Here’s a Shocker: Meat and Dairy Hurt Animals AND the Environment

Move over, dirty fossil fuels—meat and dairy companies are well on their way to becoming the worst polluters on Earth, according to a new study.

Researchers from the organizations the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and GRAIN arrived at this revelation after analyzing the 35 largest meat and dairy companies around the world. Scientists found that overall, these companies were deceptive about their true emission levels and had failed to establish any sort of goal to address their immense greenhouse-gas pollution.

It’s so typical that these shoddy industries would lie about their pollution. The meat industry attempts to hush up how it mutilates and kills completely conscious cows, while the dairy industry tries to downplay how it steals babies from sexually assaulted mothers who are milked until their decrepit bodies give out. Lying is the meat and dairy industries’ M.O.

The study’s authors note that if these industries continue with business as usual, they will be responsible for 80 percent of what is considered to be the allowable greenhouse-gas budget by 2050. And China, the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand are responsible for over 60 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions for the meat and dairy industries.

These industries kill everything and everyone they touch.They are real-life super-villains.

For decades, PETA has informed humans that the best thing they can do for animals, the planet, and themselves is to go vegan. Last month, our point was echoed when researchers at the University of Oxford found that a vegan lifestyle is the single most effective way people can reduce their contribution to greenhouse gases, global acidification, land use, and water use.

So many of us feel powerless in the face of environmental destruction, but in just a year, one vegan saves an estimated 401,500 gallons of water, protects nearly 11,000 square feet of forests, and prevents 7,300 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. It’s urgent to go vegan not only because climate change is more alarming than ever but also because there are lives at stake—lives that are not ours to take.

Fearing a dystopian future? Help create a vegan world today.

Be on the right side of history—go vegan today! And even if you are already vegan, you probably have friends and family members who aren’t, so remind them of the powerful impact that each person’s choices have on animals and the planet.

Climate change will continue until humanity gets its act together. We need leadership from our government in this dire time. Contact your representatives and urge them to support a tax on meat to help cover the health and environmental costs that result from using animals for food.