There’s no way around it: Take on the meat industry or face ecological disaster
Climate-Friendly Beef Is a Myth. Don’t Buy It.
Much of the climate movement’s focus has been on taking down fossil fuels, but animal agriculture also poses a problem. A Nature report found that we must reduce beef consumption by about 90% to curb the climate crisis, but the world is on the opposite path.
JENNIFER MOLIDOR: ‘It’s undeniably clear: We need to take drastic action to address the climate crisis. And it can’t wait. Much of the climate movement’s focus has been on taking down fossil fuels, but there’s consensus that animal agriculture also poses a problem. Those who want to have their beef and eat it too claim grass-fed beef is a way to mitigate the environmental harms associated with raising cattle in factory farms.
They suggest that grazing cattle are actually good for the environment because they help the land to capture carbon and sequester it in the ground. But grass-fed beef is no fix. Most pasture-raised cows actually have a worse carbon footprint than their factory farmed counterparts. Only under certain rotational system s can grass-fed operations sequester significant carbon— and there’s no evidence that this model can be scaled to meet current demand…
On the heels of the UN’s October warnings, a report in Nature found that Americans must reduce their beef consumption by about 90 percent to curb the climate crisis and feed the growing population. But the world is on the opposite path: Meat production roughly tripled worldwide between 1980 and 2010 and is expected to nearly double again by 2050, with consumption and population growth. The United States leads the way, consuming four times the global average of beef…
While beef might be the worst environmental offender, animal-based foods as a whole come with larger carbon footprints—as well as more water use, waste and pollution—than plant-based ones. We need to consume less meat and dairy, and instead eat many more fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans… We need governments to support Earth-friendly diets, and big corporations need to drastically change as well. Governments and companies should adopt policies to promote plant-based foods and make them more affordable and widely accessible’. SOURCE…
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