Essay --

In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote a gruesomely, memorable exposà © which he entitled The Jungle. Readers cannot ignore what falls into the sausage vats, the rotting ham that is no longer sold as ham, or the rats. â€Å"Sinclair awakened a nation not just to the dangers in the food supply, but to the central role government has to play in keeping it safe† (Cohen). I read The Jungle as a freshman in high school and it took this horrifying book to open my eyes to industrial animal farming and where it stands in America today. While the Food and Drug Act has cleaned up the gory images of humans falling into meat grinders, is the picture any less grim for America, its resources, and its farmed animals? Between watering the crops for farmed animals, providing drinking water for these animals, and cleaning away their waste that is found in factory farms, transportation trucks, and slaughterhouses, the farm-raised animal places an enormous strain on the water supply. Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food (Meat Production). According to PETA, one would save more water by not eating a pound of meat than they would by not showering for six months. As seen Fig4. it takes many more thousands of gallons of water to produce meat, while growing the same amount of fruits and vegetables requires significantly less water. An article in the New York Times asserted that â€Å"by changing one’s diet to replace 50% of animal products with edible plants like legumes, nuts, and tubers results in a 30% reduction in an individual’s food-related water footprint. Going vegetarian reduces that water footprint by almost 60%† (McWilli ams). Armed with this knowledge, one can clearly see that vegetarians save tremendous qu... ...ation†¦. Beef also used the most land and had the highest acidification impacts.† Lamb did a bit better, followed by pigs, and chicken came out on top . This being said, chicken farming still has a major impact on the environment. Just because the most widely eaten meat in America is the â€Å"greenest† of the meats does not mean it is entirely green. As shocking as this is, remember, this statistic is minuscule when compared to cows. Both a meat-based diet and a vegetarian diet require significant quantities of nonrenewable fossil fuels, water, and land, but a meat-based diet ultimately requires more . The average American gets 67% their dietary protein from animal sources (Fig.7 and Public Health), compared with a world-wide average of 34%. This quite is a significant difference and the US’s 67% is largely made up of store bought animal products (Public Health).