Part 2: Why beef farming is a wildlife problem too

Wendy Keefover with Humane World for Animals, in her work to protect native carnivores, often battles similar misconceptions even though data shows wildlife poses a small threat to farm animals.  

In 2015 (the most recent year the U.S. Department of Agriculture has data for), a little more than 2% of all adult cow deaths and 11% of all calf deaths nationwide were attributed to animal predators. Included in this category are deaths caused by dogs, which makes up a sizable chunk of the losses.  

In fact, some research has found that killing carnivores can increase predation on farm animals by disrupting the carnivores’ social structures and territorial behaviors. Researchers have also found that coyote populations can actually be higher in areas where more coyotes are killed, as younger coyotes move into newly empty habitats and start reproducing. There’s an old adage, Keefover says, that “for every coyote killed, three come to its funeral.” 

Our wildlife team works with farmers and ranchers to help them implement nonlethal strategies to scare off wildlife, such as attaching flags to fencing and using motion activated lights or guardian dogs. Farmers and ranchers can also receive compensation from the government for livestock losses caused by wild animals.  

Interest in humanely managing their relationship with wild animals has been growing in farming and ranching communities, but so too have calls to kill the animals. 

Wildlife is caught in a political battle 

Grizzly bears and wolves have been entangled in a long political battle over their federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. Those advocating for stripping their protections often cite agricultural interests as a driving reason. In fact, President Trump released an executive order in September entitled “Supporting America’s ranchers” that could pave the way for delisting gray and Mexican wolves from the Endangered Species Act.  

Even with federal protections in place, animals can still be legally killed in certain circumstances to safeguard agricultural interests. And states often make exceptions to bans on cruel methods to kill wild animals, such as trapping and snaring, for private landowners and farmers.

Much of the sanctioned killing of wildlife happens under a little-known program within the USDA called Wildlife Services. It is tasked with handling conflicts between farmers, ranchers and property owners and wild animals and even preemptively killing wild animals living near animal agriculture.

Environmental and animal welfare organizations have long criticized the program for senselessly killing millions of animals—often by shooting them from helicopters, trapping or poisoning them, and even gassing coyote pups and fox kits in their dens—at the behest of the agricultural industry.

 

Humane World for Animals/Data courtesy of USGS

The beef industry drives water shortages 

Cows’ methane-laden burps also make them the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. That doesn’t even include all the fossil fuels used to transport cows between almost a half dozen farming operations during their lifetime.  

And then there’s the water issue.  

Earlier this year, the United Nations warned that our planet has barreled past a “water crisis” and into a “global water bankruptcy.”  The Colorado River, which provides water for more than 10% of the U.S. population, is currently suffering critically low water levels as the western U.S. battles its worst drought in 1,200 years. Meanwhile, animal agriculture sucks up massive amounts of water to produce crops for cows to eat. 

“We find irrigation of cattle-feed crops to be the greatest consumer of river water in the western United States; implicating beef and dairy consumption as the leading driver of water shortages and fish imperilment in the region,” write the authors of a 2020 study in Nature Sustainability.  

The situation is so dire it’s been called a “megadrought” and some experts are comparing it to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. 

“There’s no way to solve the math problem [of supply and demand on the Colorado River] without taking on agriculture,” Kathryn Sorensen, director of research at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, told Politico in June. “You can’t fix this by focusing on the conservation efforts of the cities. It’s just not enough water.” 

The toxic byproduct of raising cows for their meat 

Agriculture is also one of the leading causes of nutrient pollution, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls “one of the most widespread and challenging environmental problems our nation faces.” 

Farm animals in the U.S. alone produce over 1 billion tons of manure every year—five times the amount of solid waste Americans make. This manure can be an effective natural fertilizer for crops, but because of its sheer quantity, it often secretes too much nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment.  

Nutrient pollution occurs when excess nitrogen and phosphorus enter a waterway and cause harmful algal blooms that eat up the oxygen in water, which can then create “dead zones” that kill marine animals. A growing number of blooms are also producing deadly toxins. In 2022, over 100,000 animals reportedly became ill from harmful algal blooms. The actual number is probably much higher.  

“Livestock’s untreated sewage is America’s least-regulated source of pollution,” write Denis Hayes and Gail Boyer Hayes in the book Cowed. 

Emerging evidence has also found a link between nitrogen pollution from factory farming and higher cancer rates in people. Unhealthy nitrate levels are primarily seen in parts of the U.S. with intensive agriculture, such as the High Plains and northern Midwest, according to a 2026 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Source: Graph adapted from Kenny Torella, Vox, “This land isn’t for you or me. It’s for the meat industry,” 2023

The baseline American diet is defined based on the 2010 USDA data of the average American's eating habits. “Healthy omnivore” is an American diet in which the person follows all U.S. dietary guidelines; “flexitarian” is the healthy omnivore diet but with 40% plant-based meals. (Sources: Graph adapted from Kenny Torella, Vox, “This land isn’t for you or me. It’s for the meat industry,” 2023. Data from “Carrying capacity of U.S. agricultural land: Ten diet scenarios,” Elementa, 2016.)

What’s the solution? 

At the same time animal agriculture causes all this damage, it provides just a small portion of the world’s calories.  

Humans make enough crops to feed 14.5 billion people—almost twice the current human population. But much of this food goes to farm animals.  

As our climate crisis intensifies, it will only become increasingly challenging to produce food. Animal agriculture is already seeing the impacts. Persistent droughts and wildfires are destroying the crops farm animals eat. More frequent heat waves put farm animals at higher risk of death.  

Put simply, our current system of food production is not sustainable. It’s a conclusion experts come to over and over again.  

Chris Holbein, Humane World for Animals director of public and corporate policy with our Farm Animal Protection campaign, says it can be difficult to talk about the harms caused specifically by the beef industry. Some people may think the solution is eating so-called “greener” meats like chicken, but the same problems plaguing beef production also exist in other animal industries too, he explains. And switching from eating beef to chicken causes more animals to suffer.  

It takes roughly 134 chickens to produce the same amount of meat as a single cow. Chickens also face some of the worst conditions and abuses in animal agriculture, says our farm animal protection team.

The solution then seems obvious: Shift to more plant-based diets. In fact, 70 experts released a paper last year recommending people eat a “planetary health diet,” which is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains and low in animal-based products. (The EAT-Lancet Commission first recommended this diet in 2019.)

Research has found switching to fully or largely plant-based diets would massively reduce the number of animals killed for their meat and the amount of land used by agriculture.  

“We find a substantial reduction in the global environmental impacts by 2050 if globally 50% of the main animal products (pork, chicken, beef and milk) are substituted,” write the authors of a 2023 study in Nature Communications. 

For years, plant-based eating has been gaining popularity and momentum. Vegan alternatives to meats, milks and cheeses have become increasingly available in stores and restaurants.  

But now the highest levels of U.S. government are pushing for more meat and dairy consumption, threatening to undo years of progress. At the same time, the harms to farm animals, wildlife and our planet have not changed. Rather, it’s us who must change.