November 6, 2025
By Anna Larsson as appeared in Minnesota Veg Living Volume 11
If you weigh all the mammals on the planet, including humans, just 4% of them are wild, and if you look at land mammals (excluding whales and dolphins) only 2% of all mammal mass is wild creatures. Almost two-thirds of all the mammal weight on the planet is livestock. It’s a similar rate for farmed poultry vs. wild birds.
Animal agriculture has taken over the planet, and it’s causing all kinds of harm. A plant-based diet is much kinder to the earth than an animal-based one. These environmental impacts can be minimized by a plant-based diet.
Climate Change
Animal agriculture accounts for roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as the transportation sector —15%. If you eliminate your animal product consumption, your carbon footprint goes down 15% too. That’s a huge help in our fight against climate change, as big as switching from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump!
Land Use
An enormous amount of land is used for animal agriculture. Globally, grazing land and cropland for animal feed uses the land equivalent of all of North and South America. People sometimes say that animals graze on land that can’t be used for anything else anyway, but that’s misleading. A third of what is now grazing land was once forests. Additionally, most grazing lands are severely overgrazed, leading to soil degradation and the leakage of carbon into our atmosphere.
Crop Monocultures
In the U.S., most of the grain we grow is used to feed animals. Less than 10% is used for direct human consumption. On top of that, most grains are grown in monocultures (think of those endless fields of corn or soybeans you see as you travel across Minnesota in the summer) that rely on polluting fertilizers and damaging pesticides. Among other harms, crop monocultures lead to soil depletion and a decline in insect populations, especially crucial pollinators.
Deforestation
Animal agriculture is the major driving force of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, with 75% attributed to cattle grazing. The U.S. imports over a billion tons of beef from Brazil each year, so Americans’ taste for beef is a huge contributor to deforestation of the rainforest. Another major driver of deforestation is soy production, but you don’t need to feel guilty that your tofu habit is the cause. Over 75% of soy is used to feed farmed animals.
Water Pollution
Closer to home, animal agriculture is damaging Minnesota aquifers as well as creating nutrient pollution that ultimately ends up in the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. We have 50 million farmed animals in Minnesota, mostly on factory farms. These animals produce as much manure as nearly 100 million humans (compared with 5.5 million humans in Minnesota). Farmed animal waste doesn’t go to a sewage treatment plant. Instead, it is spread on nearby cropland. Meanwhile, other cropland (which in Minnesota is largely used to grow animal feed) is often overfertilized with artificial fertilizers.
When the land can’t absorb all those nutrients from the manure and fertilizer, the excess seeps into the water table and flows into rivers. 96% of Minnesota farm communities have nitrogen runoff above recommended levels, as nitrogen is one of the main nutrients in both animal waste and fertilizer. Nitrogen pollution in drinking water is linked to elevated rates of cancer, higher infant mortality, and a host of other human health issues. Additionally, Minnesota’s animal agriculture pollution makes its way downstream and contributes to the massive algae bloom and dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Overfishing and Ocean Pollution
Humans are emptying our oceans to feed our fish-eating habit. Today, we have just one-third the population of large ocean fish that we had 100 years ago. On top of that, over 80% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area nearly three times the size of Texas, is made up of fishing nets and other garbage from commercial fishing and aquaculture.
Try Plant-Based for the Environment
These are just some of the ways that animal agriculture damages our planet. Moving to a plant-based diet can help restore wild land, slow climate change, and clean up our water supply.
Book a Presentation for Your Group to Learn More
Nicola Philpott and Anna Larsson have created a talk about how we can’t solve the climate crisis without changing how we eat. If you would like to have them speak to your community, office or religious group, please reach out to Nicola Philpott at nicola.philpott@exploreveg.org for more information.
Statistics from OurWorldInData.org; Environmental Working Group (ewg.org); HowStuffWorks.com
Bio
Anna Larsson is a longtime vegan and environmentalist. She works in corporate strategy and finance and volunteers with multiple climate organizations. Anna lives in the Twin Cities with her partner and two teens. You can often find her riding her bike or walking to the farmers market for more vegetables.
