philosslayer (1,119 posts)
Do you enjoy beef? You're directly contributing to climate change. Beef is the new SUV.
An excerpt:
Don't blame me alone for bearing the bad news. In a Facebook poll, thousands of you overwhelmingly voted for me to report on meat's contribution to climate change as part of CNN's Two° series. You commissioned this highly personal topic over more widely feared climate change bad guys such as coal, deforestation and car pollution.
But eating beef, as I'll explain, has come to be seen, rightly, in certain enviro circles, as the new SUV -- a hopelessly selfish, American indulgence; a middle finger to the planet. It's not the main driver of global warming -- that's burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation -- but it does contribute significantly.
Globally, 14.5% of all greenhouse gas pollution can be attributed to livestock, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the most reputable authority on this topic. And a huge hunk of the livestock industry's role -- 65% -- comes from raising beef and dairy cattle.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/29/opinions/sutter-beef-suv-cliamte-two-degrees/index.html
Two things the folioslayer primitive forgot to mention.
#1, much of the earth's landmass is not suitable for 'free-range' beef production. Water needs to be pumped. Cattle need to drink at least once a day. Forage must be harvested and stored to feed the stock over the dry, or cold, season. And the dry, or cold, season is always longer than the growing, harvesting, season.
#2, it takes at least two years to grow and fatten a beef under normal conditions, otherwise, we'd all be eating veal. Marginal and subsistence farms cannot afford to wait that long for a BBQ. Plus, some of the annual animal yield must be held back for replacement herd, possible herd expansion. Every year. Throw in the occasional drought year(s) and the reduction necessary to maintain a herd.
Obviously, folioslayer has never heard of, nor learned the definition of, Cow-calf unit per acre(s) formula used in the American West.