Environmental Impact from Deadly Dairy
As demand for dairy products grows, so does its impact on the environment. Milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and other dairy products are ubiquitous, consumed by more than 6 billion people worldwide.
This page on environmental impact includes these key facts:
- Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching.
- The dairy industry is now the primary source of smog-forming pollutants in California.
- Each cow raised by the dairy industry consumes as much as 50 gallons of water per day.
- Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the US is used to feed cows.
- Climate change has been a key factor in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States.
Greenhouse Gases from Dairy Production
Dairy production has a considerable effect on climate change due to emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. In the US, the greatest sources of these emissions in milk production include feed production and manure management.
With the development of large-scale agriculture in the mid-20th century, farming became a big business. To improve the efficiency of feeding livestock, pastures are reseeded with perennial ryegrass. With the aid of artificial fertilizers, perennial ryegrass grows quickly and in huge quantities. It lacks the nutritious content of other grasses. Ryegrass is commonly known as the "fast food" of grasses resulting in a significant number of weak and infertile cows. This unnatural diet inhibits their digestion. The ryegrass ferments in the cows' stomachs producing methane.
Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching, with a lesser amount through flatulence. Statistics vary regarding how much methane the average dairy cow expels. Some experts say it's up to 500 liters (about 132 gallons) a day. In any case, that's a lot of methane, an amount comparable to the pollution produced by a car in a day.
A recent report cited animal agriculture as responsible for an estimated 51 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. A significant portion of these emissions come from methane, which, in terms of its contribution to global warming, is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The US Food and Agriculture Organization says that agricultural methane output could increase by 60 percent by 2030.
Methane from Human Activities Worldwide (2019)
| Fossil Fuels | Animal Agriculture Includes Cow Belching | Consumer Waste Flow | Plant Agriculture | Others Includes Autos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent | 33 | 30 | 18 | 15 | 18 |
| Metric Tons | 118.8 | 108 | 64.8 | 54 | 64.8 |
Wildfires from Climate Change
Climate change has been a key factor in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States. Wildfire risk depends on several factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other potential fuel. All these factors have strong direct or indirect ties to climate variability and climate change. Climate change enhances the drying of organic matter in forests. This material easily burns and spreads the wildfire. The number of large fires doubled between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States.
Research shows that changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions. Increased drought, and a longer fire season are boosting these increases in wildfire risk. For much of the western US, projections show that an average annual 1 degree C temperature increase would increase the median burned area per year as much as 600 percent in some types of forests. In the southeastern United States modeling suggests increased fire risk and a longer fire season, with at least a 30 percent increase from 2011 in the area burned by lightning-ignited wildfire by 2060.
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of planet's environmental destruction. For it consumes a third of all fresh water, occupies 45% of earth's land, and causes 91% of the Amazon destruction according to a documentary produced by Leonardo Di Caprio. As our population increases, animal agriculture is simply not sustainable.
Large dairy farms have an enormously detrimental effect on the environment. In California, America’s top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater, rivers, and streams. Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state’s dairy farms excretes 18 gallons of manure daily. Overall, factory-farmed animals, including those on dairy farms, produce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year, much of which ends up in waterways and drinking water.
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that agricultural runoff is a major cause of polluted lakes, streams, and rivers. The dairy industry is the primary source of smog-forming pollutants in California. A single cow emits more of these harmful gasses than a car does.
Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the US is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them. Each cow raised by the dairy industry consumes as much as 50 gallons of water per day.