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Give up meat!?
A report in yesterday's Times newspaper caught my eye. As a sporadic meat eater, I was quite intrigued by Lord Stern's insistance that we should all give up eating meat in order to save the earth (see his article here).
I don't eat that much meat, with the main driver behind my eating decisions being price - to my way of thinking it's just too expensive to eat meat every day! But I've never really been swayed into this decision by the effects the meat industry has on the environment, choosing (perhaps in my ignorance) to focus my environmentally friendly efforts in other many and varied directions.
I could quite imagine, however, that there are many meat-loving people around the UK that would take an awful lot more persuasion to come around to Lord Stern's way of thinking than me. I'm certainly not the only person intrigued by his assertions (see here for just one of the replies to his interview).
So is Lord Stern right? Should we all become vegetarians? And at what cost to a presumably hefty area of business?
I don't eat that much meat, with the main driver behind my eating decisions being price - to my way of thinking it's just too expensive to eat meat every day! But I've never really been swayed into this decision by the effects the meat industry has on the environment, choosing (perhaps in my ignorance) to focus my environmentally friendly efforts in other many and varied directions.
I could quite imagine, however, that there are many meat-loving people around the UK that would take an awful lot more persuasion to come around to Lord Stern's way of thinking than me. I'm certainly not the only person intrigued by his assertions (see here for just one of the replies to his interview).
So is Lord Stern right? Should we all become vegetarians? And at what cost to a presumably hefty area of business?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Mills on -
Hi Helen
I am sure there are environmental impacts to eating meat. MacDonalds have 'allegedly' (just for the lawyers!) cleared a lot of land for cattle grazing and yes we know the impacts of cattle fart on the environment.
But arable or fruit farming also has an impact on the environment - banana and cocoa plantations - specifically on bio diversity and that's before we get into GM crops or the use of pesticides.
I know a sheep farming on the hills of Weardale - I wonder how his environmental impact compares to a tea plantation in India.
I think it is probably true that on balance the environment woudl benefit from everyone going veggie. Not as much as it would if we cut our car journeys by 50% or just all consumed a little less of everything.
Graeme (Omnivore)
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Permalink Reply by andrew Thompson on -
What would the impact be on the grass areas and hills if all cattle and sheep were no longer required. who would pay for the upkeep of these areas. Food is cheaper than it has ever been we spent 75% of our income on feeding the family 100 years ago this dropped to 50% 50 years ago and now we only need 30% of our income to put food on our table. We must not forget all of the carbon our cattle consume from the food they eat. The methane they produce has to be taken in at the front end first just in the same way that willow copice takes in carbon whilst growing and this is put back into the atmosphere when burnt to make energy. I will always eat meat with some vegetables a good balanced diet is best for everyone. Lord Stern is not fully informed of the consequences of his statement.
Andrew Thompson
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Permalink Reply by Gareth Kane on -
Andrew, I think the problem is that the methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2 - if only someone could think of a way to capture it for fuel then cattle wouldn't be such a problem!
Personally I've decided to cut my meat intake as part of my 10:10 commitment - I'm trying to stick to once a day or less.
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Permalink Reply by Els Heynssens on -
Hi,
I think it's not one small farm that is a big threat, but a lot of really big ones and those who are using land that is not capable to sustain grazing animals (for example rainforest).
It's not just the methane that is a problem. Also water and food.
Besides according to my doctor, humans are omnivores. A healthy diet contains meat, but only once a week. Not every day.
Maybe you should take a look at the movie Home, or their website www.home-2009.com
You can watch the movie for free on youtube --> homeproject.
The most important of it all, is that everyone should be able to make his own choice to eat meat or not. But I think that everyone should be well informed about the good and the bad of eating meat.
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Permalink Reply by Graeme Mills on
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My mother once said she was worried about the number of vegetarians as if we were'nt careful we would be "over run by animals"- different perspective. When we can't get moved for sheep, we'll know she was right.
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Permalink Reply by Gareth Kane on
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Interesting article in the Guardian by George Monbiot arguing that it is not the meat that is the problem but the way we farm it. He's quoting a book that debunks some myths about meat production and makes a strong case for low carbon meat.
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