Coming into Peace Corps, many vegans and vegetarians cave on their diets, taking solace in the fact that they’re integrating into a meat-eating society and that the animals they eat are raised in an ethical, sustainable way.

In a country like Costa Rica, it is practically impossible to eat anywhere and maintain a vegetarian diet, let alone a vegan one. A piece of fried bologna somehow manages to slip onto your plate every morning for breakfast.  Entire towns gather around the slaughter of cows or pigs.  And without permission someone inevitably squirts mayonnaise on your salad.  At least the margarine is vegan (and disgusting).

However, that cows graze and other farm animals roam free in your town is not proof that the meat on your plate is ethical or sustainable. Studying the Costa Rican beef industry, the facts point to the opposite.

The meat at supermarkets, restaurants, and butcher shops in Pérez Zeledón comes from an auction nearby held twice a week. Skinny cows sell, on average, for about 24 cents more per kilogram than healthy-looking cows, and buyers can be heard whispering “too fat” when a healthy cow is up for auction. For this reason, cows are often starved in sheds or forced to graze on lands with little food before arriving at the auction site. Cows arrive the day before auction and are housed in cramped quarters without food.

In the 20 minutes I spent standing over the small pens, I witnessed cows getting trampled from the lack of space. Men lording over the animals spit on them, and electrified prods are used liberally to move the cattle through the system, or sometimes for no reason at all. Some cows are bleeding by the time they go up for auction.

According to the Corporación Ganadera (CORFOGA), which works closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and runs the auctions and slaughterhouses, the cows are given a variety of ‘feeds’ in order to make them gain weight before slaughter: “bananas…chicken droppings, meat flour, palm fat, molasses alone or with urea [one of the main components of urine] and sulfur…” Forced coprophagia and cannibalism—not exactly ethical…

Available information suggests that meat in Costa Rica is even less sustainable than other Latin American countries. Documents on the CORFOGA website state that ranching in Costa Rica requires between 1.3 and 1.7 hectares per cow, compared to 1 in Brazil and as low as .7 in Panama.  Often, the land used for grazing is chosen “irrationally”, and would be better suited for carbon-storing forests or agricultural production for human consumption. According to some estimates, 60% of Costa Rica has been cleared for beef production.  The pastures used have problems with compaction and erosion, which further damage the potential productivity of the land.

Though many cows are allowed to graze before auction, factory farming techniques like those in the US are increasingly common to meet rising demand for meat. According to Roger Calderón, a rancher in the Pérez Zeledón region, antibiotic injections are used to bolster the cows against infection, even before they are auctioned.  “It’s cheaper to give them injections early than to have them get sick,” says Calderón.

Wastes excreted by the animals, including any antibiotics or hormones used, and chemicals used in growing feed are washed into the groundwater and brought to sea, after serving as drinking water for people along the way.  The additional components in the water cause low-oxygen dead zones in the rivers and in the ocean, killing fish, coral reefs, and whatever life may exist in the area.

CORFOGA is experimenting with the use of sugar cane to feed cows in a more environmentally conscious way, since cultivation requires fewer pesticides, causes less erosion, and because of its nutritional properties would feed more cattle. However, available data estimates that Costa Rica produces sugar cane with 1/3 the efficiency of other Latin American countries, using three times the land and detracting from its relative sustainability.

Whether raised in a pasture in your community or a more industrial setting, the animals exploited for food, including chickens and pigs, produce methane gas, which heats the earth 20 times as much as carbon dioxide.  According to a study put out by FAO entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow, the world’s cattle are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all forms of transport combined, and 2/3 of the world’s ammonia emissions, which causes acid rain. Dairy cows produce the same harmful emissions, and it takes 990 gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk.

As one of CORFOGA’s primary goals is to improve the sustainability of ranching, they face an uphill battle. Costa Rica already lags behind its Latin American neighbors in an industry that is inherently harmful to the environment and to people.

Just some facts to ponder if you’re considering dropping, or trying, the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

Graze to the Bottom