Have you ever gone through a week without consuming meat products? According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes more than 40 percent more meat than they should be according to dietary guidelines. This high consumption of meat products in the United States, and throughout the world in general, leads to alarming environmental impacts.

In order to grow the animals that humans eat, millions of acres of land are dedicated to growing the crops that the animals themselves eat. Forests are often destroyed through a slash and burn technique, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and speeds up global climate change. Because healthy trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere, deforestation effectively puts extreme amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and eliminates the source that can remove the concentration of emissions. With the clearing of forests to grow animal feed and to house the animals that humans eat as top contributors, more than 18 million acres of forest are lost every year.

As the meat industry causes excessive deforestation, it drastically affects wildlife. Many methods of deforestation implement toxic pesticides into the earth, which kills surrounding populations and can run off into water sources, affecting even more populations.

It is important to acknowledge the adverse effects of the meat industry on the environment. Next time you are shopping for groceries, consider plant-based meat products or implementing a “meatless Monday” routine.