Livestock raising is responsible for countless adverse environmental effects, each of which further aggravates global warming. According to the United Nations and other studies, livestock raising is known to cause the following devastating effects:

1. Deforestation: Livestock raising is the single largest human use of land, and the main reason for deforestation. Since 1970, livestock production has been responsible for 90% of the Amazon deforestation, to clear land for pasture and grow animal feed crops. A rainforest area the size of a football field is destroyed every second to produce just 250 hamburgers.

Scientists warn that if we continue on this damaging path, the Earth’s forests will soon stop absorbing greenhouse gases, and instead will start to release huge quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2). Moreover, deforestation for livestock activities also produces black carbon. Black carbon is a greenhouse particle that is 680 times as heat-trapping as CO2, and causes the ice sheets and glaciers around the world to melt even faster. Up to 40% of black carbon emissions come from burning forests for livestock.

2. Soil erosion and desertification: Over 50% of the world’s soil erosion is caused by livestock, which along with deforestation leads to desertification.

3. Biodiversity loss: Livestock is the leading cause of animal and plant extinction due to land degradation and other habitat-destroying effects. The livestock industry is killing off our beautiful wildlife, including Mexico's own.

4. Deadly pollution: Of all sectors, the meat industry is the biggest source of water pollution. Excessive and unregulated animal waste, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, and other livestock-related contaminants choke our waterways and create oceanic dead zones, such as the massive one in the Gulf of Mexico.

5. Disease: Over 65% of human infectious diseases are known to be transmitted by animals. The filthy and inhumane conditions of factory farming harbor lethal bacteria and viruses such as avian and swine flu, which we all know is a pandemic continuing its global deadly toll.

6. Food waste: Livestock uses up to 12 times the amount of grain as the same amount of vegetable protein. About 730 million tons of the world’s grain harvests are used to produce animal protein. This could feed all the hungry people, numbering 1 billion in the world, and many times over.

7. Water waste: It takes over 1,200 gallons of water to grow 1 serving of beef, but only 98 gallons of water for one complete, nutritionally balanced vegan meal. While 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, we waste 3.8 trillion tons of precious clean water each year for livestock production.

8. Energy and Resource waste: Animal products require 8 times as much fossil fuel energy to be produced, compared to vegetable products. A study found that meat and dairy production in Mexico use the most agricultural supplies and resources in the country, and this is reflected elsewhere around the world as well. All the evidence speaks so loud and clear. If these resources – land, water, and grain – were turned instead towards the direct support of human life instead of livestock, what a different world we would have.

Respected climate scientists including Dr. James Hansen of NASA, Dr. Carlos Nobre of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – all have stated that reducing meat consumption or becoming vegetarian would be an effective solution to global warming. That is, we have to live an animal-free lifestyle, a compassionate lifestyle.

Thirty years ago, my husband and I decided to become vegetarian based on the principle of respect for life and non-violence. Today, doctors recommend us not to abuse them for health reasons. Additionally, we are finding out that this excessive consumption not only negatively affects human health but the health of the planet as well. When a hamburger arrives on my table, what does it involve in terms of climate change?

There are a lot of scientific reports made about the costs of meat eating, so I’m sure you are asking for the sake of people who may not be aware. So, please, allow me to state some of the costs of what we are dealing with for the next time one is about to eat a hamburger. The cost of a hamburger appears to us as cheap, but without the enormous subsidies involved in the meat industry, the real monetary cost of a hamburger would be much higher, much higher, at least US$12.

There are so many costs and resources involved for that one hamburger that you are asking about, from the field to the plate, and all the processes in between. From burning the precious forests to growing the corn and soy to feed the cows, to making the fertilizer and watering these feed crops, to giving the cows huge amounts of healthy land and water, hormones and antibiotics are also forcefully fed to the cows, and we will eat all that. Then, the transport over long distances here and there and finally to the slaughterhouse, to freezing the meat so that it does not rot as it is supposed to, then finally, it has to be cooked before reaching the plate - and cooked well because, for example, the US Department of Agriculture found that 89% of beef hamburger patties contained traces of the deadly E. coli bacteria. Eighty-nine percent of the beef hamburger contains traces of E. coli.

There is more that goes in the hamburger than what you think you see. Here are just a few examples. Destruction of land: First, land must be cleared to raise the cows. For one hamburger, there are 55 square feet of destroyed tropical rainforest, which is an equivalent of 75 kilograms of CO2, or driving your car for 5 days straight. Also, biodiversity loss. In the process, we lose up to 30 plant species, 100 insect species – I mean the beneficial one as well - and dozens of birds, mammals, etc.

Now, it contributes to hunger. Some of the deforested land is used to grow grains. Oftentimes, poor families are forced off their land in the process. One hamburger costs 4 pounds of grain that was consumed by the cow - that’s about 3 loaves of bread or 8 plates of spaghetti that could have fed a number of hungry people. So, another cold cost of a hamburger is human starvation.