America’s addiction to cheap meat,fed on corn and soy in huge indoor factories, comes at a tall cost to our own health and that of the planetCallum Roberts is professor of marine conservation, and at the University of York,UKEvery spring, as the snows thaw, or water rushes down the Mississippi and Missouri rivers,spreading life, then death into the Gulf of Mexico. The floodwaters are laden with fertilisers washed from fields and factory farms. As spring turns to summer, or excessive nutrients first drive a huge bloom of living plankton,then cause death on a gargantuan scale as a dead zone blossoms across the seabed. Most years it grows swiftly to over 5000 square miles of seabed, killing everything that cannot outrun it. Related: Why meat eaters should consider much more about soil | John Sauven Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com