One More Reason to Become a Vegetarian?

There are a list of reasons for being a vegetarian — health, morality, ethics — but could global warming be yet another? As a matter of fact, it is. Oil, coal, and cars seem to get all the attention in environmental discourse these days, but there’s a new answer to the question, “Where’s the beef?” It turns out that our beef is busy melting ice caps and eating ozone.

According to the Scientific American, meat production itself produces up to 22% of greenhouse gases every year. And beef is the worst. It contributes more than 13 times as much as chicken to global warming, and 57 times more than potatoes…and consumption is rising rapidly.

The raising and production of livestock animals uses an amazing amount of energy. Here are some of the major effects that meat has on its way to your dinner table:

Livestock Waste Produces Greenhouse Gases

Fossil Fuel emissions may be number one, but methane is not far behind, and waste from livestock is a major contributor to methane emissions. The livestock industry on the whole accounts for 37% of human-induced methane. According to Low Impact Living, you would have to drive your car for three hours, while leaving all the lights on at home, just to come close to emitting as much greenhouse gas as is emitted during the life cycle of a single kilogram of beef.

One Year of Showers to Make 4 Hamburgers

Simply put, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. One year’s worth of daily showers equals just four hamburgers. Waste from livestock, including chickens, is also a major contributor to poor water quality as it runs off into local streams.

Land for Animal Feed

A common criticism of biofuels, especially corn ethanol, is that it requires precious land and crops that could otherwise be consumed by the populace. But what about livestock feed? Crops for animal feed use 80% of U.S. agricultural land and half the water supply. Still a large sum of animals are packed into a relatively small amount of land, resulting in the long term degradation of that land.

A Hard Pill to Swallow

Whew! That is a lot of tough information to digest all at once (much harder than a hamburger). I myself am a meat eater, although I dabbled in vegetarianism for about three years when I was younger. It’s not easy to just give up meat. We are an omnivorous society. However, if we all stopped eating meat today the effect would be monumental, and there would be a lot of happy chickens clucking down our streets; but that is unlikely to happen.

On the other hand, there is much to be said against eating most of the meat found in supermarkets, from global warming to hormones to treatment of the animal. So, if you’re like me and you just don’t want to give up meat altogether — I myself like to cook veggies at home but tend to order meat at restaurants or on deli sandwiches. There are ways to be more ethical about the meat you buy. Unfortunately, buying organic meat means less hormones and perhaps better treatment, but the problems described above largely remain. Nonetheless, here are some suggestions for trimming the fat from your meat-eating:

• Buy eggs from a local farmer. Smaller, local operations are much less impacting than the corporate big boys. You can usually find a stand at the farm or at the farmer’s market.
• Try local, free range meats. Look for local meat production and find out how you can get your hands on some. In Oregon there is a lot of delicious buffalo meat to be had, and in some cases it literally comes from across the street. There is also a lot of free range cattle. The cows are spread out and so is their waste, making it easier for the local ecosystem to handle.
• Eat more veggies. Global warming and ethics aside, eating vegetables is good for you. Our human bodies evolved to eat raw foods and they are by far the best for us. In the United States especially, we have a very meat-intensive diet — fast food being our unhealthiest example. Obesity is endemic in our culture…it cannot hurt to have an outbreak of, at the least, veggie-leaning omnivores.

Links:

Meat or No Meat?

Scientific American

Posted on March 6th in Solar Information by Dan.