http://www.care2.com/greenliving/climate-change-its-whats-for-dinner.html
Climate Change: It’s What’s for Dinner
We all know that driving a gas-guzzling SUV contributes to climate change, but did you know that what you put on your plate could too? Here’s how your food choices affect climate change and what you, as a consumer, can do about it. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization recently estimated that animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That is more than the emissions caused by cars and light trucks combined!
Here in the United States, 6 percent of our greenhouse gases come from livestock production, compared with 19 percent from transportation. While those statistics might not be as severe as the global numbers, they are still worth noting for the conscious consumer.
How Does Livestock Cause Climate Change?
First, there is the manure, which releases methane. That is particularly true when it is stored in anaerobic conditions such as the waste lagoons often found at U.S. factory farms for pigs and dairy cattle or the huge manure piles connected to American cattle feedlots.
But methane released from livestock and manure is not the only cause of climate change, according to the United Nations report. Deforestation—the massive clearing of forests—also plays a big part. More than 70 percent of the Amazon rainforest’s deforested land is used for pasture, and a substantial part of the remaining land is used to produce crops fed to animals. In the United States, 60 percent of the agricultural output of the Missouri-Mississippi basin is used to feed livestock because land once farmed for local human consumption is now used for industrialized feed production.
Twenty percent of all fossil fuel used in the United States goes toward food production including running slaughterhouses and meet processing plants, fertilizer production, water usage to raise cattle as well as the post-agricultural processes of transporting, packaging, and storing food.
Are All Animals Polluters?
Some studies estimate that feedlot beef (from cattle that are confined in pens and fed corn to fatten them up) require twice as much fossil fuel energy to produce as grass-fed beef (from cattle that spend their lives on pasture eating grass). Producing a single pound of feedlot beef results in the production of 8 pounds of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of a third of a gallon of gasoline.
It also matters where the animals are from. A rough estimate predicts that 120 million tons of C02 emissions are directly attributable to domestic food transport each year, and U.S. imports and exports likely account for an additional 120 million tons. International imports and exports are particularly ecologically damaging because air miles emit more C02 per ton-mile than any other form of transport.
Combat Climate Change with Your Fork!
1. Buy smart. Purchase food that is produced on small, local farms rather than large industrial operations, and choose organic grass-fed beef over conventional grain-fed beef.
2. Be in the know. Sign up at Food & Water Watch to stay plugged into food issues that affect your dinner and your planet.
Food & Water Watch is an organization dedicated to the belief that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. For more information, go to www.foodandwaterwatch.org.
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20 comments
add your comment »Being a vegetarian is not the only solution. You also have to make sure that the vegetables or fruit you are buying don't come from a far away country .If you don't ,you'll contribute to polluting the planet since all these veggies are imported by plane!
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If those of us with the priviledge of choice don't start modeling a MUCH bigger shift AWAY from animal products, the planet is in serious trouble. China and India can't wait to catch up with the indulgent, meat-centred diet of most westerners. Go VEGAN for the environment, your own health, and not least of all for an end to the mass suffering of the billions of animals that continue to be treated like mere commodities. Check out www.goveganic.net to learn about the trend towards veganic agriculture that has been growing in the UK and is now beginning to blossom here in North America. Stock-free farming is the way of the future...if we want one!
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My 2 Cents | (1) Well said, Trudy! I agree with your outlook 100%! The human population is way out of control!! Something needs to be done about it. | (2) There are many vegetarians and vegans around the world but I definitely don't think it would hurt to have many more. I am a proud vegetarian and help to promote the vegetarian and vegan lifestyle on my website. People choose to be veg for many different reasons. Think about it. Consider it. Do it. Make a difference! Please visit my website for more information at www.KindnessNotCruelty.org
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Hi from Australia.
Here we have had major reports in Australia's production of greenhouse gasses and livestock are major contributor. More so becuase we are a large exporter of beef and sheepmeat so our livestock population is larger than would be necessary for domestic production.
The answer they came up with though was interesting. Instead of Beef eat more Kangaroo!
