BAN ALL ANIMALS BEING RAISED FOR FOOD

Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the United States, Pimentel noted. Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food. Raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for kilogram of food produced; rice, 1,912; wheat, 900; and potatoes, 500 liters. "Water shortages already are severe in the Western and Southern United States and the situation is quickly becoming worse because of a rapidly growing U.S. population that requires more water for all of its needs, especially agriculture," Pimentel observed.

Livestock are directly or indirectly responsible for much of the soil erosion in the United States, the ecologist determined. On lands where feed grain is produced, soil loss averages 13 tons per hectare per year. Pasture lands are eroding at a slower pace, at an average of 6 tons per hectare per year. But erosion may exceed 100 tons on severely overgrazed pastures, and 54 percent of U.S. pasture land is being overgrazed.

(2) The human health crisis is pandemic with more than 1.1 billion people overweight and 312 million obese, 197 million have diabetes, and 1 billion have hypertension.1  One final and fatal result of these three chronic conditions is 18 million people die of heart disease annually.*1 You would think by now world leaders would have launched serious measures to reverse all this human suffering by attacking the primary cause%u2014eating meat and dairy products. 
 
(3) The world hunger issues could be more eaisly solved if we used the enormous amount of crops to feed people instead of livestock.
"More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans," Pimentel said. "Although grain production is increasing in total, the per capita supply has been decreasing for more than a decade. Clearly, there is reason for concern in the future."
"If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million," David Pimentel, professor of ecology in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, reported at the July 24-26 meeting of the Canadian Society of Animal Science in Montreal. Or, if those grains were exported, it would boost the U.S. trade balance by $80 billion a year, Pimentel estimated.
Not only would world hunger be lessened, our national debt could be dramaticly lessened.
(4) The raising of animals for food is unessary when we can get all our nutritional needs met by plant foods and suppliments. Tracking food animal production from the feed trough to the dinner table, Pimentel found broiler chickens to be the most efficient use of fossil energy, and beef, the least. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1. (Lamb meat production is nearly as inefficient at 50:1, according to the ecologist's analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. Other ratios range from 13:1 for turkey meat and 14:1 for milk protein to 17:1 for pork and 26:1 for eggs. Even at the 4 to 1 ratio for chicken it is still more cost efficient to eat plant foods.  If it is proven eating  vegetarian foods is cheaper, more healthier, more enviromental friendly.

The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population.

Each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein for human consumption. About 26 million tons of the livestock feed comes from grains and 15 million tons from forage crops. For every kilogram of high-quality animal protein produced, livestock are fed nearly 6 kg of plant protein.

On average, animal protein production in the U.S. requires 28 kilocalories (kcal) for every kcal of protein produced for human consumption. Beef and lamb are the most costly, in terms of fossil fuel energy input to protein output at 54:1 and 50:1, respectively. Turkey and chicken meat production are the most efficient (13:1 and 4:1, respectively). Grain production, on average, requires 3.3 kcal of fossil fuel for every kcal of protein produced. The U.S. now imports about 54 percent of its oil; by the year 2015, that import figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

U.S. agriculture accounts for 87 percent of all the fresh water consumed each year. Livestock directly use only 1.3 percent of that water. But when the water required for forage and grain production is included, livestock's water usage rises dramatically. Every kilogram of beef produced takes 100,000 liters of water. Some 900 liters of water go into producing a kilogram of wheat. Potatoes are even less "thirsty," at 500 liters per kilogram.

More than 302 million hectares of land are devoted to producing feed for the U.S. livestock population -- about 272 million hectares in pasture and about 30 million hectares for cultivated feed grains. 
About 90 percent of U.S. cropland is losing soil -- to wind and water erosion -- at 13 times above the sustainable rate. Soil loss is most severe in some of the richest farming areas; Iowa loses topsoil at 30 times the rate of soil formation. Iowa has lost one-half its topsoil in only 150 years of farming -- soil that took thousands of years to form
Nearly 7 million tons (metric) of animal protein is produced annually in the U.S. -- enough to supply every American man, woman and child with 75 grams of animal protein a day. With the addition of 34 grams of available plant protein, a total of 109 grams of protein is available per capita. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) per adult per day is 56 grams of protein for a mixed diet.

 If all the U.S. grain now fed to livestock were exported and if cattlemen switched to grass-fed production systems, less beef would be available and animal protein in the average American diet would drop from 75 grams to 29 grams per day. That, plus current levels of plant-protein consumption, would still yield more than the RDA for protein.

With all the data available it is obvious it is time to stop raising animals for a food source and start eating  more vegetarian food. we can no longer allow our desire for meat to out wieght the drastic effects of raising animals for food is having on our health, world hunger and our enviroment. It is time to ban animals from being raised for food.

We request that the USDA put a ban on raising animals for food and start funding alternative meat products. There is research being done on cultured meats that would solve all the above problems and still provide all the meat humans could eat. We request that funding be given to alternative meat research, cultured meats in particular.

Witness how incorrect information about %u201Cmeat being necessary for protein%u201D and %u201Cmilk for calcium%u201D persists even when solid scientific research clearly and consistently states the opposite. How often have you heard %u201CI could never become a vegetarian; they look weak, pale, and sickly?%u201D%u2014and we all know better.  Ignorance and greed have created an unprecedented health crisis and catastrophic damage to our environment%u2014and change will not come easily because people don%u2019t like being told that their eating habits are destructive.  In the background, trillions of dollars are invested in %u201Cstaying the profitable course.%u201D 

it is time meat eating was banned and treated as unsocialy acceptable as ciggarete smoking, rape, child abuse, or murder.  Ultimately, meat- and dairy- eating must become vilified as %u201Cdirty, destructive habits,%u201D worse than cigarette smoking and public drunkenness%u2014because they are.

So we the undersigned request a ban be put against raising any animal for food.