Animal agriculture is only 4% of emissions
That figure is US direct emissions only. Global estimates including feed production and land-use change run from roughly 12% to 20% depending on method.
The best inventory data we have, from the EPA's own accounting of US greenhouse gases, puts livestock at around 4% of emissions, while energy, transport and industry account for the overwhelming majority. Telling individuals to give up meat and dairy to save the climate asks them to overhaul their diets for a sliver of the problem, and the much larger figures that circulate tend to come from advocacy that folds in loosely defined indirect effects to make animal farming look worse than the measured numbers show. If the goal is cutting emissions, effort belongs where the emissions actually are.
The 4% figure comes from US national inventory data covering direct emissions from livestock (chiefly enteric fermentation and manure management) within US borders. On its own terms it is not wrong.
It answers a different question from the one being asked. Full life-cycle estimates for global livestock include feed cultivation, fertiliser, land conversion, processing and transport. The FAO's widely cited 2013 assessment put this at about 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, with a later revision somewhat lower and several independent analyses higher. The range reflects genuine methodological disagreement about system boundaries, not a conspiracy in either direction: but the comparison being drawn only works by matching a narrow national figure against a broad global claim.
Using a single word in two different senses within one argument, so that a conclusion appears to follow when it does not.
How it applies here: A national, direct-emissions-only figure is presented as though it answered a question about global, full-lifecycle impact. The number is accurate for a question nobody asked.
Presenting only the evidence that supports a conclusion while leaving out evidence that tells against it.
How it applies here: Selects the accounting boundary that yields the smallest number, from among several defensible ones.