Cutting beef out of your diet prevents 3,531 lbs of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere and saves 242,500 gallons of water. If you want to do your part to stop global warming and are wondering where to start, the most impactful thing you can do is to stop eating beef. A 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization found that livestock production accounts for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions — more than all forms of transportation combined. The April 20, 2008 issue of the New York Times states that “meat’s supersize impact comes from fuel- and fertilizer-intensive agricultural methods of growing feed, all the power needed to run slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants and the potent greenhouse gases produced by decomposing manure. Pork, lamb and poultry all have their impacts, but beef is undoubtedly the Hummer of the dinner plate. Sixty percent of the deforestation in the Amazon River basin between 2000 and 2005 can be attributed to cattle ranching; much of the remainder was cleared to raise corn and soy for feed. And cows, once fed, burp — a lot. Each day, a single cow can burp as much as 130 gallons of methane, a greenhouse gas that traps more than 20 times more heat per ton than carbon dioxide. Trimming the amount of meat Americans eat would not only help the planet — a mere 20 percent reduction is the equivalent of switching from a Camry to a Prius — but would also be likely to reduce obesity, cancer and heart disease.” Based on the numbers from a 2003 study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the average person eats 44 kg (97 pounds) of beef per year, averaging out to .1025 kg of beef per day (.266 pounds) and 1601.6 kg C02 per year (3,531 lbs). Approximately 2,500 gallons of water are used to produce one pound of beef. That is 242,500 gallons of water per year (97 lbs X 2,500 gallons = 242,500). Production of a one kilogram of beef (2.2 pounds) also releases the equivalent of 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of phosphate into the atmosphere, while consuming 169 megajoules of energy. Each year, a single person’s intake of beef is responsible for the release of 14,960 grams sulphur dioxide, 2,596 grams of phosphate and the use of 7,436 megajoules of energy. This isn’t new infomation. Albert Einstein said that “nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
Sources:
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0718-beef.html (New Scientist Magazine)
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/78/3/660S#T1 (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/ (The Green Issue: The High Price of Beef)
Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20Eat-t.html?pagewanted=3&s
Solution Type: Habit
