It's common knowledge that the standard American diet takes a devastating toll on human health. Only a handful of us have escaped the pain of watching people we know and love battle against diet-related illnesses like heart disease and cancer. Ever wonder what this same destructive diet is doing to the health of our planet?

Fact is, what you place on the end of your fork has profound implications for the environment. Raising the billions of farm animals eaten each year, and the vast quantities of grain they consume, causes widespread soil erosion, water pollution, desertification, deforestation, and overfishing. The great news is that the healthiest way to eat--a diet consisting principally or exclusively of foods of plant origin--is also the most planet-friendly. What's best for us personally turns out to be best for the environment.

Producing the beef, pork, poultry and dairy products that cause much of the disease in North America generally consumes many times the cropland, water and energy needed to create an equal amount of meatless bean burritos, vegetarian burgers and pasta. For example, up to 2,500 gallons of water are needed to yield a pound of edible beef. With the same amount of water, farmers can produce nearly 50 pounds of fruit or over 100 pounds of potatoes. A steer grazing on an acre of grass will yield just 58 pounds of meat, enough to sustain one person for 77 days. But planted with soybeans, that same acre can sustain an individual for 2,200 days.

Producing animal food not only squanders copious amounts of increasingly precious natural resources, it also generates mountains of waste. The manure produced by farm animals in the US is roughly ten times the waste produced by all the country's human residents, helping to make factory farms the biggest contributor to polluted rivers and streams. A typical factory hog farm generates the raw waste equivalent of a city of 12,000 people. In one day, a large chicken complex produces roughly 125 tons of manure.

A reduction in meat consumption is probably the most potent single act individuals can take in the effect to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our precious resources. Reducing meat consumption conserves water, saves energy, preserves topsoil, reduces our dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers and protects forests. All this while improving health.---John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America and founder of EarthSave International

The unpaid ecological price of meat is so hefty that Americans, if they aren't careful, could end up eating themselves out of planetary house and home.---Alan Durning, environmental researcher

It's becoming increasingly difficult to hide and ignore the colossal environmental impact of animal foods production. Consider these recent findings:

The United Nations reports that because of overfishing, all 17 of the world's major fishing areas have reached or exceeded their natural limits.
Like fisheries, rangelands almost everywhere are being grazed at or beyond their sustainable yields. Livestock grazing harms roughly 20 percent of all threatened and endangered species in the US.
Beef production in Latin America, for both domestic and international markets, fuels the destruction of irreplaceable rainforests. In October 1995, the New York Times reported, "Burnings in the Amazon appear to be approaching the worst levels ever." Clearing forests to create cattle pasture is a principle cause for the fires.
Fertilizers, pesticides and other runoff from midwestern farms (most of which grow grain for farm animals) have created a massive, lifeless expanse in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1995, this so-called "Dead Zone" reached 40,000 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey. Recall that 70 percent of US grain is fed to livestock and the connections between our food choices and such environmental tragedies become readily apparent.

The veil is lifting on the ecological perils of a meat-centered diet, making the switch to an environmentally-friendly alternative compelling. Besides being easy, delicious, economical and healthful, a plant-based diet transforms your fork into a powerful tool for environmental protection and restoration.

Worldwide, domesticated animals outnumber humans three-to-one.
38% of world grain production, 70% of US grain and one-third of the world's fish catch are fed directly to livestock. In Mexico, where 22% of citizens suffer from malnutrition, 30% of all grain is fed to livestock.
Producing one pound of feedlot beef takes up to 2,500 gallons of water and about 12 pounds of grain. It takes 6 pounds of grain and up to 660 gallons of water to produce one pound of chicken. To produce one egg requires 63 gallons of water.
Roughly 5 pounds of topsoil are lost in growing the soybeans, corn and other grains needed to produce every pound of meat.
Almost half the energy used in American agriculture goes into producing livestock.
The manure produced by farm animals in the US is roughly ten times the waste produced by all the country's human residents. Belgium, the Netherlands and France now produce more animal manure than their land can absorb.
Every year in South and Central America, 5 million acres of rainforest are felled to create cattle pasture.
The price of meat would double or triple if the full ecological costs--including fossil fuel use, ground water depletion and agricultural-chemical pollution--were included in the pricetag.