The worldwide meals system is a surprise of technological and logistical brilliance. It feeds extra individuals than ever, supplying a higher number of meals extra cheaply and quicker than ever.
It is usually inflicting irreparable hurt to the planet.
The system — an unlimited net of industries and processes that stretches from seed to pasture to packaging to grocery store to trash dump — produces not less than a 3rd of all human-caused greenhouse gases.
But one way or the other these impacts aren’t within the forefront of the dialog about world warming. Certainly, they typically aren’t within the dialog in any respect.
Within the Opinion Video above, we discover why. Our focus is American agriculture, an business that, whereas feeding the US, can be damaging the setting — contaminating the air and water, exhausting the soil, destroying wildlife habitats and spurring local weather change.
However regardless of these harms, the sector has largely been spared environmental regulation. This exception displays, partly, the particular place that farmers occupy within the American creativeness. However the business, significantly the large firms which might be more and more dominating the sector, are additionally aided by probably the most efficient lobbies on the planet.
That is the primary in a collection of three Opinion Movies that we’re publishing this month. every offering an angle on the meals system and, we hope, altering the best way you take a look at meals and making you suppose twice about what you place in your plate. The second video will look at how just a few highly effective corporations dominate the hen business, trapping farmers in exploitative relationships and condemning the animals to quick, wretched lives. The third video will suggest a dietary modification that will gross you out — but in addition may assist curb local weather change.
For now, pull up a chair on the lobbyists’ lunch desk. Juicy, costly steak is on the menu. For those who’re a taxpayer in the US, attempt your greatest to get pleasure from it. In any case, contemplating agriculture’s huge public subsidies and the hurt the business is doing to your land, air and water, it’s you who will finally be choosing up the tab.
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Hi I'm Adam, one of the filmmakers behind this opinion video. When we started making this we were shocked to discover how free American agriculture is from any real regulation, despite its huge environmental impact. Our video tells the story of how things got this way. If you live outside the U.S. we'd love to know how farming is regulated where you live – please let me know in the comments!
Just wondering why the air quality improved after the impact of COVID19 across the globe? I didn't see jets flying over then as we are now again today, also people were staying home not driving their cars. What happened to the cows? did they change their diet and stop burping? Before we settled the USA there were animals grazing the plains, many were nearly hunted to instinction. Just seems this video is diverting the focus from big oil to agriculture. I am a long way from New York, I'm a 6th generation farmer in Iowa. This video is not very truthful, I'd invite anyone to visit a farm and see for yourself. There is a difference between agribusiness that process the crops that we raise, they are creating profit for their shareholders. Farmers are working on thin margins many working off the farm to raise their family. All live where we farm, we care for the land and most want to leave it in better shape for the next generation. Did you know that the policy that Farm Bureau discusses with legislatures is created from farmer members discussing issues, and voting for or against issues. The reason Farm Bureau is such a powerful voice is that the legislatures know that our policy is based on members who live in their district helping create that policy. As your graph showed the number of farms is decreasing, so that makes having farmer groups like Farm Bureau and other commodity organizations who are able to provide information for legislatures as they discussing pending legislation.
hey but they are yummy and that's all i care about.
"If everyone would decide to become vegan we would achieve the largest carbon reduction. We could halve annual emissions from food production. And, as we saw in a related article, switching to a vegan diet would reduce our agricultural land use by 75%. This means we could sequester an additional 8 billion tonnes of CO2 in vegetation and soils each year. Combined, this would reduce greenhouse gases by 14.7 billion tonnes of CO2e each year.
Thankfully there is no trade-off between production emissions and opportunity costs: what reduces emissions the most also results in the greatest reduction in opportunity costs. Shifting to a more plant-based diet achieves both."
– Our World In Data "What are the carbon opportunity costs of our food?"
(Link at my channel under "About.")
buncha big ag trolls here i see, just as described in the video.
