HOST:
Halo, Earth-loving viewers, and welcome to Enlightening Entertainment!
Today, in honor of World Environment Day 2010, we’ll present excerpts from research articles
on animal agriculture, the leading cause of climate change as well as other serious environmental problems.

HOST:
The following excerpt from the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics discusses the health and environmental impact of today’s meat-related food production system. Though published in 2004, it still paints an accurate picture of the present.

VO:
“The current industrial food production system causes environmental effects that ultimately lead to
public health problems and, therefore, warrant increased attention from public health professionals.
Irreplaceable fossil fuel aquifers are being drawn down for irrigation of feed crops, pesticides and fertilizers
used to grow animal feed contaminate water and soil and ocean fisheries are being depleted to produce
feed for factory farmed poultry, pork and fish.

Animal feed additives, such as antibiotics and heavy metals including arsenic, end up in manure
that is spread on fields, and manure from lagoon spills, leaks, and excess land applications
contaminate waterways.
 
Since hogs produce up to four times as much solid waste as an average person, a CAFO of 5,000 hogs is equivalent to a city of 20,000.”