Meat is murder on the environment

[Zywiec]

A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.

This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication, and energy consumption. The team looked at calf production, focusing on animal management and the effects of producing and transporting feed. By combining this information with data from their earlier studies on the impact of beef fattening systems, the researchers were able to calculate the total environmental load of a portion of beef.

"Everybody is trying to come up with different ways to reduce carbon footprints," says Su Taylor of the Vegetarian Society in the UK: "But one of the easiest things you can do is to stop eating meat."



http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-murder-on-the-environment.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Aren't cows mostly carbon neutral?

Yeah, cows fart. Of course, they fart because they eat grass. And grass grows because it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere.

[kestrel91316]

4. It's the fossil-fuel-dependent factory farming part that's bad.

Grass-fed, pasture-raised beef is no crime, IMHO.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Hey, I'm all for more grass fed, pasture raised beef.

[kestrel91316]

6. My sister and BIL fixed a grass-fed beef tenderloin for Christmas Eve dinner

last year and it was the best piece of meat I've ever eaten in my life. The pastured organic turkey the next day was also fabulous.

These days I'm eating very little meat/poultry/fish, but when I do it's gonna be organic, or pastured, or sustainably fished. Organic, pastured milk. Local eggs. It's more expensive, but I can stand to eat LESS.

[YOY]

10. Mmmmmmm...free range beef...

Of course. That's not what the OP's agenda includes...

[villager]

2. yup -- when you consider the inputs that go into industrially-produced meat

eventually, as the globe heats up, oil and fresh water run out, and meat prices skyrocket, eating habits will change...

[The Straight Story]

3. We could just cease to exist and let the animals frolick without us, until the sun dies out

or a huge meteor kicks our ass, etc and so :)

[ThomWV]

7. A Better Title: Meat Production is murder on the environment

A Kilogram of beef isn't responsible for anything, the person. who made the decisions as to input to grow it are. You can start that blame line at either end, it was either the buy who bought the beef who was to blame or it was the guy who grew the corn that fed the beef, or it was the fertilizer salesperson who sold the nitrogen necessary to make the corn that fed the beef, or maybe it was the seed producer who bagan it all. Of course there is the trucker that make the money shipping it, maybe he is to blame, maybe its someone else, but it sure ain't the cow.

[KurtNYC]

8. less than 10% of the american diet is meat

so in a sense we are 90% vegetarian already. If that isn't enough for Su Taylor then too bad.

And what about my cat? Should my cat stop eating meat also?? Carbon footprint? ok how about I walk into the forest and shoot some farting deer and eat it. Would that be okay with Su Taylor? Does she think brocolli eating doesn't produce methane?

Mark Twain said: "nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits" but unlike the Su Taylors of the world, Twain was being sarcastic.

[Ioo]

9. Jesus Christ is it Militant Vegan day at DU?

We get it, you do not like meat. Move on!