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The livestock of Europe and USA produce together 110,000 tons of excrements
per second!
Meat production worldwide:
1990: 170 mio. tons
1994: 194 mio. tons
Emmissions of ammonia from agriculture stem
to about 90% from liquid manure and dung 5 .
Consequences discussed in this article:
- Dying of the forests due to overfertilization
and overacidification because of excessive amounts of excrements from
livestock
- Dying of animals living in the ocean due to
overfertilization
- Pollution of ground water due to too much
nitrate from livestock excrements
- Increase of the hothouse effect among other
things because of methane gas produced in the digestive tract of ruminants
-Waste of big areas of land because they are
being used for rearing livestock and cultivation of fodder
- Waste of foodstuff by feeding it to animals
for slaughter is a senseless extension of the food chain
- Weakening of human health due to overconsumption
of animal protein, animal fats and the high amount of toxic substances
contained in animal foodstuff.
Worldwide meat production increases further
1994 193.8 million tons of meat were produced.
Only for Switzerland, this figure amounts to 600,000 tons.1 In Switzerland,
the quantative consumption of meat has already surpassed the one of bread (this has probably happened in other countries
as well).2 This
fact has enormous ecological as well as economical consequences worldwide.
Unfortunately, these consequences do not receive much attention.
Liquid manure causes dying of forests
The latest scientific research indicates clearly
that today’s mass keeping of livestock is one of the main causes of the
dying of forests. Biologist Dr. Hans Mohr3 states in "Spektrum der Wissenschaft" of January 1994:
"An essential insight gained by ten years of
research on forest damage is that atmospheric amounts of nitrogen and
especially ammonium4nitrogen,
which first of all stems from agriculture, must be reduced. [...]
The disposal of the steadily increasing quantity
of liquid manure and human excrements remains
the cardinal problem."
Nowadays, human excrements are for the most
part being disposed of by sewage plants; animal excrements, however,
are still being poured respectively sprayed onto the fields. The result
of this is that nitrogen (N) in the form of ammonia (NH 3), which is today
considered to be mainly responsible for the dying of forests, is being
caused to 85% by the emissions of livestock.6
Nitrogen, actually an essential nutrient for meadows, forests
and life in the water, can lead to overfertilization if available in
excess. This was noticed too late because forests would first grow
faster with high nitrogen supply and react with first damages only when
the soil was oversaturated with nitrogen.
In 1992, the research committee of the German
Bundestag on the topic "Preservation of earth atmosphere" reached the
same conclusion. Regarding ammonia (NH 3), they published in "Climatic
changes threaten national development":
"The NH 3-emissions are nationally (FRG), continentally
(Western Europe) and globally to be assigned to 90% to agriculture
and to 80% to the keeping of livestock.
528,000 tons of NH 3 are emitted annually in
the Federal Republic of Germany. Ammonia is found and starts in the stable
area, on the pasture as well as when storing and bringing out organic
fertilizer. [...] Ammonia and nitrogen release could be decreased by reducing
the number of livestock, changes in feeding and reduction of bringing
out liquid manure. [...] This would be desirable not only in ecological,
but also in economical respects."8
To get a picture of economical consequences
of the dying of forests, these consequences were calculated taking as
an example the Swiss resort of Davos.9
Partial deforestation
of local forests would therefore cause appr. SFr. 267 mio. of resulting
costs, a complete deforestation would cost appr. SFr. 508 mio. Even
if all steeper areas of forest would have to be replaced by avalanche
barriers, it would cause costs of SFr. 415 mio.
Destruction of water
Ammonia does not only have terrible consequences
for forests, but also for water. Overfertilization causes among other
things an unnatural growth of algae, which one cow releases approximately
as much nitrogen into the air as a car without catalysator on average,
namely 36 kg per year.7
Explanation of indexes above mentioned: