New pandemics

In industrial livestock operations, animals are kept in overcrowded and stressful conditions, which creates environments that are favorable to the emergence and/or spread of zoonotic disease. A recent UNEP report recognizes that these operations are major drivers of zoonotic disease emergence.

Climate crisis

The livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions globally. If nothing changes, experts project it will account for almost half of the world’s allowable budget for greenhouse gas emissions, for a 1,5°C temperature increase scenario, by 2030 and 80% by 2050.

Deforestation and biodiversity loss

The livestock sector is by far the largest driver of deforestation in South America, where natural ecosystems are being destroyed at a rapid pace to be turned into pastures for an ever-expanding cattle herd, or transformed into large crop fields to feed farmed animals. Food systems and especially large-scale meat and feed production are also major drivers of biodiversity loss and underlie the increased fragility of numerous ecosystems worldwide. The UNCCD states that livestock production is “perhaps the single largest driver of biodiversity loss”.

Human health problems

High levels of consumption of red and processed meat contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, and are made possible by industrial livestock production.

Food security

The production of meat, fish from aquaculture, eggs, and dairy, requires around 83% of the world’s farmland, despite providing only 37% of our protein and 18% of our calories. If the grain used as animal feed was instead used for direct human consumption an extra four billion people could be fed. 

Social equity and farming livelihood

Small-scale farmers, including indigenous and traditional communities, suffer from competition with the industrial livestock sector over land. They are often pushed aside by the sector, which can result in serious land conflicts. Small-scale farmers also face fierce competition from the industrial livestock sector, which can produce at cheaper prices because it does not pay for the costs of its social and environmental impact. 

Antibiotic resistance

The industrial livestock sector routinely uses large amounts of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent diseases that inevitably occur when animals are kept in poor conditions. In some countries, up to 80% of the total consumption of medically important antibiotics happens in the livestock sector. This high exposure to antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance, which undermines the efficacy of antibiotics in human medicine.

Animal cruelty

​In the industrial livestock sector, most animals are kept in very small cages or overcrowded spaces for their entire lives. They are exposed to high levels of stress and can not execute their most basic natural behaviors. Many will stand on slatted floors their whole lives, suffer painful mutilations, face excruciating boredom, and never see the sun.