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Modern meat production environmentally sustainable

April 20, 2015 – In its recommendations for new federal dietary guidelines on healthful eating, a panel of health and nutrition professionals delved into “sustainability,” telling Americans that a diet higher in plant-based foods is better for the environment than animal-based foods. It’s true farmers who grow crops today use less water and pesticides, but livestock and poultry farmers have done their part to become more environmentally friendly, too.

In the U.S. pork industry, for example, over the past 50 years hog farmers like me have cut their carbon footprint by 35 percent, reducing water usage by 41 percent and the amount of land needed by 78 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science/Journal of Dairy Science. READ MORE