There are plenty of less than admirable consequences of a processed food diet. For instance, more and more people are discovering the horrific and inhumane way that animals are being bred and slaughtered to get them ready for your kitchen table. There are plenty of other negative global effects that processed food manufacturing and production have on the planet as well.
If you are looking to lose weight by eating whole foods, while your waistline will definitely benefit, so does our planet. Here are just a few ways that traditional food manufacturing, livestock raising, processing, and transportation are bad for the environment.
Production of climate heating gases – The United Nations (UN) did some research into exactly how much-raising livestock for food affects climate change, if at all. What they found was shocking, to say the least. They determined “… raising livestock for food purposes generates more climate heating gases than do all carbon dioxide emitting vehicles combined.”
Our trees are going away – Almost 70% of the Amazon has been cleared for grazing purposes. The next time you eat a hamburger, if the meat came from animals raised on rainforest land, that single burger means 55 square feet of the forest had to be destroyed. This is not just a problem in Amazon. Global livestock farming currently takes up 30% of the earth’s land surface. Much of that was deforested to make room for pastures.
Raising animals for food is incredibly wasteful – The waste from animals raised for slaughter is 130 times as great as the waste generated by all human beings on the planet. Animal waste is not chemically treated like human waste is. That means it can pollute groundwater sources, streams, and rivers.
Soil is eroding rapidly – Farms are the #1 leading cause of soil erosion, by a wide margin. This includes topsoil which is mixed with harmful agrochemicals, pesticides, and untreated animal waste. The International Food Policy Research Institute says that animal farming is responsible for 55% of soil erosion. They also make the claim that 40% of the agricultural land around the world is “seriously degraded”.
When you eat whole foods for weight loss, you don’t have a hand in any of those negative consequences to Mother Earth. This move helps ensure our planet is taken care of, and that you pass a healthy environment onto your children and grandchildren.