Environmental protection

Due to extreme physiogeographic conditions (deserts, ice sheets), only about two thirds of the world's land surface can be used. The majority (68 %) of the agricultural area is pasture land on which, for example, cattle, sheep and goats are raised. But even 65 % of the arable land is used for animal farming and the production of animal fodder. By switching to a plant-based diet, the area-footprint of the average citizen – about 2000 m₂ – would be reduced by more than two thirds. [1]

Around 60 % of methane emissions and 80 % nitrous oxide emissions in Germany come from agriculture. Livestock farming is the main source of these emissions, because cattle breeding in particular emits vast quantities of methane - a gas that warms the atmosphere significantly (25 times) more than CO₂. However, the residence time (half-life) is shorter, so that a sharp decline in cattle farming would be measurable after only 8 to 15 years. But if we continue to live as we are doing now, greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 80 % by 2050. [2]

Agriculture consumes 70 % of the world's drinking water resources. On the one hand, the breeding animals drink a lot of water - a cow up to 80 litres per day - but even the cultivation of fodder (soya, corn, wheat etc.) cannot be covered by green water (rain) alone. Artificial irrigation is used here, which has already led to water shortages in recent summers, even in a less severely affected country like Germany. This trend is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. [3]

More than two-thirds of the world's fish stocks are acutely threatened or depleted – if we continue to fish as much as we do now, we could see fish-free oceans by 2048, with drastic consequences for the entire ecosystem. Currently, 2.7 trillion animals are pulled out of the sea every year, and for every fish, shrimp or whale caught, an average of up to 5 marine animals are accidentally caught and thrown back into the sea as by-catch. Aquacultures are not an ecological alternative, because for 1 kg of farmed salmon, for example, several kilos of wild-caught fish have to be fed – in the case of tuna farming even considerably more. [6]

Another problem of animal farming is the contamination of drinking water with liquid manure (as nitrate fertiliser). In Germany, 190 million tons are dumped on the fields every year, but the plants cannot absorb everything, so that a lot ends up in groundwater, rivers or lakes. Nitrate levels are particularly high in many regions with intensive livestock farming, such as Lower Saxony. This can be life-threatening for infants, but even for adults too much converted nitrite in the body can lead to a restriction of oxygen transport. With the liquid manure, the antibiotics injected into the animals can contaminate the groundwater, as the pesticides from the intensive cultivation of cattle feed. [7]

Agricultural animal farming is responsible for up to 91 % of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Currently, 1 to 2 hectares per second are being destroyed, mainly for livestock breeding and the cultivation of soya, which is exported as animal fodder to the whole world. This is not only problematic for biodiversity (137 plant and animal species die there every day), but also for the global climate: the primeval forests are responsible for 40 % of the oxygen in the air and, when they are cleared (by burning), they release stored CO₂ back into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. (Note: The soy used in plant-based products such as organic tofu is almost only produced regionally in Germany or the neighbouring EU countries). [8]