A major report on land use and climate change says the West's high consumption of meat and dairy produce is fuelling global warming. But scientists and officials stopped short of explicitly calling on everyone to become vegan or vegetarian. They said that more people could be fed using less land if individuals cut down on eating meat. The document, prepared by 107 scientists for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that if land is used more effectively, it can store more of the carbon emitted by humans.
But a pound of meat isn't equal everywhere. The carbon footprint of producing a pound of beef or dairy in the UK isn't the same as it is in the US, or than in Argentina or Nigeria. So reductions in production shouldn't be expected to come from countries that are most carbon efficient at producing meat and dairy. Aye, there's the rub. International politics. Try saying that Africa needs to be the continent that significantly reduces its output because that's where the meat/dairy industry is the most carbon-inefficient.
Posts: 12541 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005
Whatever, and no matter how efficient, meat production has a much larger footprint than plant production. You also need to count in the, um, methane problem.
Posts: 35382 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005
