A beautiful silvery morning and another gentle 25 minute run along the forestry track, past some highland cattle grazing in the woods. All very pastoral and innocent.
Yesterday, the Independent reported some recent research by the US based Environmental Working Group showning the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of various basic foods, before & after they leave the farm. Surprisingly, lamb is shown as being the worst offender, with beef second and cheese third. Pulses, predictably, are best. The concluding message, especially to US carnivores, is help protect the environment by eating less meat. A very good conclusion, but one that glossed over an even more pressing reason to do so.
In the US, 157 million tons of cereals, legumes and vegetable protein – all suitable for human consumption – is fed to livestock each year to produce just 28 million tons of animal protein in the form of meat. For every 10 tonnes of soya protein fed to US cattle, just 1 tonne of beef is produced. And it’s not just the US. Currently, farmed animals eat one-third of the world’s cereal production. In the industrialised world, two-thirds of the agricultural land produces cereals for animal feed. The EU imports 45 per cent of its oilseeds (soya) and, overall, imports 70 per cent of its protein for animal feed (1995-6). Millions of acres of prime agricultural land in developing countries are used to produce linseed cake, cottonseed cake and rapeseed meal for European livestock, eagerly encouraged by the global agribusiness corporations. (ref 1, ref 2)
As the world population continues to rise, as global food supplies are hit by increasing drought and flooding, and as a billion people are underfed, this is not simply unsustainable - it is probably the single most important issue we are currently facing as a species.
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