What affect does livestock have on the environment?

A HUGE one. According to the FAO report, Livestock’s Long Shadow –Environmental Issues and Options, “The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level.”

Not only does the livestock sector generate more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport, but there are also major land degradation problems that are present in areas used for livestock farming. "Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing, " the report notes.

These statistics alone, nock my socks off! It makes me wonder if there will come a day when the human population is forced to adopt some form of a vegetarian diet, just to exist! And by then will we have created too many harmful effects on the environment to be able to support the vegetation needed to feed the multitudes?