News
Meat Consumption Must Fall
We can't sustain the production of meat that demand dictates at the moment. This is in short the outcome of the latest important study about greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases from food production will go up 80% if meat and dairy consumption continues to rise at its current rate. Expanding cities around the world are adopting American-style diets, and this is leading to a boom of burger restaurants.
If this continues, the study claims that more and more forest land or fields currently used for arable crops will be converted for use by livestock as the world's farmers battle to keep up with demand.
Deforestation will increase carbon emissions, and increased livestock production will raise methane levels and wider fertiliser use will further accelerate climate change. As the researcher say, there are basic laws of biophysics that we cannot evade. But the choice of what to eat is ours.
The study is the latest to warn of the planetary risks of eating intensively-produced meat and dairy produce. Scientists worried about climate change are increasingly making common cause with health experts concerned about the obesity pandemic.
Greenhouse gases from food production will go up 80% if meat and dairy consumption continues to rise at its current rate. Expanding cities around the world are adopting American-style diets, and this is leading to a boom of burger restaurants.
If this continues, the study claims that more and more forest land or fields currently used for arable crops will be converted for use by livestock as the world's farmers battle to keep up with demand.
Deforestation will increase carbon emissions, and increased livestock production will raise methane levels and wider fertiliser use will further accelerate climate change. As the researcher say, there are basic laws of biophysics that we cannot evade. But the choice of what to eat is ours.
The study is the latest to warn of the planetary risks of eating intensively-produced meat and dairy produce. Scientists worried about climate change are increasingly making common cause with health experts concerned about the obesity pandemic.