Dear Future President,

I am concerned about the affects that come from the consumption of meat, and more specifically beef. There are currently 1.5 billion cattle in the world and the number is only growing. Livestock alone are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gases which cause global warming. That is more than all forms of transportation combined such as cars and planes. According to Independent.co.uk, livestock produces 100 types of polluted gases which contribute to more than two thirds of ammonia around the world.

The process of raising the cows is what makes the greenhouse gases. The fuel used to make fertilizer for the cows cause 9% of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the most common greenhouse gas. The manure and wind from the cows also contribute a lot to global warming. The manure contains methane which warms the Earth 20 times faster than carbon dioxide. All of these factors add to the growing climate and it will greatly affect the ecosystem.

The population is growing at a very fast rate. With the population growing, there will be a lot more meat consumption. Countries that were once poor are now getting richer and are now able to buy a lot more food than before which would increase the demand of meat. The population will increase to over 9 billion people by the time of 2050 according to prb.org. Overall population growth isn't that good because countries that are growing the fastest aren't very rich so the kids won't have many options for their future and it will be rough living conditions for them. Countries like India and Bangladesh are growing, but they're also very dense in population and there isn’t enough space for them to live and eventually if the population keeps going up, there would be many side effects. Stopping the growing population would be hard so the easier option would be stopping the over consumption of meat.

Meat consumption led to global warming. Due to global warming, the ocean levels are rising faster than usual and there is more precipitation around the world. Animals have been dying or relocating in the north and south poles because of the melting ice caps. If the trend of global warming continues, many things will increase. By the end of the century, the sea levels are expected to rise from 7 up to 23 inches. That change will make natural disasters like hurricanes and other storms stronger. Also an article from national geographic stated that disease would be able to spread easier, such as malaria from mosquitoes.

I am not saying people should go vegetarian, but I believe people should stop eating so much meat. One way is to farm less cows and raise the price of beef to make people not want to buy it as much. This would probably make a considerable difference and people would most likely only eat it on occasions. The only downside would be that livestock farmers would get less income, but since they take less land for animals and grow vegetables instead, it could even it out. Also since the price of meat would be higher, an alternative food would be vegetables making the sale on those higher. Farmers wouldn't have to use as much of their food to feed the cows and other livestock leading to even more profit.

The lack of meat would also create a lack of protein in your diet, but this would increase sales on other protein-filled foods. The protein alternatives would become a good business and more people would buy from it so this could create more jobs for a better economy.

In conclusion, I believe reducing the amount of meat consumption would lead to many great things. Global warming would be slowed and more animals would be able to thrive. It could create more jobs for protein alternatives and the farmers who were livestock farmers would still have a job growing crops because that will be the cheaper choice for food. The ocean levels wouldn't be as high as well. Cows are one of the biggest factors in greenhouse gases and eating less meat could make a big difference.

Sincerely,

Andrew