Everything is connected

Animal welfare touches questions many of us already care about. Pick one to see how the pieces connect, or connect an issue to an animal.

Quick answer

Animal welfare connects to three issues that shape all of our lives: climate change, including land and water use, food security, and public health. Each page explains the link, with sourced figures and answers to common questions.

Last reviewed October 2026.

Climate change

How the way animals are farmed connects to emissions, land and water use, and a warming planet.

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Food security

Who gets enough to eat, and how animals fit into the food system.

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Public health

What our food system means for human and community health.

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by the numbers

What the evidence says

Every figure links to its source. See all of them on our facts and sources page.

12%

of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock

FAO report on livestock emissions, 2023, as reported by AFP 2023

80%

of the world's agricultural land is used for livestock

Our World in Data, Global land for agriculture (FAO data; Poore and Nemecek, 2018) Recent estimate

73%

of antimicrobial use worldwide was in food animals in 2017, by one estimate

CIDRAP, reporting on the PLOS Global Public Health study and the WOAH annual report 2017 estimate

Connect an issue with an animal

How do animals connect to issues?

Read the animal page Read the issue page

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