Jonathan Safran Foer's Against Meat

People tend to pay as much attention to food as they do brushing their teeth. I urge you, however, to take a step back, slow down, and really think about the food you eat. Eating is a complex thing. It may surprise you. And when you actually think about eating, you will eventually come to think about eating meat. This is no accident, meat has it's pull on humanity. And on our world. The choices we make matter. According to the best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer, eating the meat we know "is certainly the single worst thing that humans can do to the environment"(457). Foer has been recognized by Rolling Stones Magazine and Esquire for his many accomplishments. In one of his works, "Against Meat", Foer covers the relationship of meat and
the environment among the many other point's he makes. In this essay, he talks about life growing up and the role meat played for him and his family. Foer discusses the struggles he has had with eating meat and trying to eat vegetarian. He brings to view the moral and practical issues that come with our choices on eating meat. And although we may disagree on somethings, Jonathan Foer and I both contend that factory farming is seriously damaging our environment. Further examination of the environmental issues it creates such as global warming, air and water pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, as well as ocean acidification, better validates this argument.
Global Warming; everyone at this point has heard about this phenomenon.
The increase in earths temperature. It's supposed to be bad for the environment, And if we recycle more and don't drive cars, we can reduce greenhouse gasses and bring it to an end. Most people are filled with this conception, however they are wrong. To fully understand, you must start from the top. In todays science community, Global Warming is just one of the many factors of Climate Change, a broad term that encompasses the relationships of all the environmental change on earth and can tie human impact in the mix. It basically say's the increase in earth's temperature is a natural change, but humans are causing temperature to increase rapidly. This rapid increase makes Global Warming a destroyer of the environment, So it is bad, but recycling more and driving less is not the problem, factory farming is. Yes, factory farming, the act of farming animals for food in factory conditions, is a major contributor of Global Warming. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency "Agricultural soil management (component of factory farming) is the largest source of N2O emissions in the United States, accounting for about 74% of total U.S. N2O emissions in 2013."(). This basically means that Nitrous Oxide, the greenhouse gas most likely to effect Global Warming, is being produced by factory
farming.
Does it even matter though, whether or not we bring Global Warming to an end?
If you don’t want the environment to be destroyed, then it does matter. And it matters not only to you, but to future generations as well. Some people, however, don't even believe that Global Warming is really happening. For example, current United States Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, asked in a tweet if "our country (is) still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?"(). I'm not saying that these people are wrong for expressing their opinions, but the facts are there. Just look at NASA's data, " The 10 warmest years in the 134-year record all have occurred since 2000... 2014 ranks as the warmest on record"(). And for the people who realize the facts, Global Warming impacts our environment. It is going to have lasting effects on our earth. According to NASA, "Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner"(). And think, factory farming is responsible for
this.
But that is not all, factory farming also is a major source of the worlds pollution. It's not just Nitrous Oxide that we should be concerned about, but all the greenhouse gasses that factory farming produces. This is not to mention factory farming's contribution to water pollution either. Methane and Carbon dioxide are among some of the other gases produced by factory farming. Most people know that carbon dioxide is mainly produced by burning fuel for energy, for example, driving a gas powered car. It is probably the most talked about gas in mainstream media. But no one stops to ask what is providing the energy to power big, may I say, huge industries that produce meat. It is clearly the burning of fossil fuels. In addition, let's look at Methane, which is produced by organic breakdown. Think about the great amounts, enough to feed most people in a first world country on a daily basis, of animals that are being raised for meat. They do need to eat food, at amounts that are unnatural to speed up growth, and that food eventually turns to waste. And as that unnatural amount of waste breaks down in the environment, it produces Methane. But don't just take my word for all this, a recent documentary, Cowspiracy, directed by Kip Andersen, notes that "Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than... all transportation"().