Meat Production is Responsible for About 18 Per Cent of Global Carbon Emissions

[FayeforCure]

Up to 20,000 delegates from 192 countries are due to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital from December 7 to December 18. Its aim is to forge a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent an increase in global temperatures of more than 2 degrees centigrade. Any increase above this level is expected to trigger runaway climate change, threatening the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Lord Stern said that Copenhagen presented a unique opportunity for the world to break free from its catastrophic current trajectory. He said that the world needed to agree to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to 25 gigatonnes a year from the current level of 50 gigatonnes.

UN figures suggest that meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent of global carbon emissions, including the destruction of forest land for cattle ranching and the production of animal feeds such as soy.

Lord Stern, who said that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, was speaking on the eve of an all-parliamentary debate on climate change. His remarks provoked anger from the meat industry.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece

[FayeforCure]

ROMANS: Global warming, some say, is due in large part to the way we eat. Yes, not the way we drive, the way we eat. So could reversing the global climate crisis simply be a matter of making better choices about what's on the other end of your fork? Annia Lappe is author of the fourth coming book "Diet for a hot Planet" and co- founder of the Small Planet Institute. Fascinated by this. Last week, one of the authors of "Superfreak Nomices" came by and said you should eat kangaroo and not beef. What's on your plate makes a difference for your own carbon footprints? Is it true? ANNA LAPPE, CO-FOUNDER, THE SMALL PLANET INSTITUTE: It really is. And as you say I think it's not something a lot of people have thought a lot about. But the livestock sector alone is responsible for 18 percent of the global warming effect. Just to give you some sense of how important it is, it's 5 percent more than transportation.

ROMANS: Wow, more than what we drive.

LAPPE: More than what we drive, more than what we fly.

ROMANS: What's interesting in that is as middle classes grow in a very popular countries like China and like India, and other places. More and more people reach for meat as they get more wealthy as a society. Which would suggest to me that's one of the reasons why you're going to see this continue to be a problem.

LAPPE: That's true. One of the things we can do as Americans is look at what it is that we are eating here. We eat, on average, four times as much meat and dairy as the rest of the world.

ROMANS: When you are with the shopping cart and you are going down the aisle, think about meat and dairy.

LAPPE: So it is about really thinking about what are some green choices to make for your plate. We know what those are and happily those green choices are also healthier choices. So it is things like choosing fruits and vegetables, cutting back like I said on meat and dairy. If you eat meat at every meal, maybe cutting back one meal.

ROMANS: I'm not sure that is not popular with the meat and dairy lobby. So you are not saying give it up, you are saying be responsible with your purchases.

LAPPE: And it's not just about what we do in our supermarket as you said, it's also what we do as citizens. It's about what kind of policies that we support and what kinds of things we want our elected officials to do. So as we talk about a green energy policy we can also be talking about a green food policy.

ROMANS: What about the buy local movement, sustainability, organic. You see all these labels when you are going to shop and the marketing makes it sound like it's a good thing for your health. How do you know?

LAPPE: Good question. I think it can be overwhelming. All of these things are aligning. So that choosing local and sustainable like I said is also good for the climate. One of the best things that I suggest for people to do is go to the heart of local and organic and climate friendly foods to like your farmers market is a great place to go. Everything you can get there is good for you and good for the climate.

ROMANS: You have seven principles. I want to go through these seven principles because I think they are really great. Reach for real food. You say steer clear of processed foods. Put plants on your plate that is going green, finding green. Don't panic, go organic. Lean toward local, finish your pees, what does that mean?

LAPPE: That one is big one; you know we waste so much food. The average American wastes $600 of food a year. So personally if you are cutting back on how much food you waste and you are really trying to eat all those peas on your plate, you are going to do a lot for the climate, too.

ROMANS: Send packaging packing. Bring your own bag to the store and this is something we all do. I do this when I remember, bring your own packaging.

LAPPE: Sure, and also think about do you need bottled water, when it comes out of your faucet for free.

ROMANS: We have seen this a lot. Millions of gardens planted and people want control over their food. Anne Lappe the book is called "Diet for a Hot Planet" and it comes out in April 2010. So you know maybe get on a waiting list now. Thank you so much.

