A glass of milk for breakfast, spaghetti Bolognese for lunch, a boiled egg, and maybe a couple of slices of salami for supper.

How do these meals affect the bigger picture?

They contribute to global growth in the consumption of animal products. Especially in developing countries, the demand for meat and other animal-based products is increasingly on the rise.

According to forecasts, the demand for meat will double by 2050.

Animals aren't the only ones who suffer as a result of this industry: people do as well. Many people are unaware that increasing meat consumption has a harmful effect on the climate and the environment.

Climate change is caused by increased quantities of greenhouse gases humans produce, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20.) These greenhouse gases are released not only by burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil or by transportation such as cars, ships, and airplanes. Livestock farming and the production of animal-based products have serious effects as well.

Worldwide, 16.5 percent of total man-made greenhouse gas emissions are from animal production, of which the beef and dairy industries are the biggest climate polluters in the sector.

Compared to the production of fruits and vegetables, much more energy is needed to produce meat, milk, cheese, and butter, resulting in more CO2 emissions. The increased production of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide is mainly caused by the fertilization of agricultural land and the production of mineral fertilizers and pesticides.

More than 85 billion farmed land animals are slaughtered for meat each year worldwide². The immense production of animal-based products, especially red meat and dairy, emits a lot of greenhouse gases, compared to plant-based foods³. Animal agriculture is the biggest contributor to two of the three major sources of anthropogenic GHG emissions: methane and nitrous oxide⁴.

We can’t continue like this. We must put an end to factory farming.

With our multi-award-winning movie Eating the Future FOUR PAWS exposes the horrors of factory farming and the failures of our food system. But FOUR PAWS also wants to spark hope for a better future – a food system which is healthy for our planet, our animals and us.

According to the FAO, farmed cattle (raised for both beef and milk) are the animal species responsible for the most emissions, representing about 62% of animal agriculture’s emissions⁵. This is only because we humans intensively breed them. Therefore, it is not a solution to shift meat consumption to smaller, non-ruminant animals i.e. chicken instead of beef as it might worsen animal welfare by affecting a substantially larger number of animals in worse keeping conditions.

Globally, according to the EAT-Lancet reference diet meat consumption must be reduced by at least 50% to provide the growing world population healthy, sustainable diet within planetary boundaries.