I’ve written about this before, as have many other people. This is something Michael Pollan has brought up in his books and articles. Now it’s official.
The UN climate chief now says in order to help prevent climate change, you should eat less meat.
According to this report, the production cycle of meat accounts for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gasses, while the world’s transport systems only account for 13%. Implied in these figures seems to be that since meat also has to be transported to your table, by the time it gets there it will generate even more greenhouse gasses.
Being vegetarian will probably have a bigger impact on the environment than not driving a car or having a very fuel efficient one. It can even be more important than if you travel by airplane.
Of course many people have access to locally produced meats, possibly even grass fed, that use less or even virtually no energy in their manufacture. Even this has to be put into a little perspective however. While you should certainly favor local and sustainably produced meats to others, there aren’t enough of these meats to feed the world, so eating more than your fair share will make them unavailable for others. This certainly also applies to seafood too. Regardless of it’s source, unless you raise all of your own meat yourself in a carbon neutral way, it’s important everyone does their part and eats less meat in the long run.
It’s better to stick with in-season, locally grown and biologically diverse foods. Meat should be considered an occasional treat, if you eat it at all. It’s important for your health and for the environment too.
yes, I’ve red about it before, but it was rather like alternative secret knowledge.
now when it is official it will be difficult to try to not see it.
Thank you for bringing it up.
Ewa
Interesting point Patrick.
The 18% includes according to the BBC article ‘greenhouse gases released in every part of the meat production cycle – clearing forested land, making and transporting fertiliser, burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles, and the front and rear end emissions of cattle and sheep’.
I don’t know if you have seen the documentary Cuba: The Accidental Revolution its interesting stuff. In 1989, when the Soviet Union collapsed Cuba’s whole economic system was thrown into crisis overnight. Factories closed, food supplies ceased. Within a year, Cuba lost over 80% of its foreign trade and the average daily caloric intake of Cubans dropped by a third.
Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans had to rely on animal and human toil. Without transport, Cubans started to grow food close tp where it is consumed. Urban gardens, vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards any bit of land was turned over to growing food on a small scale. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. One commenatator claims that ‘By 1999 Cuba’s agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels’. Idon’t know if that is so or how it stands now but…
One of the things that struck me in the documentary was the issue of raising beef, Beef being such an integral part of the Cuban diet, and known to be resource heavy. The Cubans came up with a worksbale solution which I have not heard of being adopted elsewhere. As a society with some of the most educated people in the world, Cuba used its brain power was come up with solutions for its starving population and one of the solutions was to raise cattle on smaller areas of land,(so no land clearance) locally,(so no transport) divided by Pea Hedges – the pea frames acted simultaneously as a fence and as a high protein diet for the cattle (less land and less green stuff required). The richer make-up of legumes led to better quality (nutrient rich) milk and dairy products. Pretty ingenious stuff I think. Although they didn’t seem to have come up with a solution to the ’emissions of cattle’:-).
As a person who has started to eat meat again after being vegetarian for many, many years, I should declare my status as a meat partisan, so it important to me to find sustainable ways of doing so.
Great post!
I think the headline suggestion was one meat-free day a week. This is an emotive issue for some and one on which we will all never be able to agree. But you don’t mention that: 1. The dairy industry is as problematic as the meat industry in use of resources. Milk and cheese need cows. And milking cows need to give birth to calves or they won’t produce milk. Very few people are willing to live on a vegan diet. 2. There are areas of land which are only suitable for raising sheep, for example. Upland Wales where I come from is one of these, the Larzac plateau near where I now live is another. Lamb is sustainable in these places. You can’t grow vegetable crops in them. 3. Chickens and pigs are not only sustainable in most parts of the world, but are actually a good way of recycling waste scraps of food and vegetation. I can see no objection to eating them. Beef is a problem and we cannot all eat large quantities of it, but other meats are as sustainable as a vegetarian diet. Most human beings are naturally omnivores and can continue to be so – that doesn’t mean that people who want to CHOOSE to be vegetarian should not do so. I shall continue to eat small quantities of locally reared meat. I’m very interested in Laura’s comments about Cuba and I’ll try to find out more about this – we hear too little of the good news from Cuba in the West.
