Air pollution produced from growing and raising food kills as many as 16,000 U.S. residents every year– and 80% of those deaths are related to manufacturing of animal products such as meat, dairy, and eggs, a new study found.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also reported nearly 2,000 additional people die annually from pollution caused by producing non-food animal products, including ethanol, leather, and wool.
The study builds on previous research about the environmental impact of foods by identifying specific products that most contribute to the air pollution that can cause asthma, heart attacks, and strokes.
“The long-term effects of climate change are daunting and quite frightening, but this is killing people now, too,” Jason Hill, a University of Minnesota biosystems engineer and senior author, told National Geographic. “These are emissions that happen every year, that affect people, that lead to a poor quality of life.”
The team used data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and analyzed the processes used for creating animal products and feed for farmed animals: including fertilizing crops, the fuel burned by farm equipment, and managing livestock waste.
In particular, the study measured the effect of a type of pollution called fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5 — which can cause irritation, coughing, and shortness of breath in people upon short-term exposure.
Notably, producing vegetable crops for human consumption only causes 100 air pollution-related deaths every year — an amount Hill described as “almost imperceptible” compared to the impact of producing crops for feeding livestock.
The study recommends several ways for producers and individuals to reduce agricultural air pollution, including adopting a plant-based diet. Previous research backs up this suggestion, with a study last year also finding that reducing meat and dairy can cut an individual’s food-related carbon footprint by as much as 73 percent.
Speaking with National Geographic, Toxicologist Jack Harkema pointed out that the new findings show that air pollution is not primarily an urban problem like many mistakenly believe, but that it’s an ever-present product of animal-based agriculture.
If you haven’t yet, sign Lady Freethinker’s petition urging U.S. legislators to support the Farm System Reform Act and ban cruel and dangerous factory farms throughout the country.
SIGN: End the Nightmare for Animals on America’s Factory Farms
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Shut down all these farm factories and their workers! We don’t want animals we eat confined, abused ,used and or killed inhumanely on our tables anymore! Stick yourselves with all your hormones, etc. instead. Please ban these humans with little or no regards toward these animals from being around or having any say toward any animals!
Backward people who are simply greedy for pleasing their tongues may not realise how serious they are nearing to end their health by consuming these animals flesh. People need to learn a lot to save their own health & their own life.
PLEASE, PEOPLE…GO VEGAN! HEALTHIER LIVING! NO ANIMAL ABUSE/SUFFERING!
Absolutely appalling that America still allows this to happen in 2021. Shame on you!
OMgosh this torture has got to stop! Cant something be done to these creeps?
“Żreją” w tych Stanach tylko mięso. Nie dość że zabijają tyle zwierząt, to sami tyją i wyglądają jak wieprze! Pełno syfu i chemii produkują. Najgorszy kraj na świecie pod tym względem. Sami żołnierze w Armii mówią że mają syf a nie jedzenie.
please change and help animals
Pollution has done so much over the years. We were taught about pollution in school, but my daughter was never taught anything about it. No one should suffer. Who can we get to actually help? The media doesn’t talk about this at all.
Stop please!!!!!!!
GO VEGAN!
Factory farming is the most repugnant business of the 20th century. Greed and indifference are driving the industry to cut corners and the poor treatment of animals. But the real culprit is the strong demand for cheap meat. Without it, the earth would recover and the people would stop dying. This atrocity will one day ends but unfortunately I will not be able to see it.