UN Expert Says Eat Less Red Meat To Reduce CO2 Emissions

Excellent idea. You still need animal protein, especially when you're young, but the footprint of red meat is so high.

Grass-fed is so much more delicious. I'm more than willing to spend more for a better-tasting, smaller portion, less often.

Meat as an occasional treat, I say! It really will ensure you enjoy and appreciate it more! I certainly do on the occasions I have it.

I wonder whether he touched upon the Soya Bean alternative, which itself has it's own set of challenges.

It's great the thinking is global though : )

What about local meat? Most of the emissions are probably caused from the travel time it takes to get to the store from the farm. Why not just encourage eating locally? Whether thats red meat, chicken or fish?

Think not only of the CO2 emissions reduction but also the fact that it takes 2500 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. I have read other reports where that number is 6000-8000 gallons. Water scarcity is unfortunately being vastly overshadowed by CO2 emissions and must not be forgotten.

I like how TreeHuggers are approaching the meat issue these days. All we used to hear about is how you must go vegetarian/vegan. That approach just isn't going to work for most people. In a lot of cases it will just shove them farther away.

Suggesting that we all cut back on the big impact meats (and explaining why) is a much more rational approach.

"Excellent idea. You still need animal protein, especially when you're young, but the footprint of red meat is so high"

I'd like you to show a show me some good hard evidence of this...

I eat soy based burgers and I really can't tell the difference between them and real meat. The soy is grown locally here in Italy.

rob....

you still need animal protien? Tell that to the millions of people of india and south east asia who have been completely vegetarian for thousands of years. Last time i checked, most of them (the ones not in poverty) are doing just fine.

rob....

you still need animal protien? Tell that to the millions of people of india and south east asia who have been completely vegetarian for thousands of years. Last time i checked, most of them (the ones not in poverty) are doing just fine.

according to one study 31% of Indians are vegetarians, while another 9% consumes eggs but no meat. That is over 310 million people.

First of all, no one needs animal protein. Secondly, anyone that calls themselves a environmentalist should avoid meat altogether.. unless of course you are chasing it down in the forest yourself... then have at it.

Only 22 of 23 essential amino acids can be supplied by vegetable products. One amino acid, responsible for absorbtion of B vitamins, is only available from animal protein. Of course, you can get animal protein from milk products, which can be made humane.

@Sequoia - Well said. In my neck of the woods, there are plenty of local growers who take pride in raising healthy animals. While my consumption has decreased, I still enjoy all forms of meat and would never ask anyone to simply give up what they have been raised on.

I fear that we have been led into another high-horse discussion and so I quote a brilliant phrase I saw in the forums:
"For as green as you are, there is always someone who is willing to poop in a bucket and only eat what grows out of said bucket."

@ Sequoia
The majority of greenhouse gases from meat production comes from the vast amounts of feed (grains, etc.) that must be produced to raise the animals. For any given animal, you can get between ten to thirty times as much food if you ate the feed instead of them. This could be aleivated to some degree if animals were allowed to raise themselves in fallow fields, etc., but there would be much less, much more expensive meat.

@Jeff
I agree that you'll get further with an incremental approach. However, as an example of how much food goes to meat production, the United States alone could feed the entire world if everyone was a vegetarian.

@carl & taryn
Perhaps what rob meant was our bodies aren't designed to be vegetarian, but we've figured out how to make it work (B12 supplementation, etc.).

@JSDreyer
That's an astonishing fact. But if you tell that to 10 meat-eaters, I can pretty much guarantee it won't get them to go vegetarian. If you tell those same 10 meat-eaters that beef has a much greater impact than chicken, then you'll probably get a few of them to cut down on beef consumption.

I believe that a vegetarian diet can contain all the healthy amino acids, vitamins and nutrients needed to have a healthly life. I have done my own experiment in that i have single handedly grown an actual human being, outside of a lab and without the assistance of animal protein. Seriously though, I know it takes work to make sure you get all the appropriate vitamins and nutrients from your food, and having a kid has made me that much more careful about what I cook. You can, in fact, live and live a healthy life without meat.

Hey rob, to burst your bubble, but except for rare exceptions observed in unusual and very uncommon bacteria and archaebacteria, there are only 20 naturally occurring amino acids.

And of those, only 8-12 are essential (the number varies with age, and genetic differences between people). So, I'm not sure wear your 22/23 number comes from, but I know it is wrong.

I wish this discussion could avoid the meat-gluttony vs. veganism terms that we too often use to discuss the environmental impact of our animal product consumption. The UN folks have it right in recommending a reduction in meat consumption. If you want to go whole hog (or cold tofurkey?) great, but there's a lot that can be accomplished by eating more PB&Js, falafel, bean burritos, etc. and less of the meat and cheese. It's similar to how we approach gasoline - we can recommend taking the bus and driving less without making people feel like the only option is to completely swear off the internal combustion engine.

Bernard Brown
Director, PB&J Campaign

This talk is somewhat along the lines of what we are discussing here and is pretty interesting. Eat less meat .... have you seen this?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

Now I am going to go make myself a PB&J - Mmmmm! haven't had one of them in awhile.....