Resource inefficiency

Routing food through an animal is the least efficient way to feed people.

• Animal farming uses 83 % of the world's farmland, but gives back only 18 % of our calories and 37 % of our protein (Poore & Nemecek, Science 2018).
• Of everything a cow eats, only about 3 % comes back as meat on the plate. The rest is burned off as body heat and movement (Cassidy et al. 2013).
• If we ate plants directly, we could farm 75 % less land, an area the size of the US, China, the EU and Australia put together, and still feed more people (Our World in Data).
• About 77 % of the world's soy is grown to feed livestock, not to feed vegans (Our World in Data).
• Every year the world throws away 77.4 million tonnes of meat. A quarter of that (24.9 %) is animals that die before they even reach slaughter, and another 26.7 % is meat that ends up in the bin (Leiden University 2023).

You are wasting food by eating meat

You get annoyed when food gets thrown away. Then you eat from a system that wastes 97 % of it before it ever reaches you.

Would you call anything efficient if it turned 100 calories into 3?

• Animal products swallow 83 % of all farmland and hand back 18 % of the calories. That is not feeding people, it throws most of it away (Poore & Nemecek 2018).
• That 77 % of soy? Vegans are not eating it. It goes into the animals you eat. The rainforest is cleared for your steak, not for your tofu (Our World in Data).
• Eat the plants directly and up to 75 % of farmland comes free, while still feeding more people than animal farming ever could.
• One kilo of beef drinks about 15,000 litres of water. The same amount of protein from soy needs around 2,000, roughly seven times less (Mekonnen & Hoekstra 2012).

Environment & climate

Animal farming is one of the biggest and most overlooked drivers of the climate crisis.

• Animal farming causes at least 16.5 % of global greenhouse gases, about as much as all cars, planes and ships combined (Twine 2021).
• Animal-based foods cause twice the emissions of plant-based ones (Xu et al., Nature Food 2021).
• A kilo of beef takes about 15,000 litres of water to produce, soy only around 2,000, roughly seven times less (Mekonnen & Hoekstra 2012).
• Clearing forest for pasture and feed is a leading driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss (Our World in Data).

Your steak heats the planet, and you know it

You sort your recycling and drive less. Then you put one of the most climate-damaging products there is into your mouth.

And somehow you don't care. Why?

• Animal farming is behind at least 16.5 % of all greenhouse gases, more than every car, plane and ship on the planet put together (Twine 2021).
• Animal foods cause twice the CO₂ of plant foods. Your biggest climate decision sits on your plate three times a day (Xu et al. 2021).
• Methane is behind about 30 % of today's warming, and livestock is its single biggest human-made source (UNEP 2021).
• The Amazon is not burning by accident. Cattle pasture is the single biggest reason rainforest there disappears (Our World in Data).
• A third of the planet's land is set aside for livestock. Drop animal farming and 3.1 billion hectares come free. Let that land grow back and it could pull enormous amounts of CO₂ out of the air over the coming decades (Hayek et al. 2021).

Economics & subsidies

Cheap meat is a myth. You just pay the full price somewhere else.

• Over 80 % of EU farm subsidies flow, directly or through feed, into animal products that would not be profitable without the money (Kortleve et al., Nature Food 2024).
• The hidden costs of the food system are estimated globally at over USD 10 trillion a year (FAO 2023). In the EU alone, environmental and health damage from animal-related nitrogen pollution costs up to 320 billion euros a year (European Nitrogen Assessment).
• Without that constant subsidy, meat at today's prices would not be competitive.
• Some plant-based substitutes cost more because they lack economies of scale and carry high development costs, not because of the raw materials.

You pay three times over for what you defend

Your taxes keep alive an industry that would go bankrupt without them.

You subsidise your own cheap meat, then complain that tofu is expensive?

• 82 % of EU farm subsidies go to animal products. You pay at the till, at the tax office, and with the planet (Nature Food 2024).
• Meat carries huge hidden costs, from disease to environmental damage, over 10 trillion dollars a year worldwide (FAO 2023). In the EU alone, animal nitrogen pollution adds up to 320 billion euros a year (European Nitrogen Assessment). You end up paying for it through taxes and health insurance.
• What other market that is neither profitable nor sustainable would you happily prop up with billions, and then defend on top of that?

Health & antibiotics

A plant-based diet covers everything. Animal farming, meanwhile, is breeding the next health crisis.

• Around 73 % of all antibiotics sold worldwide are used in animal farming, which breeds resistant bacteria (Van Boeckel et al. 2015).
• Antibiotic resistance contributed to about 1.27 million deaths in 2019 (The Lancet 2022).
• The WHO classes processed meat as carcinogenic (Group 1), the same category as tobacco smoke and asbestos, and red meat as probably carcinogenic (WHO).
• A well-planned vegan diet works for every stage of life, sport included (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2016).
• The vitamin B12 that vegans supplement is made by bacteria. Farm animals are given the exact same supplement (NIH).

You are eating their antibiotics too

You take in the animals' medication along with the meat. And the supplement you laugh at, you have been taking all along, just routed through a suffering animal first.

You mock the B12 pill as unnatural, then take the same vitamin through a dead animal that was supplemented itself?

