Meat. Chicken wings, beef, bacon, and all of the other things. Everybody loves meat. Some people don’t even consider food a proper meal without meat. But, you aren’t thinking about what happens every time you take a bite. The torture and cruelty humans cause to produce that meat. What is the story behind this?

Humans keep 23 billion chickens, 1.5 billion cows, and 1 billion sheep and pigs each. 83% of our grain and plants go to these animals to keep them alive for them to grow their tasty parts. Also, 27% of our freshwater supply goes to livestock. To top it all off, 15% of greenhouse gas emissions (Carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) come from these animal farms. That’s the equivalent to all cars, ships, trains, and planes combined. 

We kill 74 billion animals a year. So that means, every 1.5 billion years, we kill an equivalent of animals, to all the humans that have ever lived, in the 200 million years of our history.

All livestock has to eat to stay alive, but what of this gets turned to meat? Well, I’ll give it straight to you. Cows eat grain, but only 4% of those grains get turned into meat, and only 3% of calories get turned into meat. The other 97% of calories are all a waste of material. For cows to produce 1 kilogram of meat, they have to eat 25 kilograms of grain, and 15,000 liters of water. If we ate and drank all the stuff livestock ate, we could support 3.5 billion more people. 

A lot of meat comes from large industrial farms. Pigs are stored in large, windowless sheds, and are killed when they can’t have any more piglets. Cows are breeded continuously to ensure a sufficient milk supply, and are separated from their babies shortly after birth. Cows are put in small feeding pens, to ensure growth before getting killed. To resist a breakout of a disease, up to 80% of all antibiotics are used in livestock feed to prevent that from happening. In big farms, chickens are kept so close together that they can’t form the social structure they would in the wild, and start fighting. Humans prevent this by cutting off their beaks and feathers. Male chickens are useless because they can’t lay any eggs, so they are grinded up shortly after birth. Several 100 millions of chickens are killed this way.

So, organic has to be better, right? No. They store 5 chickens in one square meter, which is nearly equal to an industrial farm. Also, organic is kind of a way to cheat for more money, because some that claim they are “organic” use the same methods as the industrial farms.

The truth is, if torcher was a resource, we would produce millions of tons of it every year.

So, should you eat meat? Well, it depends. It really comes down to you and your personality. You aren’t a bad person if you’ve eaten meat, and you aren’t a good person if you don’t. So, you do you. Don’t let this article scare you off.