Animal agriculture stats were wrong

A recent letter describing the detrimental effects of animal agriculture on the environment contains, as usual, incorrect statistics and facts. The writer states that animal agriculture can be blamed for 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The global figure is 10 percent, with most leading scientists and the Environmental Protection Agency putting U.S. animal agriculture emissions at about 3 percent to 4 percent.This is in comparison to GHG emissions of electricity, transportation and industry at 33.28 percent and 20 percent respectively. Animal agriculture does not use 70 percent of fresh water globally. This figure is for all of agriculture, with the majority of it being crop irrigation. The same can be said for land use. Worldwide agriculture as a whole accounts for about 37 percent. Deforestation is mentioned in order to create pastures. Most of the time, if this is done, the land is being used for row crop or grain production. Livestock transportation emissions are minimal compared with transporting fruit and vegetables from California, Florida, Mexico, etc., to your local supermarket.I would like to mention some other facts. One-third of all the food produced in this country is lost or wasted. Lost being left in field, rejected at market, etc., and waste being uneaten, spoiled, thrown out, etc., food.This food generates 3.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in landfills or wherever it ends up. This is equivalent to the emission of 70,000 cars per year. Globally, the GHG emissions from this food is triple that of animal agriculture GHG emissions in our country.