• About 35% of all the land in the U.S. is used by animal agriculture.
• Meat production wastes a lot of energy. A vegan diet requires 1/2 the fossil fuel of a meat diet.
• Animal agriculture wastes a lot of food. Animals are inefficient at converting plants to meat.
• Cattle grazing is the major source of soil erosion on range lands, causing an expansion of deserts.
• Animal agriculture consumes 80% of the water in the U.S., and is the number one cause of water pollution.
• In the U.S., 130 times more animal manure is produced than human waste. A single hog factory farm being built in Utah is expected to produce more waste than the city of Los Angeles. Spills from waste storage lagoons on hog farms killed 10 million fish in North Carolina in 1995. Another spill released enough waste to fill 2 Exxon Valdez oil tankers, killing all aquatic life for 17 miles downstream.
• Livestock production is the largest source of human-caused methane gas emission. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming.

Exerpted from articles on the website of the Vegetarian Society of the District of Columbia, as reprinted by Food for Thought, newsletter of the Corning Area Vegetarian Society. For supporting references or more information, see the VSDC website, www.vsdc.org