meat's share of world's GHG emissions; 18%, the World’s planes, cars, trains, boats 13%

[JohnWxy]

http://www.greeningofoil.com/post/Eat-less-beef-save-the-earth.aspx


In 2006, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, it estimated that the world’s planes, cars, trains, and boats accounted for 13 percent of emissions.

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It takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce a pound of beef raised in a traditional feedlot. According to a 2003 Cornell University study, the amount of grains fed to livestock in the United States could feed about 840 million people who follow a plant-based diet.

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Three times as much fossil fuel is needed to produce a meat-centered diet as opposed to a vegetarian diet.
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In terms of land usage, the problem isn’t necessarily land used for grazing, but rather to produce the crops needed to feed the animals. Eighty percent of the corn and 95 percent of the grain raised in the United States goes to meat production. (uh-oh!)

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In terms of freshwater resources, producing 1 kilogram of animal protein requires 100 times more water than 1 kilogram of grain protein.


In addition, 40 kilograms of excrement is produced for every kilogram of beef produced, more than can naturally be used for fertilizer, so there is a large amount of waste to deal with as well. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that animals in the United States produce three times as much raw waste as humans.

(of course, this waste could be converted to energy using anaerobic digesters, but who wants to bother with doing that.__JW)

(more)
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If you use the U.N.'s standards for GHG emissions forcattle, beef produces about 11% of the U.S.'s GHG emissions.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=are_cows_worse_than_cars



Now, I don't think too many people in the U.S. are prepared to go 100% vegan, but if we reduced our meat intake perhaps 10% that would help reduce GHG emissions in the U.S. (if we kept that up long enough to impact beef production)?

[wtmusic]

1. Does my game continue to this thread?

I am so close!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8471809&mesg_id=8471875

[flvegan]

2. You make a good point about reduction.

Now, I am a vegan, but even I know that most people aren't ready to make such a big change. At least not all at once. The Meatless Monday idea is a very good one. Imagine if every single person that was able could take three meals a week and make them meatless. That would be a big advance.

Not that I wouldn't love for everyone to go vegetarian tomorrow... :hide:

[rhett o rick]

6. We have cut down to three or four days a week with meat and that is either chicken or turkey. nm

[Nihil]

7. That point applies across most subjects too ...

... go for "improvement" rather than "perfection" ... apply this
to vehicles, house efficiency, food supply, waste streams and
there can be some remarkably quick gains to be had ...

(He says, moving into his "more meatless" season due to the increased
availability of lovely salads!)

[WCGreen]

3. We need a Shit Czar...

I nominate Liz Cheney..

[JohnWxy]

8. I'll second that!

[glitch]

13. She can be in charge of a new dept staffed by all the left-behinds by Bush

Preferably with almost no budget, housed on site in stockyards.
:evilgrin:

[FedUpWithIt All]

4. I have personally seen a huge reduction in meat consumption among family and friends.

At least 3 families i know have moved to veg. Several of the people we know who still eat meat have gone over to humane locally raised on small family farms.

The Slow Food movement and their Ark of Taste movement have been pretty instrumental with the people we know.


My own family has significantly cut down our meat use over the past several years and have been working toward raising our own livestock. We plan to raise heritage breeds, such as Scottish Highland cattle, Tamworth pigs and Buckeye chickens which can thrive on mostly wild forage and kitchen scraps. We are planning to incorporate practices like milk sharing with the calf until natural weaning.

It is common for livestock breeds to reach near extinction once the breed loses favor as a food source. Several of the heritage breeds had gotten down only one or two flocks/herds once society moved more toward factory and commercial farming. There has been a drive, among those who are trying to revive these nearly lost breeds, to reintroduce them as a sought after source of meat, eggs and dairy.

[Kringle]

5. the US should stop exporting corn .nt

[diane in sf]

9. Time to run cattle on grass--not pen them in lots with grains--this makes the

meat healthier, prevents a lot of the manure issues and fertilizes the fields. Nature's model: millions of buffalo running free on the prairies.

Farms should be run in an integral cradle to cradle way, the waste from one process is the food for another. This can reduce or eliminate the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, petroleum, etc. and yields more ecological, better tasting, healthier food.

[Nihil]

10. Hear, hear!

> Farms should be run in an integral cradle to cradle (=grave?) way, the waste from
> one process is the food for another. This can reduce or eliminate the use of
> artificial fertilizers, pesticides, petroleum, etc. and yields more ecological,
> better tasting, healthier food.

Crop rotation ... what a concept! :silly:

It makes for better land use too (i.e., better for the land + for the crops
and livestock on it, albeit not always better for the profit spreadsheets).

(And I agree that the food is tastier & healthier too!)

[GliderGuider]

11. Cradle to cradle

"Cradle to grave" implies a single process that has a defined beginning and end, the output of which is "useful" product and "waste".

The term "cradle to cradle" acknowledges that ecological processes are in constant connected flow, and that there is no waste, ever. The "waste" of one process simply becomes food for the next. In other words, my grave is the cradle for a new generation of life, so the process never really stops.

[Nihil]

12. OK - thanks

Hadn't come across that one before so though it was a typo (sorry Diane!).
:hi: