Eco-Footprint Significantly Less for Vegetarian and Plant Based Crops vs. Livestock Production

Thinking about meat vs. plant-based agriculture, did you know?

Factoids

• It takes 4.8 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of beef.
• Harvard Nutritionist Jean Mayer has estimated the reducing meat production in the US by 10% would save enough grain to feed 60 million people.
• A pound of wheat requires about 60 pounds of water to produce - while it takes somewhere between 2,500 and 6,000 pounds of water to produce a single pound of meat.
  (Source: Motavalli, Jim, “The Case Against Meat.” Emagazine.com)
• It takes 8,000 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce just one 400-calorie burger.
• The 55 square-foot plot of tropical rainforest that it is cleared to produce that one burger patty would, if left intact, be capable of producing 165 pounds of plant matter
• If you need more inspiration, remember that Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci all chose not to eat meat!

(Source: World Watch Institute, “Global Meat Consumption Has Far-Ranging Environmental Impacts.” 2004.)

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