Slaughterhouses have a major impact on the environment. I mean, think about it, all those animals in one place letting off lots of gas and manure. That just smells like trouble, literally. Meat is very high in demand, but a lot of people don’t relize the affect the slaughterhouse has on the environment and also its workers. The conditions are harsh. And what about the government, they know what’s going on but still does nothing about it.
Americans that eat meat are responsible for 1.5 million more tons of carbon dioxide than vegetarians’ every year (FAO). Livestock is a major contributor to green house gases that cause climate change. It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about farts and manure of grass-eating cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create usable land for feed crops, are a big part. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, to run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water (FAO). Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that's more than the emissions caused by transportation.
The conditions of these slaughterhouses are horrific. Lots of workers get sick every day. And most of them are illegal immigrants