"Almost half of New Zealand's greenhouse gases are from methane and nitrous oxide emissions caused by livestock farming. These gases contribute far more to global warming than all the carbon dioxide produced by cars and industry in this country. Methane is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide a staggering 310 times! This makes the livestock industry the biggest polluter in New Zealand. Producing meat also wastes an enormous amount of water. International figures show that it takes 500 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of potatoes, 2,000 litres to produce 1 kilogram of soybeans and up to 100,000 litres to produce 1 kilogram of feedlot beef."

Globally, the growth of the livestock sector is responsible for most of the deforestation that has and still is taking place. 30 per cent of the earth's land surface is now used by livestock or to grow feed crops for livestock.