Nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from US agriculture.

ABSTRACT: As a major contributor to agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it has been suggested that reducing animal agriculture or consumption of animal-derived foods may reduce GHGs and enhance food security. Because the total removal of animals provides the extreme boundary to potential mitigation options and requires the fewest assumptions to model, the yearly nutritional and GHG impacts of eliminating animals from US agriculture were quantified. Animal-derived foods currently provide energy (24% of total), protein (48%), essential fatty acids (23-100%), and essential amino acids (34-67%) available for human consumption in the United States. The US livestock industry employs 1.6 × 10⁶ people and accounts for $31.8 billion in exports. Livestock recycle more than 43.2 × 10^9<

SUBMITTER: White RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5715743 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature