The main reason why I chose to research this topic and why it fascinates me, is mainly based on the fact that our society has convinced us that animal agriculture, which fuels meat consumption, is not responsible for most of our greenhouse gases. When in fact, numerous studies has proven that livestock, and the byproducts that come along with it are responsible for approximately 51% of all worldwide GHG emissions3. Along with that, I find it interesting that livestock is blameworthy “for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide– a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.”3 I found all of the information very interesting, but I had to see the application and actual data.
Upon reading and
…show more content…
Another data set was collected from a food frequency questionnaire that was set to estimate the consumption of 130 food items over 12 months, which resulted in steady data collection.1
A second method used was for classifying the six diet groups. The high meat-eaters were those who consumed more or equal to 100 grams of meat a day, medium meat-eaters consumed 50 to 99 grams of meat per day, low meat-eaters consumed 0 to 50 grams of meat per day, pescitarians, vegetarians, and vegans. Initially I loved this categorization method, however a breakdown of various meats (beef, pork, etc.) would have been helpful, for each animal produces a different amount of GHG emissions.
The third method used was for calculating GHG emissions, which analyzed 130 food items form UK food consumption tables1, weighted by kgCO2e per 100 grams of food. This method was adapted from another study, investigating carbon taxes on foods in the UK1. A food balance sheet from the Food and Agriculture Organization from 2013 was also used, and I thought that this form of data collection was useful but came short. In this study they didn’t have every single food item consumed in the provided appendix, so they constructed an ‘adjustment for density’ algorithm to be used for the following: cheese, fruit juice, dried fruit, soy milk, etc.. How else would one count a GHG emission for
In the science article, “Beef and Climate Change Collide”, Los Angeles Times argues that beef is unhealthy for planet Earth due to the released gases that contribute to climate change. They claim that the U.S. beef production uses twenty eight times for land and eleven times more water than any other types of meets. Beef production pumps up five times more planet warming gases into our atmosphere than chicken, or pork. Furthermore, developing nations raising cattle have significantly increased the amounts of gases they produce. These developing countries have increased fifty one percent from 1961-2010. Although gases from cattle have been increasing, U.S. beef industry claims that the U.S. create the least amount of greenhouse gases being
One of the biggest controversies with livestock production is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that get released into the atmosphere. Its assumed that cars produce most if not all the greenhouse gas emissions however livestock has a big say in air pollution. According to Cassandra Brooks, writer for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, 18 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock production. This is nearly 20% and can be greatly reduced if people reduced their demand for meat. The Environmental Working Group used a tangible variable for Americans stating “if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million
Meat and dairy productions’ livestock is responsible for over 51% of the greenhouse gas emissions, that could be cut by over 70% if we changed our diets to vegan or vegetarian. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the animals on the farms produce over 500 million ton of manure each
By raising the animals, they seem to release more methane gas into the environment than what scientists thought. One way to fix this situation is to be a vegetarian, but only for about five days a month. We don’t have to be a full time vegetarian, but at the same time, this way of consuming meat can also improve our environment. We will be able to force the livestock industries to reduce their products, and therefore, we can reduce the amount of methane gas released into our environment. This practice is easy to do, and Thay also mentioned in his book that a lot of people have been practicing to be a vegetarian, and some of them claim that they will cut off at least 50 % of the meat they eat.
Wang suggests in his article that the largest impact on our greenhouse gas emissions comes from beef and lamb. He also suggests that the gasses emitted from beef and lamb are “generated through livestock raising
Raising livestock for animal products requires a lot of land, water, food, and energy. Further, waste water, manure, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers pollute the air, streams, rivers, and oceans. There are a number of different types of livestock that contribute to environmental degradation, and in different ways; however, beef and dairy cattle appear to be the worst perpetrators. To narrow the focus of this paper, I will examine beef and two types of environmental impacts: greenhouse gases and water usage. Before we can understand the impacts, it’s important to note something about consumption habits.
