Beef, dairy and fishing industries are leading causes of extinction
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM AnimalsAustralia.org
June 2020

Beef, dairy and fishing industries are leading causes of extinction.

We are currently witnessing wildlife loss at a rate seen only during mass extinctions. According to biodiversity research, 60% of Earth's wildlife has been wiped out in just 50 years. If this trend continues, the survival of countless species is under threat ... including our own.

Why are wild plants and animals dying out?

In short, we're doing it. And largely, it's in the way we eat ...

Across almost all categories of plants and animals, the leading cause of extinction is loss of habitat due to land clearing — and the vast majority of land clearing is to graze cattle for the beef and dairy industries, and to raise crops to feed farmed animals. Currently, almost one-third of the Earth’s surface is used for these purposes alone, with more forest land bulldozed every year.

For fish and other marine animals, the greatest extinction threat is exploitation, or in other words, fishing them to extinction.

The way we currently think about and produce 'food' is having a catastrophic impact on almost all plant and animal species worldwide.

How did we get here? Since the 1800s, the world's population has grown so rapidly that it's known by scientists as 'The Great Acceleration'. And in the last 50 years the demand for resources has reached such a level that it is interfering profoundly with the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land and biodiversity (plant and animal life).

Image by Paul Hilton / Greenpeace

Scientists have warned that at current fishing rates, fish populations could collapse by 2048.

Prior to this population explosion, the Earth's resources were able to replenish more quickly than humans were using them. But the Earth can no longer keep up with us. And it's the way we're eating and producing food that is the biggest culprit of all. We need to change the way we eat ... and fast. (Read enough? .)

Our survival is at risk ...

Biodiversity is not just important because plants and animals are nice to look at. (Though if you're a lover, you'll know that this is reason enough.) Nature, and the ecosystems of plants and animals that work within it, is literally what's keeping us alive. In one way or another, everything humanity needs to survive and thrive is provided by nature — food, water, oxygen ... even medicine.

Many of the plant foods we eat rely on pollination from birds, bees and other insects. Clearing land to feed farmed animals is a huge threat to bees and other pollinators, as they are rapidly losing natural areas for foraging and nesting. Many plant-derived ingredients used in medical treatments also rely on pollination. The extinction of bees and other pollinating animals would pose a huge threat to our survival.

WWF estimates that more than 75% of the leading global food crops benefit from pollination. Some of these crops are key sources of human nutrition.

Rainforests, sometimes referred to as the 'lungs of the Earth', absorb carbon dioxide, and breathe out oxygen. And yet we're cutting them down at a rapid rate, destroying the homes of countless animals and the Earth's capacity to generate oxygen. Almost of former Amazon forests are now used for grazing cattle for meat.

Along with the physical benefits, research increasingly shows that being in nature improves our psychological wellbeing. And it has irreplaceable social, cultural, spiritual and religious significance.

There's no denying it — we need nature. And the way we eat and produce food is pushing wild plant and animal life ever closer to the brink of extinction. 

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