Cutting down on meat and dairy
Last updated Wednesday 30 April 2008
Avoid foods from animals that burp
Livestock produce more greenhouse gases than all the world's transport combined, with beef production singled out by a recent UN report as a particular enemy at the gate. Why? Because cattle belch. Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 20 times worse for climate change than CO2emissions and cattle are full of it. There are 1.5 billion cattle and buffalo worldwide, each producing more greenhouse gas in a day than the average 4x4.
According to the World Health Organisation, the average Briton eats twice the amount of protein they need in a year. By halving the amount of beef you eat, you could save almost as much CO2 as recycling for a year. By going vegan, you can slice off almost as much CO2 in a year as skipping a single return flight to India.
And cows, sheep, pigs and chickens are responsible for more emissions than just their... well, emissions. So, should we be choosing our meats more carefully?
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It's Not Easy Being Green: eating less beef
Presenter Lauren Laverne explains why she's vegetarian during an interview about her eco-footprint
In this article:
How will it make a difference?
Pub Fact
- Producing a kilo of beef can emit as much CO2 as the average British car driven about 160 miles
- All in all, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that a third of the entire land surface of the globe is dedicated to livestock production
- It takes a staggering 1,000 litres of water to make a single litre of milk, according to the FAO report Livestock's Long Shadow
- Livestock products provide one third of the world's protein intake
- Meat consumption is predicted to more than double between 1999 and 2050
- Vegetarians are 25% less likely to die from heart disease than omnivores
- 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from meat
- Average EU cheese consumption is about 20kg per person; Brits eat half that
- The average Brit eats twice as much protein as recommended by the World Health Organisation, and 50% more saturated fat than is recommended
- A beef calf produces about 5 tonnes of CO2-equivalent throughout its life cycle
Together, belched methane from cows and sheep, plus methane from manure, account for about 40% of global methane emissions. But that's not the whole story.
Livestock production also plays a big part in deforestation for grazing and cultivating animal feeds such as soya. Deforestation is currently responsible for a staggering quarter of all global man-made CO2 emissions.
Add to that the fact that manure and fertilisers used to grow crops to feed livestock produce two-thirds of global human emissions of nitrous oxide (a gas almost 300 times as damaging to the climate as CO2 ) and you start to see the scale of the problem.
When you crunch those numbers, a single kilo of beef can be responsible for more greenhouse gas than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home, according to 2007 Japanese research published in the journal Animal Science.
Cows can even offer vegetarians something to ruminate on - a veggie who scoffs a lot of dairy products can actually be as bad for the climate as a meat-eater. That's because the dairy industry accounts for about 23% of UK food emissions.
If the UK went the whole hog and stopped eating meat and dairy entirely, without increasing how much we eat of other foods, we would cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 8%. While this may be an unikely scenario, even eating a bit less could lower demand and reduce emissions significantly.
What's the debate?
What about animal welfare?
'Climate-efficiency' in the meat industry might conflict with animal welfare. For example, intensively farmed chicken has the lowest climate impact of all meats, but sales of free-range poultry rose 16% between 2005 and 2006. If battery farming and climate change cause you concern, eating less but better-quality meat may be preferable.
What about organics?
The jury's out on whether organic meat and dairy are beneficial to the climate. Critics say that any benefits to the climate from cutting out fertilisers could be swallowed up by the increased use of land. Read this DEFRA report for more information on recent research.
There must be some efficiencies?
In their favour, cows and sheep can graze on non-arable land - so they don't waste space that could be used to produce crops - and produce useful side-products such as leather and fertiliser.
Livestock farming isn't solely responsible for deforestation, is it?
No. Farming for biofuels and soya (much of which ends up in animal feeds) also contribute to deforestation.
What's stopping me?
"I don't want to put the farmers out of business"
Beset by foot and mouth outbreaks and export bans in recent years, UK beef producers are unlikely to react kindly to a massive drop in demand. The science is clear, however, that eating beef and dairy (along with prawns) is extremely carbon-intensive.
In due course, science may come to the rescue. Methane is created in cows' stomachs by microbes digesting food. Introducing different bacteria (such as those found in kangaroos' stomachs) and altering cows' diets (according to The Times) are two ways scientists are approaching the problem. Another alternative is to grow meat in laboratories from stem cells. If that puts you off your steak, and until these innovations are deemed safe, eating less meat could be the best answer.
How do I do it?
- Eat more chicken and pork - meats with the lowest climate impact because they come from animals that don't burp methane, research suggests
- Eat local meat if possible to avoid emissions from transport
- Consider soya as an alternative to dairy
- Consider farting less yourself
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I've Been Vegetarian ALL My Life Muhahahaha! :DD
I decided to not eat meat or fish anymore by my own choice
Never really liked the taste of meat, so that was easy.. now I have to cut down on dairy. :P
I'm a vegan and even though it seems hard to do, it's actually very easy and I don't miss anything.
I have been a vegetarian for 5 years now and I do not miss meat at all! My family grow so many different veg and its so easy and so much fun! I have also lowered my dairy intake and drink alot more soya milk then what I used to! I have also inspired many of my friends to turn veggie to!!
I have always been a veggie! Never eaten meat. I have been growing my own veg for 3 years now and its great. You cant top pulling your own purple carrots and parsnips up on Christmas Day to cook for the meal! The variety of potatoes you can grow are great too and believe me they are so easy to grow. I grow them in old compost bags. I have given up on brassicas though! We have too many slugs and cabbage white butterflies and the frogs and toads in our garden seem to be veggie too!!!!
I am already a Vegetarian and have been for three years. With the amount of vegetarian and Vegan foods in the local supermarkets and local shops it is an easy lifestyle. It is also an easy way to happy your local farmers and community shops if you do not want to use the supermarkets.
Why did not you try to grow your own veggies in your gardens or alotments. Any green area will do. Easy and it saves you money.
Last year we grew carrots and all the people who tried them said that they tasted alot better then the shop brought carrots.
It is also a use of the old yoghurt pots that you can not recycle in most communities.
Most research suggests that grass-fed cattle emit more greenhouse gas than conventional cattle.
Grass may be a natural, low-carbon alternative to grain feed, but it makes cattle emit more methane because it is difficult to digest. The emissions climb when you consider that grass is often heavily-fertilized. Of course, this research doesn’t take into account the damage done by intensively-farmed ranches to rainforests.
Chicken is far less greenhouse gas-intensive than beef per kilo, regardless of how much of it we eat. Chickens are much more efficient at converting energy to meat protein than cattle because they don’t waste energy as methane. However, chickens are still responsible for large quantities of greenhouse gas because they rely on energy-intensive grain.
I'm already a semi-vegetarian, but I disagree that we should eat less beef. Numerous studies report that grass-fed beef omits 80% less emissions that intensively raised cattle, so I think this report gives bad information.
Also, it is equally irrational to say we should increase chicken consumption when the 9 billion chickens (US) killed each year vastly outnumber the 35 million (US) cattle killed each year. Chickens require much more resources, especially water and food. Arguably one should decrease their chicken consumption and increase their beef consumption. Studies prove lean red-meat is at least as healthful as chicken anyway.
I've already been vegetarian for four years, as a matter of choice, but I am contemplating turning vegan at some stage in the future, as I do not want to prematurely stunt my growth by suddenly cutting out all dairy products now, whilst I am still only in my teenage years and growing every day. I do think that becoming vegetarian is very simple, however turning vegan may be more challenging. It is very refreshing to see an internet program that not only encourages many to consider environmental welfare, but also helps many to track their progress, with advice along the way.
© MMIX
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