If you were looking for a reason to pat yourself on the back for going veg, good news:
The Harvard Business Review recently covered a study regarding the choices people make about food and the relative impact these choices have on carbon emissions. The study found that cultivating and processing food is much more energy intensive than transporting it, despite the staggering distances which food tends to go before it reaches your plate. The greenhouse gasses produced by the farming of animals for red meat was found to be particularly detrimental. The author concludes that skipping just one day of meat a week in favor of another food source will cut as much carbon emissions as you would reduce by buying local foods 7 days a week. So if you are a conservationist or just a friend of the Earth, be proud to go veg!
What do you think?
The original study can be found here and the HBR article discussing it can be found here
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Hubert, yes, sure! I don’t think that I will phrase it much better than the articles I have linked, but I will clarify my point.
Many people have become concerned about the emissions from vehicles transporting food. This most recent study has found that food will often travel 1000-4000 miles before it reaches its consumer. In response, many people are considering taking the step of buying more local food. Going local also has the added benefit of contributing to local economies. In addition to taking these steps, another option is to cut down on meat, because the study I’ve referenced found that an overwhelming amount of emissions happen in the production stage of food. A lot of these emissions are due to the staggering amounts of manure and gas produced by these larger livestock, for example, a single cow will produce about 65 pounds of excrement in one day, about 12 tons a year. I’m from the midwest, and nitrates (from manure) are generally our biggest pollutant, so all of these meat farms have a real impact on us. The emissions from this manure in gas form are additionally a major concern for environmentalists. Our ecosystem (and quality of life for some) is taking quite a hit from the industrial manufacture of these impressive large animals. All of these problems stand in addition to the energy spent on maintaining the animals until slaughter.
For each day without meat, these industries become less and less necessary, and they can scale their operations and breeding down.
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