Most of the registered NAMAs are related either to energy efficiency solutions or to renewable energy ones. Less has be done for what concerns agriculture and even less if we just look at the livestock sector . Among all the NAMAs submitted before 2013, only six countries have explicitly included livestock as part of their mitigation strategy (Brazil, Chad, Jordan, Madagascar, Mongolia and Swaziland). Of these, only Brazil has submitted a quantitative target . Though, this sector has a large potential to reduce its emissions. The demand for livestock is expected to grow 70 percent by 2050 and this sector can contribute substantially in the international effort of reducing GHG emissions. The livestock sector emits around 7.1 gigatons of carbon
There is no other human activity that impacts our planet more than that of raising livestock. The global meat industry provides food and livelihood for billions of people; however the meat industry has significant environmental and health consequences for the planet. It’s predicted that the worldwide consumption of meat will double by 2020 and this will have a huge impact on the environment. Roughly 40% of the world’s land surface is
Of all ruminant animal types, (cattle, goats, and sheep), beef and dairy cattle are by far the largest emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As part of their digestive process, cows produce methane. An average cow in North America, which “includes beef cows, bulls, calves, growing steers/heifers, and feedlot cattle,” eructs via belching 117 pounds (53 kilograms) of methane (CH4) per head per year, according to 2006 guidelines from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The meat industry is one of the major producers of greenhouse gases. People’s growing love of eating meat is leading to large area of forest being cut down for raising animals and to greater greenhouse gas emission; such as nitrous oxide and methane emission, which will eventually lead to global warming (DeVries, 2012, pp40). Moreover, eating red meat make people let out 2.5 times more greenhouse gas than eating chicken and fish, and statistic showed that per ton greenhouse gas releasing costs 700 euro (Arto & Tuula, 2012, pp11). The great greenhouse gas emission is leading to a significant climate change, which has caused severe environmental problems throughout the world. Arto and Tuula (2012) reported that over 350,000 children died of malnutrition, diarrhea, or malaria in the southern sphere due to the climate change (pp11). So people should avoid eating red meat if possible, that way the climate change may be halted.
item using a system of how many times they consume the food, from never to once a month or even multiple times a month (Schroder). The food was issued a standard portion size but the participants altered the given proportion size to one that fits their proper nutritional intake. The nutrient composition of the foods was taken from food tables of the Spanish which shows the basis of nutrition around the world
In the next forty years food production will need to increase by one hundred percent if it is going to meet the demands of global society (Dahlen et al., 2014). The reproduction of livestock has undergone evolutionary changes over time all in favor of making production more efficient. Artificial insemination (AI), estrous synchronization and fixed-time AI (TAI), semen and embryo cryopreservation, multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET), in vitro fertilization, sex determination of sperm or embryos, and nuclear transfer are technologies that are used to enhance the production efficiency of beef operations (Dahlen et al., 2014). These are some of the newer technologies that have been generated to increase meat production. Food provides energy and nutrients, and its acquisition requires the expenditure of energy. In today’s world unbalanced nutritional diets lead to obesity and other serious health issues (McMichael et al., 2007). Livestock raising is a major contributor to agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have been conducted to analyze what changes the meat industry would need to undergo to reduce the greenhouse gas emission levels. In order to reach the target level of greenhouse gas emissions the world would need to reduce their demand of animal products significantly (McMichael et al., 2007). The estimated average per-head intake of, at most, 90 g meat per day and not more than 50 g of this should come from red meat from ruminant animals
After completing the data collection process, I will begin to analyze the data. First, I will divide students in the experimental and control group by the gender selected in the survey. Then, I will determine whether an individual’s diet experienced no, little, medium, or high change by referring to the dietary records. To do so, I will individually add the total amounts of red meat, white meat, dairy, fish, and eggs an individual consumed in the first four weeks. Then, I will subtract the total amount of each of the foods consumed during the last four weeks of the study from the previous amount. For example, if an individual consumed a total amount of twenty ounces of red meat in the first four weeks and twelve in the last four weeks, I
Global warming extremists want us to believe that as global temperatures rise, so do chances of complete extinction of entire species. Natural disasters will become more common, whole continents could one day be under water, and death rates could be at an all time high. This may seem like a bad science fiction novel, but in some ways they might actually be right. At the very least global warming can and will effect humans living in nearly every region. From those living on the coast, to those living in the Artic plains no area of our planet is safe from global warming. Understanding that global warming is a reality, how it occurs, and what we can do to stop it is vital to the survival of every living creature on this planet.
Meat and dairy consumption is growing, which makes more greenhouse gas emissions, and also led to climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector (approximately 14.5 per cent of the global total) are more than direct emissions from the entire transport sector (The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2014). Meanwhile, growth in global meat and dairy produce means emissions will continue to grow (Ibid). Therefore, if we deal with this problem, climate change can be reduced. Thus, the shift from global demand from meat and dairy products to a vegetable-based diet is a major target to achieve climate goals in reducing energy consumption and emissions (Ibid). Nowadays, more and more people are eating unhealthily. Diets high in animal products are associated with an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and several forms of cancer (Larson and Wolk, cited in The Royal Institute of