Laura:
I haven’t seen the documentary, in fact I don’t really watch much TV. It sounds interesting. I understand Venezuela took a similar approach to dealing with food shortages with some success, in particular trying to grow food close to people in cities so it doesn’t need to be transported.
The main problem with cows in particular are they are primarily grass eating animals, and have a hard time digesting high protein foods. The amount of grass needed to raise a single cow is so enormous that it’s not practical to do under most circumstances, and meat or cheese from cows raised this way is very hard to come by.
Any other diet besides plain grass, and you start to get more into the ‘front and back’ emissions issue, because the cows become ill. The alternative diets themselves tend to be very energy and chemical intensive, like cereal grains, and an awful lot of this is also required for a single cow.
I think very few people could find fault with someone who raises their own chickens on food and garden scraps. Just like cows however, there is a limit to what’s available to eat. If you eat a serving of chicken every day that’s equivalent to say a quarter of a bird, then you need to raise 91 chickens to feed yourself for a year. Even half or a quarter this amount would be a lot of birds, and an awful lot of food or garden waste.
If instead what you do is raise 12 chickens and have a feast once a month, or a quarter bird once a week, then this is more practical and something different. If you then use this meat as an alternative to buying other meat elsewhere, then you really are eating meat sustainably.
Just because it’s theoretically possible to raise sustainable meat doesn’t mean it’s practical to do commercially, or that meat you buy that claims it’s sustainable or environmentally friendly really is. If you do eat sustainable meat, you’re still eating something that there’s not a lot of. I doubt for example the average Cuban eats as much meat as the average American or European.
It’s really not hard to find people who say they want to eat meat sustainably, but I have yet to find someone who really has.
I think if you start from the point of view of being vegetarian, then only eat meat that you have researched and know it is sustainable, take the time to understand the resources that do go into it and only eat a sensible amount with respect to those resources, you won’t be eating much meat in the end. If you do anything else you are just making excuses.
This was pretty much why I became vegetarian, because I couldn’t find any meat raised in a way I wanted to eat it, and looking for suitable meat became futile and just an excuse for not stopping eating it all together.
Chaiselongue:
I don’t honestly see much in your comment other than you like to eat meat and are going to keep doing it no matter what. You didn’t really address very many of the points I made in my post.
It’s your choice if you want to eat meat, but that isn’t what this post is about. This post is about protecting the environment, and eating less meat.
I can sympathize with the idea that eating meat or being vegetarian can be an emotional issue, but this is a post about a UN study showing that meat accounts for 18% of the worlds greenhouse gasses, not an emotional plea that everyone should become vegetarian.
If you want to talk about how great it is to eat meat, why don’t you do that on your own blog? That way, if anyone wants to read about it, they can do it there instead of here.
Like my advice was to Kate when we all had this discussion before, I think there are probably other places on the Internet you would find more receptive to this point of view. I’d appreciate if you went there to discuss it instead of here, and in any case I’m not interested in participating.
Very good points, especially the one about not enough local meat to go around…I had never thought about that one.
Lets also not forget the vast amount of water usage that goes into growing some meats (especially beef). What is it? Something like 400 gallons/lb?!
Hi Taylor,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving the comments.
And, yes, thanks for mentioning the water issue too.
Hi Patrick i could send you a copy of the documentary if you like, a friend gave it to me. I think it is worth seeing re the veg growing and biological pest controls too. I’d be interested to read more about Venezuela so i’ll have a look about.
I agree mostly with what you are saying and its true in the west we do not need, nor should we eat anywhere near as much meat if at all. I live in the country where meat is local and sustainable. But in cities I understand the issue is much more difficult.
Hi Laura,
I found a copy of it available for download here:
http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=Cuba%3A+The+Accidental+Revolution
Since this is informal the link might not work forever, but it’s there now if anyone else is interested in watching it.
Maybe I’ll watch it this weekend.
Anyway, there’s no need to send me a copy, thanks.
Thanks for another post to support the meat-low way of life. We do eat meat though in mucher smaller quantities than most people – 1 day a week normally. I admit that it is mostly a quick way to get iron, fat and calories especially when I was in my reproductive phase!
Glad to be back and reading your blog.
Thanks again Patrick.