Posts Tagged ‘meat costs’
Nice Cow – Baaad Cow Effects
It's hard to believe. I would have thought it was just an exaggerated interpretation within the heath food industry if it hadn't been published in Scientific American. What their February issue reveals is the tremendous environmental costs of meat production.
I was reminded of this because I have just returned from a health convention in Los Angeles. The convention was great but to get around you have to drive on a seemingly endless horizon of freeways and concrete – one freeway merging into the next – sometimes stacking two or three levels. When you think of all those vehicles – constantly pounding the earth and belching exhaust into the atmosphere throughout the world – its easy to see how this could be ruining our environment and contributing to global warming. Oddly enough though, all the scientific evidence to date shows that the hamburger in your kitchen right now (the beef industry) is actually having a greater impact.
How is this possible? Hint – it's NOT because of their farts – as has been joked at in the media! This great effect is possible mostly because cattle displace useful plants. Trees, grasses and other year round plants are what absorb C02 and capture carbon on this planet but they are displaced for specific crops to house and feed cattle.
For decades the Amazon rain forests – with their world saving ecosystems have been methodically destroyed so that consumers could eat a Whopper or a Big Mac for a nickel less. This kind of process is happening all around the world. If plant displacement is the largest creator of green house gasses from beef – the second is greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and their wastes. Yes – this is where the cow fart jokes are relevant but the consideration of wastes from meat production is no laughing matter.
Rearing animals for meat contributes significantly to water pollution, with animal waste, antibiotics and hormones entering the water cycle alongside chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. This subject of water usage from beef production is a whole other story, perhaps as critical as greenhouse gasses. Raising cattle for food is incredibly inefficient in terms of water. Meat production is very different in different parts of the world but even the more efficient systems use 1500 Gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef. The less efficient systems use TWELVE THOUSAND GALLONS FOR A SINGLE POUND OF BEEF.
Water is becoming one of the most valuable commodities on the planet right now – particularly with global warming (from greenhouse gas emissions). Most of us will see significant changes in our day to day living in the coming years due to water shortages. Many economists predict that in the coming years wars will be fought over water because there simply will not be enough for water for everyone to live. With the water used to produce a single hamburger, you could take a luxurious shower every day for two and a half weeks.
I apologize if I am being hard on hamburgers but our food choices really do affect the environment and unless we start making different choices we may all suffer. Even substituting chicken for beef is 13 times less damaging in terms of CO2 emissions so that would be a much better choice. Substituting potatoes for beef is 57 times less damaging. As we have said in our Radiant Energy and Health Slimness Course – we are not saying that you shouldn't eat meat – but for health reasons – and it turns out some critical environmental reasons – most of us could eat LESS.
PS. Just like last week – the enclosed picture above is still not me (Randy) I'll let you know when it is!
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Question: What is the single biggest question or responce you have to this article? Put your reply in the comments below. For more information on this topic follow this link US Livestock Production of Greenhouse Gas
