By Lee Hall
Part 13 of a Series
Sustainable Development Goals: They’re a major topic on social media. But if humans want to be sustainable, we’ve got to get serious. We must divest from customs and businesses that treat animal life as commodities. This blog entry is the 13th in a series, as we look at each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The 13th goal is “Climate Action.”
A cattle farmer emits about 10X the greenhouse gas as an equivalent producer who farms pigs and chickens. Pig and chicken farming, in turn, emits 10X more than growing lentils, peas, or beans.
As Marco Springmann has explained, “a cow needs, on average, 10 kilograms of feed, often from grains, to grow 1 kilogram of body weight, and that feed will have required water, land and fertilizer inputs to grow.”
Meanwhile, our animal-breeding habit is a key driver of extinctions.
Stop breeding animals.
Lee Hall is a member of the Speakers Bureau of the American Vegan Society. Lee’s entry on “Nonhuman Rights and Human Sustainability” appears in the Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Springer). Lee holds a Master’s degree in environmental law with a focus on climate change from Vermont Law School, and has taught environmental law at the University level.
