Stop Eating Meat To Save The Planet!

[Mutated_Hair]

Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet - Times Online

Complete c**p that article, not biased in any way...

"The average briton eats 60g of protein a day, this is 25-50% over what is reccomended by the WHO"

This stuff really gets me angry >.>

[sigwcpl]

These lords and just about 99.9% of the people that work for the government do not have a CLUE about anything.

[- DJT -]

Mr Stern knows what he's talking about.

He's not saying it for any health reasons; he's saying it in terms of the Earth's ability to produce food.

[Milesy]

Ironically Manure produced in the meat industry sustains the production of food for the vegetarian industry. Take away the cows and make everyone veggie and how will they fertilise all this fruit and veg that the full world will need??

[bzt]

what the earth really needs is a smaller population. Destroying forests to plant more grain to feed all those reformed vegetarians is really gonna help save the planet eh!

[ATZ]

The earth can definately sustain more livestock than it can cereal production.

[Seebsy]

Give up cereal to save the planet .

How much of our green food is now produced in wet polystyrene balls ?
I assume because there are no more fertile fields to grow it in . It is a cheap and easy way to feed people who no know better .

Balance animals for food in pastures with crops grown correctly in pooed on soil , phase out HFCS and cereal and sugar based junk food and we might all be OK .

Nice thought anyway.......

[NU_nutrition_TS]

If Lord Stern and all his fellow peers stopped talking out of their rear orifice that would more than half the world's methane production!

[Ripped Barbarian]

What about if i eat human meat? that's reducing the environment damaging population and feeding me at the same time.
If we all did that i'm sure the environmental problems would be solved.

My point is, with articles like that being very vague, different types of meat production have different impacts on the environment, if you consider them an important factor anyway.
Should i stop eating lamb raised on mountain unsuitable for crop production?

What does it all matter anyway, it's a drop in the ocean!

[CosmicFish]

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Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases.

I'd love to see "significant" expressed quantatively.

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Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

Needs context. What about all the other facts. How do CO2 and methane compare overall?

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. . . said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods . . .

Translation: "We want to make more money by introducing more stealth taxes. You won't take kindly to this unless we spin a certain behaviour as "immoral" first and then tax that."

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“I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student."

An atrocious comparison. Humans and many other animals have been eating meat for millions of years. It's irresponsible and probably deliberately emotive to attempt to compare it to drink driving.

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UN figures suggest that meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent of global carbon emissions, including the destruction of forest land for cattle ranching and the production of animal feeds such as soy.

Ah, some numbers at last. 18% does seem a bit large. I wonder, however. If we stopped producing all meat globally and turned the land over to vegetable production, what percentage of the global carbon emmisions would come from the new grain and vegetable production. Bear in mind that vegetables are also intensively farmed using machines powered by petrol.

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This is a relatively low level for a wealthy country but between 25 per cent and 50 per cent higher than the amount recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Given the current obesity epicemic, you'll forgive me if I don't take the WHO recommendations all that seriously.

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Su Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society, welcomed Lord Stern’s remarks. “What we choose to eat is one of the biggest factors in our personal impact on the environment,” she said. “Meat uses up a lot of resources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water. One of the best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat in your diet.”

Someone, please show this clown the picture of hilly land and ask her how on Earth we're supposed to grow and farm grain or vegetables on it efficiently.



OK, I feel better now. Anybody else want to borrow my soapbox?