• 73 % of all antibiotics end up in animal farming. The resistant bacteria reach you through the meat, even from the organic butcher (Van Boeckel 2015).
• Resistance already kills: about 1.27 million deaths in 2019 alone, and rising (The Lancet 2022).
• Bacteria make B12, not the animal. Pigs and chickens get it mixed into their feed, cows get cobalt that their body turns into B12. So you supplement either way, you just send it through a suffering animal first (NIH).
• 3 in 4 new human diseases come from animals, and crowded factory farms are the perfect place for the next one to start (CDC). COVID showed what one animal-borne outbreak can cost: over 12 trillion dollars.
• Depending on the meat, the country and the study, a large share of supermarket meat samples carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria (EFSA). Enjoy your dinner.

Morality & ethics

We measure animal protection by two different standards, and we don't even notice.

• Testing cosmetics on animals is banned in the EU (EU 1223/2009). The far larger exploitation for food is allowed.
• Pigs are cognitively complex, in many tests smarter and more social than dogs (Marino & Colvin 2015). Yet one is treated as food and the other as a friend (Speciesism).
• Cow and calf are separated as soon as the calf is born. Studies show the calves then fall into a measurable depression, comparable to acute physical pain (UBC / PLOS ONE).
• To keep giving milk, a cow is made pregnant almost every year. Udder infections are so common that the number of somatic cells (mostly immune cells) in milk is capped by law: up to 400,000 per millilitre in the EU, up to 750,000 in the US (EU 853/2004; FDA PMO).
• After a few years her body is spent. Dairy cows are usually slaughtered at around five, though they could live past 20. Male calves give no milk and are killed young or raised for veal (EFSA 2023).
• About 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for this every year (Our World in Data), even though the EU explicitly recognises animals as sentient beings (TFEU Article 13).

You love animals. And you have them suffer and killed.

A pig is smarter and more social than your dog. It dies for your schnitzel anyway.

What separates the dog on the sofa from the pig on your plate? Speciesism. Racism, just by species.

• Hurting an animal for cosmetics is banned in the EU, and rightly so (EU 1223/2009). Killing a pig for five minutes of taste is not. Why is one cruel to you and the other fine?
• A pig is smarter and more social than a dog (Marino & Colvin 2015). Yet you find it normal to cut its throat or gas it with CO₂, which regulators themselves class as highly distressing (EFSA).
• For milk, every cow has her calf taken away. Mothers often call for it for days, and the calves fall into a measurable depression (UBC / PLOS ONE). You pay for that with every sip.
• And the milk itself? The cow is kept almost permanently pregnant until her body is worn out at around five, and male calves are killed straight away. There are also, quite legally, immune cells and pus from infected udders in it: up to 400,000 cells per millilitre in the EU, 750,000 in the US (EFSA 2023; EU 853/2004).
• 80 billion land animals die for this, year after year (Our World in Data). Would you fatten and slaughter a golden retriever? Then why the piglet? (Speciesism)

Psychology & speciesism

Why do we stroke some animals and eat others? Not out of reason, out of habit.

• Carnism is the belief system we are raised with that turns certain animals into "food". It is invisible because it feels normal (Melanie Joy). Women having no rights felt normal once too.
• This is the meat paradox: we like animals and eat them anyway. To live with that, we credit "livestock" with less mind and less feeling than they actually have (Bastian & Loughnan 2017).
• Dog and pig are cognitive equals (Marino & Colvin 2015). The line runs through your head, not through nature.
• Cruelty to cats and dogs upsets us. The same cruelty to cows, pigs and chickens we simply don't see.

You call yourself an animal lover.

You stroke the dog, cry at animal videos, and still eat whatever you feel like. That is cognitive dissonance: you keep at a distance what you already know.

You say you love animals. How many did you eat this week?

• Your brain plays a trick on you. It credits "livestock" with less mind and less feeling, so you don't feel bad while eating them. But dog or pig, an animal is an animal (Bastian & Loughnan 2017).
• The system behind it is called carnism. It taught you to love a few animals and see the rest as food (Melanie Joy).
• This isn't aimed at you alone. But once you notice the trick, you can't un-see it. That discomfort is exactly cognitive dissonance.

Reason: the four Ns

Four justifications carry meat-eating, and none of them survives a closer look (Piazza et al. 2015).

• Normal. Injustice has often been normal, from slavery to denying women rights. How common something is says nothing about whether it is right.
• Necessary. Nobody needs animal products today. A planned plant-based diet works for every stage of life (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2016).
• Natural. Around 68 % of adults can't digest milk sugar properly (Storhaug et al. 2017). Cow's milk in adulthood is anything but natural, another species' milk was never meant for us.
• Nice. That leaves "it tastes good". Killing animals for the taste, with good plant-based options right next to them, is hard to justify.

Your justifications have already been refuted

You are about to say one of four things, and all four have long been refuted (Piazza et al. 2015).

Is "it tastes good", "tradition" or "we have always done it this way" really enough of a reason?

• "Normal." Slavery was normal. Women having no rights was normal. Normal has never made anything right. Killing animals purely for the taste isn't normal, it is just widespread.
• "Necessary." It was, before supermarkets existed. Today a plant-based diet is more than enough, and counts as healthier (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2016).
• "Natural." 68 % of adults can't even tolerate milk (Storhaug et al. 2017). No species was ever meant to drink another's mother's milk. Predators kill to survive. You have animals killed because you like the taste. That is not the same.
• "Tastes good." Grilled with a good BBQ sauce, you or your dog might taste fine too. Still not a good reason to kill either of you.