HEADER • SECTION
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY • OVERVIEW
(Above) A Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in North Carolina after a Hurricane caused massive damage
and manure leakage into waterways. Photo: Rick Dove.
Food production
contributes to climate change.
Activities like producing, transporting and disposing of
food, generate nearly one third of total global greenhouse
gas emissions. 10 Livestock production is the largest source of
greenhouse gas emissions. 11 This doesn’t mean that eating meat
is bad --, it means the way meat is usually produced is harmful to
the environment. The scientific evidence shows that we have to
change the way food is produced, and how much food is wasted,
to avoid the worst climate change scenarios. 12
Farming better
Luckily for us, and the environment, there is more to farming than
industrial agriculture. Farmers across the country and the world
are producing plenty of food without harming the environment.
They are using organic and agroecological methods like cover
cropping, crop rotation, integrated pest management, and crop-
livestock integration—practices that work with nature instead of
against it. 13 Motivated by environmental, social justice, and health
concerns, food produced this way is gaining traction. How do you
want your school food to be produced?
Greenhouse gas
emissions: Greenhouse
gases are any gasses
that can trap heat in the
atmosphere, effectively
warming the earth.
These gases include
carbon dioxide and
nitrious oxide, which
from the burning of
fossil fuels, like coal
and petroleum; and
methane, which comes
from CAFOs, landfills,
fossil fuel production.
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