Opinion: The Hidden Cost of Meat
Kea Answar
I think most of us have encountered the ethical dilemma of meat consumption. Whether it be through our vegan enthusiast friend or the pragmatic social media outcry over the meat industry. We’ve all been there.
If the general consensus is that eating meat is BAD-then just how bad is it? Animal cruelty is ubiquitously mentioned in association with the livestock industry, but what about the hidden cost of human cruelty?
Here are the hard facts.
As expressed by Connect4Climate.Org, the average annual water footprint of a dairy cattle is 2056m3, for Americans that’s 543137.70 gallons of water. To put it into perspective, that is just ONE dairy cattle alone. In addition, an estimated 8% of the global water supply is used to water crops to feed livestock’s.
Water, which could have been used to relieve the global water crisis.
From the national geographic article, “From not enough to too much, the world’s water crisis Explained,” the article states, “Fourteen of the world’s megacities are now experiencing water scarcity or drought conditions. As many as four billion people already live in regions that experience severe water stress for at least one month of the year, according to a 2016 study in the journal Science Advances. Nearly half of those people live in India and China.”
If we take a deeper look into the regions where scarcity of water is most prevalent, you’ll notice there is an overlap between the scarcity of water and the regions with the largest livestock farms in the world.
Currently China and Australia are ranked at the top for having the largest livestock farms in the world, and they are both at a high risk of water scarcity as according to the national geographic article.
The meat industry exploits farmers and workers in periphery and semi-periphery countries. Up to 87% of livestock farms are located in Asia, whilst the majority of meat that is being produced is being consumed by industrialized countries.
This exploitation isn’t a foreign concept to American workers, where human cruelty in the meat industry is very prevalent.
Slaughterhouse workers in America are subjected to harsh working environments which are both physically and psychologically demanding. According to NPR’s article, “Working “The Chain”, Slaughterhouse workers face lifetime injuries,” workers are paid an average of $12.50 per hour, working about 10–12 hrs a day. These jobs are most often worked by people of color and sometimes undocumented immigrants. Meat factory jobs specifically target economically vulnerable people, who have no choice but to accept these harsh working conditions.
Oftentimes these workers are left with permanent life-threatening injuries, which in addition to low wages exacerbate their struggles when faced with the inability to afford healthcare.
The NPR article quotes Debbie Berkowitz, a former Osha official,” Part of the business model in this industry is to sacrifice worker safety on the altar of profits “
When profits over people become the industry motto, it’s safe to ask whether the environmental and ethical cost are really worth that small purchase of bacon.
Sources
https://www.connect4climate.org/infographics/true-environmental-cost-eating-meat
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/world-water-day-water-crisis-explained/#close