Kangaroo's don't emit methane becuase they have a different stomach structure and micro flora, they don't cause harm to soils and grasses due to their soft padded feat as compared to hoofs, you don't feed them grain, the run free in grasslands and are not medicated with vet chemicals or anitbiotics.
The meat is better for you low fat etc. and can actually protect and reverse type 2 diabetes thanks to its unique fatty acid components.
Even groups such as greenpeace now see it as a viable solution to part of our environmental problem.
You can see more about Kangaroo meat at http://naturoo.com.au and more about Australia's global warming report at http://www.garnautreview.org.au
Cheers,
Craig
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I have to disagree that the ice sheets arent' melting, and so does NASA. http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/greenland/
But more than climate change is the effect on even our local environments because of choices we make. Some people prefer to bury their heads and pretend than the climate isn't changing, and even if it is there's nothing we can do. There are MANY things we can do. Yes, it does require thinking about what we do as opposed to living unconsciously. I have four kids and three granddaughters and I am deeply concerned about the world we will be leaving them; therefore we try to think about the choices we make, how we live, where we shop etc.
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I entirely agree with Trudy that not having children, especially in the profligate west, is an important part of the solution!
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Trudy asks a common question. According to the US EPA, "Globally, ruminant livestock produce about 80 million metric tons of methane annually, accounting for about 28% of global methane emissions from human-related activities. An adult cow may be a very small source by itself, emitting only 80-110 kgs of methane, but with about 100 million cattle in the U.S. and 1.2 billion large ruminants in the world, ruminants are one of the largest methane sources. In the U.S., cattle emit about 5.5 million metric tons of methane per year into the atmosphere, accounting for 20% of U.S. methane emissions."
http://www.epa.gov/rlep/faq.html
On another page, they describe the methane produced by the digestive processes of other animals, including humans, as "insignificant". Vegan methane production is widely accepted to be higher than that found in omnivores, but it's not *that* high. The smell actually comes from sulphur compounds, not from methane (which doesn't smell!).
hth
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Leonard B writes like an oil company agent. They crop up everywhere, with the same cant, that you find a discussion on global warming. The ice caps are not back to 1978 levels.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/danger_point.html
The ice sheets are thinning faster than the research on which the last IPCC research was based predicted.
A small number of glaciers in Antarctica appear to be growing. This is consonant with increased precipitation, which is consonant with the models of climate change. Most are shrinking. Some of these feed major rivers like the Ganges. This is a problem!!
For the facts, based on research, not the usual assertions by a dozen or so "sceptics" in the pay of the oil industry see, for example:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html
As an amateur naturalist, I can *see* things changing, in line with the models!
There is still - just - enough food for everyone. I heard earlier, from the UN World Food Program, that the number of obese people in the world roughly equals those who are undernourished. The problems lie in distribution and in inefficiency, not least feeding perfectly good food to livestock.
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My question is this... what is the percentage created from HUMANS? there are a heck of a lot more of us producing methane than there are cattle... and no one will argue that the vegan way in the best for stopping methane... legumes being the consistent contributor to flatulence... I have friends that fart all day long due to their vegan diet... I had to put my puppy back on real dog food due to the explosions emanating from her and her confused glace at her rear wondering it that horrible smell just came from her...We humans are the biggest parasites on this planet... we do nothing for it but use up it's resources... If you really want to stop the increase of greenhouse gasses... STOP REPRODUCING... less people... less food needed... less free land gobbled up... less animals needed for breeding farms... less feed lots.... there would be a increase in wild animal life and their territories...less disease spread through all species...LESS SUV and other gas guzzlers...We need to look in our own back yards before we point fingers at anything else....and if you are one of the people who is offended and does not believe in Birth control... Try Self Control....
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One striking thing I learned from Michael Pollan is the fact that factory farms have so much waste (since the waste products of the animals contain so many toxic chemicals from antibiotics, etc and therefore they can't use it to fertilize). Eating from organic or grass farms is so much better because all of the waste is recycled back into feeding the earth and the animals. The way factory farms are set up is not only heavily polluting, but it is absolutely not sustainable - eventually that earth will be depleted and useless. Organic and veg all the way! Thanks for the post.
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