The environmental impact of animal agriculture — greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water consumption — is inseparable from its welfare impact, as the production scale that creates emissions also drives welfare failures.
The environmental and welfare dimensions of animal agriculture are structurally linked — the same intensification that maximizes production per animal drives both welfare problems and environmental impacts. High-density housing, growth-maximizing genetics, and cost-minimization all simultaneously reduce welfare and increase environmental impact per unit of food produced. Conversely, systems with genuinely better welfare — lower density, slower growth, more naturalistic conditions — tend to have lower environmental impact per animal while requiring more land.