I Wonder…Term Project Introduction I wonder what negative impact the fast foods industry had on the environment. Nowadays, fast foods industry has become one of the biggest industries in around the world. More and more fast foods restaurants are opened as the number of people who consume fast foods increase. For instance, within a mile where I live, there are more than seven fast food restaurants, and most of people that I know consume fast foods at least once a week. Since we all live under the same atmosphere, if the fast foods industry had negative impacts on the environment, it would affect the well- being of the whole society. For this reason, this is a topic that matters to people all around the world. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to learn more about the subject matter, so hopefully I could adjust my eating habits, and influence my friends to adjust their eating habits in order to protect the environment. Hypothesis I think the fast food industry is directly responsible for the emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect. First of all, most fast foods restaurants don’t consume local farming products. In order to maximize their profit, most of the supplies for fast food chains are shipped from the company warehouses, which are sometimes hundred miles away from the restaurants, and those cargo trucks that are used to ship the supplies directly contribute gas emission to the greenhouse effect. At the same time, the supplies for fast foods chains as far as I know are factory- farmed products, which I believe will have more impact on the environment than the old school farmed raise products. Research According to the article “The Carnivore’s Dilemma”, in American, most carbon dioxide emissions ... ... middle of paper ... ...veryday foods require a lot of energy and release a lot of greenhouse gases to produce. This is the reason we should stop wasting the foods, consume less meat, and eat more locally grown food. Bibliography Fiala, Nathan. "How Meat Contributes to Global Warming." The American Scientific Magazine. Journal Article, 4 Feb. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Lang, Susan S. Eating Less, Eating Local and Eating Better Could Slash U.S. Energy Use, CU Study Finds | Cornell Chronicle. Eating Less, Eating Local and Eating Better Could Slash U.S. Energy Use, CU Study Finds | Cornell Chronicle. Scholarly Study, 11 Apr. 2008. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. McKibben, Bill. "The Only Way to Have a Cow." Orion Magazine. Journal Article, Mar.-Apr. 2010. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.. Niman, Nicolette H. "The Carnivore’s Dilemma." The New York Times. N.p., 30 Oct. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Much of the food is thrown into landfills, where it rots, which has very negative effects on the environment. According to John Oliver, the food left to rot in the landfills releases methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas (Oliver, 2015). Methane is a greenhouse gas, meaning it destroys the ozone layer and contributes to the warming of the earth. By refraining from throwing out so much food, or at least redirecting it to people who need it, food waste would be reduced, and so would its harm on the environment. Not only does the rotting food release greenhouse gases, the resources wasted to deal with the unwanted food are huge. According to Kevin Hall, Juen Guo, Michael Dore, and Carson Chow, “Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change” (Hall, Guo, Dore, & Chow, 2009, p. 1). America is essentially using resources like water and fossil fuels, that we could be directing towards a better cause, to dispose of perfectly good food that will then release harmful gases of methane and carbon dioxide. Food waste matters because it is a complete waste of valuable resources and food that is needed by many, while also contributing to the growing problem of climate
Andrew F. Smith once said, “Eating at fast food outlets and other restaurants is simply a manifestation of the commodification of time coupled with the relatively low value many Americans have placed on the food they eat”. In the non-fiction book, “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, the author had first-hand experiences on the aspects of fast food and conveyed that it has changed agriculture that we today did not have noticed. We eat fast food everyday and it has become an addiction that regards many non-beneficial factors to our health. Imagine the wealthy plains of grass and a farm that raises barn animals and made contributions to our daily consumptions. Have you ever wonder what the meatpacking companies and slaughterhouses had done to the meat that you eat everyday? Do you really believe that the magnificent aroma of your patties and hamburgers are actually from the burger? Wake up! The natural products that derive from farms are being tampered by the greed of America and their tactics are deceiving our perspectives on today’s agricultural industries. The growth of fast food has changed the face of farming and ranching, slaughterhouses and meatpacking, nutrition and health, and even food tastes gradually as time elapsed.
In the United States, Food is one of the basic needs of life.We tend to spend tons of money every year to buy food. Consuming food reflects America’s culture in the United States. In America, Fast food is a way to enjoy delicious food made with sugar, fat and salt. It’s impossible to back away from eating good tasting food. Unfortunately, this is leading to major destruction. In the human life, food procurement, preparation, and consumption have devoted to an art form.Spite the terms of “America has a food problem,” it shows that our nation is unable to produce and supply safe, nutritious food in a way where it sustains our global population. Health Issues are a result of over consumption, which lead to portion sizes, and food production.
Even though there is a variety of nutritious food all over the world, while the food you have during the winter is less vitamin deficient the food comes at a great ecological cost. With every action comes a consequence; hence, humans do not take the time to acknowledge what they eat and how it affects our environment. Transporting a variety of foods from all over the world hurts our plant due to the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, which causes more pollution (Source D). This transportation issue can be resolved by simply purchasing locally grown food because the carbon dioxide being released to the atmosphere causes drastic climate change. McWilliams asserts, “But New Zealand lamb is raised on pastures with a small carbon footprint, whereas most English lamb is produced under intensive factory-like conditions with a big carbon footprint.”(Source C). Not only is carbon a consequence of transportation but also of the factory conditions; hence, the amount of carbon released i...
“Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.” The slogan and idea of meat being a staple in all family dinners as part of a healthy diet is force fed down the throats of Americans every single day through government approved advertisement. Animal production and consumption is one of the biggest driving forces in the deterioration of the earth, yet it is a socially accepted practice worldwide. Because animal farming is the leading cause of deforestation, is the primary source of all greenhouse gas emissions, and pollutes water and soil through animal manure, people should consume less meat or choose a meat-free diet.
As public attention focuses on the impact of policy changes on the climate, we may overlook an important contributor to the climate crisis: our food systems and the daily food choices we make. It may sound hyperbolic that our roast beef sandwich is contributing to environmental degradation of the planet. But mounting evidence of the impact requires our attention and action as global citizens. And each of us can do something about it, today, by taking what we eat as seriously
... decomposing manure and other factors, including the energy needed to store and transport meat’’ were all responsible for that18% of greenhouse gas emissions in the estimations. The amount of gas emission from these factory farms has accelerated climate change faster than all of the ways in which we burn fossil fuels to create energy. Even with these high numbers, people are still continuing industrial agriculture and there aren’t enough concerns out there to show how serious this situation is. Meat is equivalent to cars, which both are deeply set in American culture. Not much protest was hold strongly against the production of meat because many environmental groups realize that people may get very upset if meat production was cut off. This is only because they aren’t well aware that meat is slowly killing our planet and should be taken care of before it’s too late.
Unfortunately, the entire global transportation of cars, planes, and ships allocates a large amount of interest and disposing of all greenhouse gases. Because in the world many people who like to eat meat, countries allocate a huge swath of land to make more room for animals. Also, there is scattered land to feed these animals. According to the article “Vegetarianism” by Ramsey P, “Animals not confined to feedlots pose different problems for the environment. Overgrazing and disagreements about land use in the western United States have become major battleground issues between ranchers and environmentalist.”
While gas-guzzling transportation systems and mass amounts of waste have contributed greatly to climate change, there is another key factor that affects the environment even more so. Animal agriculture has detrimental effects on our environment as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation (Meat the Truth). The work of world wide agriculture has allowed animal products to land on plates in developed countries and in the developing as well. This force of globalization has a negative impact on the environment due to the world’s growing demand for meat. Eighteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by livestock farming, while all the transportation systems combined only come out to thirteen percent (Meat the Truth).
The food produced and then later goes to waste is estimated to be equivalent to 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emission, accelerating the impacts of climate change. Research also has it that food waste is the third biggest emitter of green house gases.
consumption and even further.” Our current global food system is not sustainable. It does not
The topic of climate change is frequently discussed, yet so widely misunderstood. The food you endorse, being meat and dairy products, are the leading factors to our world’s rapid decline. The meat and dairy industries are the main culprits of climate change. This is due to the buildup of greenhouse gas emissions, and an unsettling increase in atmospheric carbon levels. The longevity of our planet and species is more important than consuming meat and or dairy products for momentary pleasure.
This is a much bigger deal than people think. In fact, according to an article by Peta, How Does Eating Meat Harm the Environment, it has such an effect on the environment that the Union of Concerned Scientist list meat eaters as the second biggest environmental hazard facing the earth. The number one affect being fossil fuels produced by cars. It was also found in a report published by the Worldwatch Institute that nearly 51 percent of all greenhouse gasses are produced from animal agriculture. This is a very staggering number when a lot of research is being done to make vehicles more environmentally friendly when we could make a huge impact just by changing the way we eat. It is even more astounding that it takes the same number of fossil fuels to produce one hamburger as it takes to dive one car 20 miles (Peta How Does Eating Meat Harm the Environment). The production of this meat is also a big cost. It takes more than 80 percent of the corn we grow and more than 95 percent of oat are feed to livestock. The world’s cattle alone are feed the equal amount that would be needed to feed 8.7 billion people. That’s more than the entire world population. If we cut back on our consumption of meat we could take corn and oats that we produce and feed the world. When producing meat many of our natural resources are used. We use water, fossil fuels and top soil, and we are
When these agricultural resources are given to the animals involved in meat production, these resources are lost. Besides the loss of land, the process of animal production is contributing to pollution and other greenhouse gases that are doing irreplaceable damage to the environment and contribute to untold negative health
Food waste is huge issue these days. It is a huge amount of waste that ends up in landfills and can have lasting effects on the environment. One of major issues of food waste is the greenhouse gases that it produces. Methane gas is the main culprit when it comes to the gases being released. This can absorb infrared radiation and heat up the earth’s atmosphere and cause climate change. Another issue that food waste causes is, water loss due to use for production of fruits and vegetables.