The Climate Diet: How You Can Cut Carbon, Cut Costs and Save the Planet by Jonathan Harrington

Author:Jonathan Harrington [Harrington, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: aVe4EvA
Publisher: Earthscan Publications
Published: 2008-06-28T20:00:00+00:00

More on the Environmental Cost of Meat

Consumption

You may have noticed from our food consumption table that meat production emits huge amounts of GHGs. But this is just the beginning of the list of hazards that meat production potentially poses to the environment. Naturalist Jane Goodall (2005) in her book Harvest for Hope: A Guide for Mindful Eating eloquently describes the broader environmental, economic, and ethical impact of meat production. The costs of beef production are immense. In the United States, 56% of

all farmland is dedicated to beef production. In the United Kingdom, about 70% of farmland is used to produce animals or the food they need to survive. The demand for feedstock is so high that most countries are now net importers of grain. Large multinationals have cleared tens of millions of acres of rain forests around the world to grow food to feed the cattle we eat. When you think of the sheer size of an Angus bull it is not difficult to understand why grain is in such demand. It takes 35 lb (16 kg) of grain to produce 2.2 lb (1 kg) of beef. Producing 1 lb (0.454 kg) of edible chicken takes more than 3.5 lb (1.6 kg) of feed. Also, producing 1 lb of beef requires 26,420 gal (100,000 L) of water; 1lb of chicken meat requires 13,247 gal (50,140 L; Goodall, 2005).

Ever wondered why there are so many starving people in the world? Well, now you know one of the main reasons. Not surprisingly, Goodall is a strong advocate of vegetarianism. Reducing meat consumption is one of the best things we can do to alter our impact on the atmosphere and on Mother Nature’s other scarce resources.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.