By Allie Molinaro

For years, overconsumption and fossil fuels have dominated the Earth Day narrative. Politicians have capitalized on the allure of clean technology with scintillating visions of whitewashed wind turbines and gleaming solar panels adorning urban and rural landscapes alike. While many of us have dutifully sipped from our reusable water bottles and paper straws as we wait for engineers and tech gurus to build out clean energy infrastructure, an even greater environmental threat lies right under our noses—more specifically, on our plates. Even if we immediately stopped using fossil fuels, our current rate of meat consumption makes meeting the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement impossible. Reducing meat, egg, and dairy consumption is one of the easiest and strongest levers we can use to combat climate change, pollution, and animal abuse. And we can act right now.

Over the last several decades, the demand for cheap meat has moved animals off pastures and into factories, where meat products are mass-produced like iPhones. However, unlike our phones, these are living, breathing beings with not only a conscience but needs that directly compete with our own. Whereas the inputs for our phones consist of materials like aluminum, cobalt, and copper, the inputs for animal-sourced foods include crops, land, and water, all of which could have been directly used for humans. This discrepancy has long been known as a main cause of food insecurity. Livestock outnumber humans worldwide by ten to one, most of whom are kept on factory farms (also known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs). These facilities can have as many as 5,000 pigs, 15,000 cows, or 125,000 chickens packed into a single operation.

Also unlike phones, factory farms churn out manure, soiled litter, wastewater, and the bodies of animals who died before reaching the slaughterhouse, creating major environmental impacts. Slurries of pathogens, fertilizers, and toxic metals can enter local waterways, harming wildlife and neighboring communities. Additionally, factory farms spew out air pollution like particulates and chemical gases, which are known causes of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.