Sausage for breakfast, turkey for lunch and steak for dinner. America has become addicted to meat. In the past, meat was a luxury item, but now it has become close to a staple in the American diet, and its detrimental effects are starting to become evident. Eating meat is a poor use of our resources, expensive, harmful to the environment and unhealthy.

To feed America’s insatiable hunger for meat, a gluttonous 200 pounds per person per year, the agricultural industry has completely reshaped itself, feeding produce to livestock instead of to the country’s population. According to journalist and professor Michael Pollan, author of the 2006 bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, farmers feed 60 percent of each year’s corn harvest, 54,000 kernels, to livestock, mainly cattle. Now you may ask, don’t cows eat grass? Naturally they do, but in today’s “farms,” better known as feedlots, cows are fed corn because it is the cheapest and fastest way to fatten cattle to the slaughter weight, a feat now accomplished in almost 14 months. This has harmful effects on both cattle and humans.

Naturally, a cow’s rumen, a special stomach that digests complex plant matter, is held at a pH of about zero. Eating corn, however, raises the pH of the rumen close to the acidity of the human stomach. Apart from causing the cattle immense pain (imagine a constant severe heartburn) this takes away the natural defense humanity used to have against the bacteria, such as E. Coli, that used to be killed by a human’s shockingly acidic stomach. Is it really worth the risk of a bacterial infection for a cheaper piece of meat?

Corn-fed beef is not only dangerous, it is unhealthy. Cattle raised on corn fatten much more quickly than those fed grass, which, according to Pollan, increases the levels of saturated fats and lowers the levels of omega-3 fatty acids. These changes can be harmful to one’s heart. Furthermore, hunter-gatherers who eat wild, grass-fed beef show much lower rates of heart disease than modern agrarian societies.

Another reason to eat less meat is that it would simply be a better use of the world’s natural resources. A cow must eat 14 pounds of feed to produce one pound of meat. If we cut cows out of the food chain completely, we would have 14 times as much food for ourselves. According to the World Health Organization, two thirds of the world population is either underfed or starving, so how is it fair to sit down to dinner and eat a steak that could have fed yourself and 13 others?

Raising livestock is also very harmful to the environment. According to Pollan, it takes an average of 35 gallons of petroleum to raise a cow. This includes the oil used to produce the synthetic fertilizer added to grow the cow’s feed and to transport and process everything. With America now considering turning food into biofuels, does it really make sense to turn oil back into food?

Livestock production is also a large contributor to the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Around the world, forests are slashed and burned to make land for grazing. This releases carbon dioxide and leaves the land to be picked over by livestock, which also play a role in emitting greenhouse gases. According to Pollan, livestock worldwide contribute as much to global warming as the world’s transportation system. For the health of the planet, America and the world must redesign their menus.

So, what can we do? The simple solution is to eat less meat; however, this is not as easy as it seems. To many, meat is an important source of nutrition, therefore, it should not be cut out completely from our diets. Instead, it should share the stage with fruits and vegetables and enhance a meal instead of dominate it. Also, eating poultry instead of red meat, such as beef, is much more energy efficient. Chicken, however, has a feed to gain a ratio of almost 2:1, which is much better than the 14:1 ratio of cows. Eating organic produce and protein can also make a difference because it reduces the amount of fertilizers and pesticides used. This protects America’s water supply and reduces the amount of oil used in the growing process.

The main change America needs to make, however, is to become more creative with food. Anyone can go out to Jack in the Box and get a hamburger, but wouldn’t it be more interesting to eat a falafel wrap? America needs to break out of its carnivorous mold and enjoy the delights that fruits, vegetables and grains have to offer.