This documentary is missing a large part of the problem. I'm guessing whoever agrees with this video doesn't want to eat beef, or eat at all. Industrial farming is corporate owned, not family farms. And more fertilizer is put on a home lawn per square inch than ag land. Cow burps are natural and composition of the methane gas from cows is less toxic than car and industrial pollution. Agriculture makes up less than 2 percent of the population which means that each family farm supplies food for 138 other people. And if you don't want us to raise cows than you don't want pharmaceuticals, paint, drywall, ball bearings, jello, instants mashed potatoes etc. Query products that contain animal by-products. And I believe that big oil has the biggest lobby over ag.
Okay… well produced video, but there are very few CURRENT agricultural facts put into this video. Yes, tillage causes CO2 to be released. You know what farmers do and have been doing for years? NO-TILL. Ferilization, we use computers and technology to ensure that the fertilizer does not leave. Trust me when I say, I don't want it in the water any more than you do. That stuff is EXPENSIVE, but VITAL to agriculture and producing a crop to feed the people who are complaining Agriculture is bad and how it is causing all of these global issues. Without us, there would be NO Food. Everyone should talk to a farmer and fact check everything they hear because as a farmer myself, there is a lot of missing information here.
These kids are brainwashed by the media.
poor kids.
4:30 China isn’t really emitting greenhouse gases, because most of them are because of American consumerism
I love the narrator's voice. Who's she
Its one thing I dont get here at 4.32 they say that if all america where country then….. but if all of america where a country then every farm would not need more then 2 cows or something bc you would not need to make milk for many many other people who lives in the city. So farms IN america would not be bad if just every family had one. (Outside of America things are diffrent I live in Norway and we have 12 cows 1 bull 70 sheeps 2 horses 1 rabbit and two cats so we dont need to drive tractor very much they dont eat that much grass and dosent poop that much as 150 cows would and we are a family of 4 and do many things by our self. And soon we are gonna use the horses more but we got then just a little while ago so I just wants to get to know them better bc espesial 1 of them can be very much sometimes. And I dont wang her to get hurt in the woods or in front of a carage or something so she dont want to do it again)
Well if it was posibol to have a small farm I think that farms would have been much smaller
Sounds like globalist propaganda but ok
The new York times needs to talk about Ecosia they are a search engine that plants tress…
YouTube should bring back the dislike counter.
Hmm, despite the huge amount of land industrial farms take up, how many Americans have actually step foot on one? I've been to a small family farm, but never an industrial one. I'm pretty sure most of us won't like what we'll see. 🙁
Hope your hungry, food has to come from somewhere. You radicals are crazy.
What an amazing misinformation piece.
yep
A amazing piece that should be main steam news.
Very disingenuous. Why did you not interview any farmers or ranchers?
Even when NYT presents an opinion I largely agree with, I can't stand the garbage they publish. Big Oil isn't the problem? Corey Booker is frustrated with activists? F Corey Booker and f the NYT. Big Media is at the root of ALL the other Bigs destroying people, and the planet.
Yeah let's crack down on farming and starv our selfs to death! Unless you have a good business model that works, don't bother us.
I believe the climate is changing and I believe humans are causing climate change. I am not convinced that fossil fuels are the cause. My opinion is that deforestation and urbanization are enough to drive climate change and that although fossil fuels contribute they are nowhere near the largest contributor.
Calling me a climate change denier because I disbelieve just that portion of the presentation, is deceitful and not science.
As far as the meat and dairy industries processing soy products to feed animals, you would have to grow and process far more protein rich agriculture products to feed humans directly, (therefore increasing global warming), and replacing meat, than used for the production of meat and dairy. At a rough estimate, about double the quantity. Particularly as it needs to be packaged and made to taste and look better for humans than it does animals.
This makes no sense whatsoever. This is why we had COVID for 2 years, the general public, politicians and journalists, have lost the capacity for rational thinking. It is all, leaping on bandwagons to show what wonderful people we all are. Every single fricking story is like the Emperor' new clothes. It is stupidly obvious, but you are a racist, Nazi, science denier if you point out the bleeding obvious.
Animal husbandry wouldn't have been a step forward in human development, giving an advantage to the civilizations that developed it, if it yielded a net loss in resources. Are schools teaching this crap now?