LAPPE: Thank you.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0910/31/cnnitm.01.html

[kellypope]

Yup. Everyone's getting into a frenzy over "Meatless Monday"...try "Meatless Last 4 Years."

Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.

[BridgeTroll]

That reminds me... Good god I had the most awesome ribeye steak the other night.  An inch thick, bone in, perfectly marbled.  Got the charcoal going... seasoned and seared it on both sides enough to create a perfect rare doneness.  Grilled some zuchinis too...  MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[JeffreyS]

I knew that Ruth's Chris was too good not to be evil.

[civil42806]

If nature hadn't meant us to eat meat, it wouldn't have made them oh so tasty!

[kellypope]

You can eat meat without harsh impact. You just have to raise it, slaughter it, and cure it yourself. However, you still have the digestive tract of an herbivore.

Industrial agriculture is kind of the devil. That's what Faye's getting at.

[BridgeTroll]

Thanks Kelly... I do that also.  I hunt and harvest wild game.  I skin, gut, then eat them.  I have been villified for this practice also.  I also harvest fish from our lakes, rivers, and oceans.  Once caught they are skinned, or scaled, gutted and filleted.  The same folks telling me I should be a vegetarian are the same ones who do not want me to hunt and fish for food.

Additionally... we humans do not have the digestive tract of herbivores.  We are omnivores.  Always have been.

[samiam]

I was just wondering if anyone have thought of the impact of the near extinction of the American bison and the extinction of the passenger pigeons. If meat production is a bad thing then the people that almost killed off the bison and the ones that killed off the passenger pigeons are ecological hero's and what about whales I'm sure they produse all kinds of green house gases.

[kellypope]

Bison and passenger pigeons weren't industrially "farmed" like livestock today. And it's not just the methane from flatulent cattle that we find so detrimental, although methane does wreak more havoc than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (but there is much less of it and it stays in the air much shorter than CO2). Industrial agriculture is by far unsustainable--for packing in so many bodies into such a small amount of "land", "farmers" have to import a lot of fodder, and deal (or not, as is often the case) with a lot of fecal matter.
They often aren't importing what cows are meant to eat (which is grass, not grain)--just what's the cheapest, most abundant product. Which happens to be corn. Cows can eat the leafy parts of corn stalks just fine, but once they start eating the grains, and cobs, they start having health problems. Enter the antibiotics. By the way, corn production relies on noxious petrochemicals that contaminate the groundwater and, if Monsanto GMO-corn is being produced, relies on even more nefarious chemicals to kill everything not genetically resistant to Round-Up.

BT, while I support the way you sustain yourself, you should definitely research into the health risks around methylmercury contamination in the water--happens around coal plants. I suppose I should have said our omnivorous tracts resemble herbivorous animals' tracts more than they resemble carnivorous tracts. Even though I currently choose not to eat meat, I would be actively involved in raising or hunting my own if I did. My father is a hunter, so I'm not shy around blood and guts.

[buckethead]

It seems to me the only real solution to the problems being solicited by enviro-veegans is to reduce the population dramatically and rapidly.

Let' s do this?

[civil42806]

Thanks Kelly... I do that also.  I hunt and harvest wild game.  I skin, gut, then eat them.  I have been villified for this practice also.  I also harvest fish from our lakes, rivers, and oceans.  Once caught they are skinned, or scaled, gutted and filleted.  The same folks telling me I should be a vegetarian are the same ones who do not want me to hunt and fish for food.

Additionally... we humans do not have the digestive tract of herbivores.  We are omnivores.  Always have been.

Make you own bacon Bridgetroll, they'll take my bacon from my cold cold hands!

[kellypope]

Why are you making this us vs. them? It's one planet that we all share. We all have to deal with whatever comes to us.

[kellypope]

Buckethead, it's a shame that that's the only solution you can see being proffered. Eating as close to home, eating mostly plants, and wasting as little as possible without over-eating, with as little packaging and fuel usage as possible is one of the best ways to make amends for all the missteps of the past. This is only in terms of eating--there are lots of other things you can do.

If you're out to vilify "enviro-vegans", I suggest you let that mentality go.

[buckethead]

It is not my intent to villify anyone. Nor do I intend to partake in a crusade.

Thank you for the suggestion.