In 2006, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation published a report, confirming that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by just the farm animals which are raised for meat production are higher than the entire CO2 emissions generated by all forms of transportation.
Last week, the Swiss Federal Government published the results of a study conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. A study, which was commissioned by the Federal Office for Agriculture, the Federal Office for the Environment and the Swiss Farmers Union, the powerful conservative lobby of the swiss farmers. A study, which was to find ways to help reduce those greenhouse gas emissions.
The result of the study: The way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions is to eat less meat. Nothing can reduce greenhouse gas emissions as effectively as reducing the amount of livestock, and that is only possible if the meat consumption is also reduced. There are no technical or conceptual means to effectively reduce these emissions any other way. No surprise to me, but it is nice to see the hardcore lobby that is fighting against this change, having to officially confirm the negative impact of its own policies.
This means the single measure of replacing the beef consumption with a vegetarian diet would essentially fix the global warming problem. As a minor nice little side effect, it would mean that we would no longer waste over half of the world's fishing catch as feed for livestock. We would free up 70% of all agricultural land - that is almost 30% of the earth's land surface - in order to grow vegetables, nuts and grains, which would easily yield a 50 fold increase in global food production. Since we wouldn't need that much food, we could convert large amounts of land back to forests, which would provide a huge amount of CO2 neutral fuel and construction material. The rainforest could thrive again, providing increasing natural habitat for exotic, some un-known, many almost extinct animals and insects. Plus, this would further improve the CO2 balance, since these forests would massively absorbe CO2 and produce oxygen. Plus, we could combine these advantages by growing our fruits, vegetables and nuts in edible forest gardens . Switching to farming for a vegetarian diet would conserve 70% of the earth's clean water, since farming animals requires over 10 times the amount of water. With the energy required to produce 1 kilogram of beef, you could easily run your Macbook for 100 years. Switching to a vegetarian diet, our life expectancy would increase by 15 years, and we would live not only longer but healthier, reducing the cost of our health care system. Should I go on?
Clearly, we should try to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Every time we consume animal products, we directly and actively lower the quality of life on planet earth. Most drastically that of the animals who were used for that production, but also the quality of life of everyone else - and our own.
Living life without consuming animal products actively and directly improves the quality of life on planet earth. Yours and everyone else's.
23.6.2009, 13:04