Beef: It’s Not What’s For Dinner
I love to eat good food, and I’ll eat just about anything. One thing I don’t eat though, is beef. When I was ten years old, the doctor told me that my cholesterol levels were a little bit high. I knew heart problems were common in my family, so I decided to take better care of my body by abstaining from the consumption of beef. Only recently have I found that the production of beef is harmful to the environment in many ways. If Americans ate half as much beef, we could eliminate reliance on nuclear power, save twenty-five percent of our fresh water, help save the rainforests, reduce global warming gasses, and save natural resources. More than I love to eat, I love drinking fresh water. Beef production consumes more than half of the water used in the United States (“Facts...”). Many people believe that our supply of fresh water is slowly diminishing. Southern California, built in a desert, could get more water from the north if everybody consumed less beef. The amount of water used to produce ten pounds of steak is equal the amount that a family consumes in a year (Hampton). Since the average American eats over 7,000 pounds of beef in a lifetime, fresh water would be a plentiful resource if beef was no longer c
The cattle industry is the fourth largest industry in the United States; however, it consumes more energy than any other single industry in the United States. The fossil fuel required to produce one pound of beef is almost forty times more than that required to produce the equivalent protein value in soybeans (Hampton). Beef production is not just an inefficient use of fossil fuels, but also an inefficient use of land. One acre of land has the capacity to produce nearly 20,000 pounds of potatoes, or just 165 pounds of beef (Ozarko). The demand for livestock feed takes up much land that could be used for sustenance farming with much greater efficiency. Two-thirds of U.S. grain goes to feeding livestock (Hampton). If all of that land went to producing human food, it would yield greater quantities food than we get from beef. If we were all vegetarians, there would be more land and additional food available for starving third world countries. Perhaps some people don’t think destroying rainforests is a big deal because they don’t care about animals or trees, but humans are also in danger. The burning of rainforests releases millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere – two of the global warming gasses. Carbon dioxide is also released by all of the fossil f
Some topics in this essay:
Hampton Beef,
America Hampton,
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Southern California,
Global Warming,
Central America,
Hampton Numerous,
global warming,
fresh water,
cattle industry,
beef production,
pounds beef,
central america,
square miles,
industry united,
carbon dioxide,
fossil fuels,
global warming gasses,
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Approximate Word count = 876
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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