Vegetarian Is the New Prius
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02. 7.07
"President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens."
We have discussed how meat production is a major contributor to global warming and water depletion; Kathy Freston at Alternet reviews the UN report on livestock and the environment (we covered it but I can't find it!) and finds that giving up meat is a lot more effective at saving the atmosphere then buying a Prius.
"Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius. Plus, that bang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of carbon dioxide, which spreads its warming effect slowly over a century. A big chunk of the problem with farmed animals, on the other hand, is methane, a gas which cycles out of the atmosphere in just a decade. That means less meat consumption quickly translates into a cooler planet."
It is a bit of a headscratcher; dropping meat may be better than driving a Prius, but following a well balanced carbon diet would seem to be the most rational approach. ::Alternet
Pastoral grazing of animals for dairy, blood, and meat help herder's survive in regions where drought might occasionally strike, lowering the crop yields: e.g. Middle East, Great Plains, Horn of Africa, and so on. Agronomic systems reflect regional climate realities in other words. It is only in a global economy that one's choice of dietary preferences can be so wide ranging That choice may one day be more limited due specifically to climate patterns shifting.
methane recovery
The UN report can be found here:
Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Opinions
JL, Grains, legumes can be fairly easily stored for use during off seasons or to withstand a drought. That said, I think it is important to repect traditions in other cultures, especially sustainable ones.
For more info about food and global warming see The inconvenient truth about what we eat http://www.veg.ca/issues/e-climate-change.html
JL, Grains, legumes can be fairly easily stored for use during off seasons or to withstand a drought. That said, I think it is important to repect traditions in other cultures, especially sustainable ones.
For more info about food and global warming see The inconvenient truth about what we eat http://www.veg.ca/issues/e-climate-change.html
I wonder if the researchers considered the average distance that vegetarian food is transported vs. the meat products. In winter most of our green stuff comes from California while the meat comes from less than 100mi away.
This is a generalization of course and it depends on where you live.
Don't forget to factor in the grain that was fed to the livestock though. I think the answer is to eat bio-regionally: locally raised meat products (grass-fed/free range as much as possible) plus hardy local vegetables like carrots, potatoes, turnips, just like my parents did growing up in the 1930's.
Rice paddies are a major producer of methane aren't they?
I'm vegan so I feel that I'm doing my bit.
Kangaroos have a bacteria in their guts that stop them farting and I remember reading about scientists trying to put this bacteria into cows.
Doug, Livestock digestion accounts for 18% of total global methane emissions, and factory farm waste lagoons account for a further 7% of emissions. Combined, these two sources equal 4.3% of total climate change.
Other sources include dams (accounting for 20% of emissions), fossil fuel extraction (20%) and landfills (10%). Rice paddies account for around 10%, but rice is a staple food for a lot more people (half the world's population) than cow meat is, and BBC reports that there are varieties of rice being developed that emit much less methane.
Figures from Story Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Warming, by Guy Dauncey, 2001