What is the worst food?

Sometimes I get asked this question.

What is the worst food?

Meaning, what type of food causes the most environmental destruction, the most animal deaths, etc.?

Is is eggs, milk, a certain type of meat?

I don't really know what the "worst" thing to eat is. Any thoughts on this?

-Rob

Big Mac.

it would possibly be beef/dairy/cattle related product due to the large area of land used that could be used otherwise and also the methane emmissions....

although with poultry the conditions are slightly worse and many chickens must die to provide the same nutrition as one bovine...

You cannot look at meat, dairy and eggs seperatly. It is one industry and this is what many vegetarians do not know and do not want to see.

They are all horrible. However, I am going to say the Poultry or Cattle Industry. The impact it had had on my beloved Chesapeake Bay is incredible.

veal

The pig farms around here are having a huge negative impact on the surrounding environment from waste runoff. It's vile.

You cannot look at meat, dairy and eggs seperatly. It is one industry and this is what many vegetarians do not know and do not want to see.

you can look at dairy and poultry industries seperatly though.

IMO meat (land and sea) is the worst food. It is torturous and painful to the beings who are killed for it and it is harmful to those who consume it.

Dairy comes in a close second.

You cannot look at meat, dairy and eggs seperatly. It is one industry and this is what many vegetarians do not know and do not want to see.

i agree.

my thoughts:

worst for animals = chicken (because of the number killed and battery cages are a little worse than conditions for other animals)

worst for environment = beef (deforestation, methane, resource use, manure)

Thanks for all your input. Sorry it's kind of a negative topic, thinking of the worst things out there, but maybe it helps us target certain industries we should protest. Of course we typically protest as many non-vegan industries as we can, but maybe some need more attention if they aren't getting much now.

And this may help with non-vegans deciding what to cut back on. I get tons of people who meet me and decided to reduce the amount of animal products they take in (maybe out of respect for me since many are my friends or friendly aquaintences).

I get that question every once in a while and I wasn't sure which was the "worst" industry. I should ask my Dad, he writes textbooks about this kind of stuff.

-Rob

I agree with Flanders.

The food that causes most animal death in my view is chicken. Alot of people will eat like 4 wings etc... and that right there is the death of two animals. But from an enviromental stand-point, it would be beef because of the amount of land used to raise them.

Isn't like 1 Big Mac responsible for the deforestation of 3 sq miles of rainforest? Or am I mixing up two things here?

Looking at *only* nutrition i'd say mayonnaise is probably the worst thing you could put in your body... although i know there are other top contenders which i'm curious about, from only a nutrition viewpoint (of course i think meat is awful for the environmental devistation).