Experiments in Living

This is yet another report about the impact of meat production on global
warming. The study has been published online in German by a non-profit
organization known as Foodwatch based in Berlin (foodwatch.de)

All published reports seem to report the same text. The text below is copied
from Yahoo.

Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with
meat-eaters’ diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of
vegetarians, a German study said on Tuesday.

A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of
greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometres (2,956 miles),
the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said.

But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for
generating the same emissions as driving 2,427 kilometres, the IOeW said in
a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.

The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including
methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food
production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of
farmland.

Going vegan - giving up meat and dairy products - would cut the emissions
released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of
driving 629 kilometres, it said.

And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a
meat-eater - the equivalent of driving 281 kilometres.

Beef is particularly environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a
kilo (2.2 pounds) the same as driving 71 kilometres compared with 26
kilometres for pork.

Switching to organic farming can cut emissions dramatically, “but what
counts is the way we feed ourselves … production and consumption first and
foremost of beef and milk must be cut drastically,” the study said.

Tags: environment, vegan