed to farms (gasoline) 5. Operate the farms 6. Truck the animals to slaughter houses. 7. Operate slaughter houses 8. Transport meat to processing plants 9. Operate meat processing plants 10. Transport meat to grocery stores 11. Keep meat refrigerated or frozen until sold. WHICH OF THESE STAGES ARE ELIMINATED WITH A VEGETABLE BASED DIET?

True or False? 25% of the water used in the United States goes towards the raising of animals for food.

2,400 gallons of water is needed to produce 1 pound of meat

Comparing a vegan and meat diet A totally vegan diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a typical meat-eating diet requires 4,000 gallons of water per day.

The Rain Forests In the crop season, 2.9 million acres of the Amazon rain forest was destroyed to grow feed for animals. Using crops for humans to eat instead of feeding them to farmed animals would eliminate the need to destroy the rain forests.

Pollution Tons and tons of feces from factory farms pollute our waterways

True or False In the U.S., 89,000 pounds of animal feces is produced per day

Many of the millions of pounds of excrement and other bodily waste produced by farmed animals every day in the U.S. are stored in sprawling, brown lagoons. These lagoons often seep or spill into surrounding waterways and kill massive numbers of fish and other animals. The EPA reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. When 25 million gallons of putrid hog urine and feces spilled into a North Carolina river in 1995, between 10 million and 14 million fish died as an immediate result.chickenhogcattle In West Virginia and Maryland, scientists have discovered that male fish are growing ovaries, and they suspect that this deformity is the result of factory farm runoff from drug-laden chicken feces.fish The massive amounts of feces, fish carcasses, and antibiotic- laced fish food that settle below fish farm cages also contribute to water pollution and have actually caused the ocean floor to rot in some areas.

A Consumers Union study in Texas found that animal feedlots in the state produce more than 14 million pounds of particulate dust every year and that the dust "contains biologically active organisms such as bacteria, mold, and fungi from the feces and the feed." The massive amounts of excrement produced by these farms emit toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia into the air. When the cesspools holding tons of urine and feces get full, factory farms frequently dodge water pollution limits by spraying liquid manure into the air, creating mists that are carried away by the wind. People who live nearby are forced to inhale the toxins and pathogens from the sprayed manure. In addition, according to a report by the California State Senate, "Studies have shown that [animal waste] lagoons emit toxic airborne chemicals that can cause inflammatory, immune, irritation and neurochemical problems in humans."

source used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural- resources.aspx used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural- resources.aspx Note that the statistics pertain to the use of FACTORY FARMS (farms used for the mass production of food)

Catholic Social Justice Look at your list of the Social Justice Principles. Which of the principles are being broken with the use of Factory Farms.