What's
the
green angle on eating meat ?
It's not the
job of this website to preach or nag. What you eat
is your own business. But responsible citizens need to look at the
environmental effects of their entire life-style. Food is a
highly political question and the way our food is produced has enormous
global effects, good and bad.
There are many reasons why people don't eat meat :
some people have ethical or religious objections; some people are
worried about eating food which has been treated with hormones or
chemicals; others refuse to eat meat because they believe that it has
been produced by keeping animals in cruel or unnatural
conditions.
However, we are entitled to ask whether there are
strictly environmental reasons why we should avoid eating meat.
Eating food from vegetable sources is a perfectly
healthy and sufficient way of living for human beings. We can live
without meat (or fish).
Animals produced for human consumption need food; a
lot of this food could be eaten by people. These animals are believed
to be
responsible for a half of worldwide emissions of
'greenhouse
gases'
which have serious effects on the climate.
Professor Nicholas Stern, a leading
expert on climate change says "Meat is a wasteful use of water and
creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the
world's resources." He says that eating meat will soon be considered as
unacceptable as drink-driving.
The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that
direct emissions from meat production account for about 18% of the
world's total greenhouse gas emissions.
Rearing
cattle
is
a
major global cause of
environmental damage : over-grazing, soil erosion, desertification,
destruction of tropical forests for ranches, growing of soya for their
food, as well as their gas output and manure production.
The FAO figure
accounts for the
entire meat production cycle - clearing
forested land, making and transporting fertiliser, burning fossil fuels,
agricultural machinery, and the front and rear end emissions of cattle
and sheep.
# Cattle need enormous amounts of water; it takes 2,500 gallons
of water to produce one pound of meat; only 25 gallons are needed to
grow one pound of wheat.
#
One
acre
of
trees per year are saved if just
one person switches to a vegetarian diet.
#
About
60,000,000
people die every year of
malnutrition. Cutting meat production and increasing the production of
non-animal food would save lives.
#
Changing
to
a
vegetarian diet cuts your risk
of a heart attack.
#
Large
amounts
of
antibiotics, hormones,
pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals are used in
cattle-rearing. Some of them remain in the meat which people eat.
#
Many
wild
animals
are destroyed to make room
for cattle.
# Of course cows' milk is also a product of
the meat industry. Anyone wanting to use an alternative could try soya
milk, now available from most food shops.
End of message
What do
vegetarians believe ? Vegetarian
Society
Menu of the future
Meat causes health problems