The Ecological Impact of Eating Factory Farmed Meat And What We Can Do About It - Part 2

In this era of global warming, researchers have cited the overall energy and pollution costs of different diets as an important reason to eat less meat. University of Chicago geophysicists Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin calculate that it takes about 500 calories of fossil-fuel energy inputs to produce 100 calories’ worth of chicken or milk; producing 100 calories’ worth of grain-fed beef requires almost 1,600 calories. But producing 100 calories’ worth of plant foods requires only 50 calories from fossil fuels. In terms of global warming, eating a typical American diet instead of an all-plant diet has a greater impact than driving a Toyota Camry instead of a gas-frugal Toyota Prius. And that difference translates into an annual 430 million tons of carbon dioxide, 6 percent of the nation’s total emissions of greenhouse gases.




Nutrition researchers in Germany have examined the ecological impacts of three kinds of diets: typical Western, low meat, and lacto-ovo vegetarian. Compared to a typical diet, a low-meat diet uses 41 percent less energy and generates 37 percent less carbon dioxide equivalents (greenhouse gases) and 50 percent less sulfur dioxide equivalents (respiratory problems, acid rain). For a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, the savings are even greater: 54 percent less energy, 52 percent less carbon dioxide equivalents, and 66 percent less sulfur dioxide equivalents.

Eating less meat and dairy products could greatly improve health, the environment, and animal welfare—especially if people replaced some of those foods with vegetables, beans, fruits, nuts, and whole grains (see “Changing Your Own Diet,” p. 143). Most minimally processed plant foods are low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, and they are the only source of diverse phytonutrients. Even without cutting back on beef and dairy foods, just shifting the cattle industry away from feedlots and toward leaner grass-fed beef and getting the dairy industry to cut the saturated-fat content of milk would yield big dividends.



While moving in a more vegetarian direction offers many benefits to health and the environment, a more omnivorous option is advocated eloquently by University of California journalism professor Michael Pollan in his recent book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan describes the multiple virtues of small farms that humanely and ecologically raise cattle, pigs, and chickens on pastures and in woodlands and sell their meat, milk, and eggs locally. There’s little room for factory farms, Wal-Marts, or Burger Kings in that vision. Ultimately, what you eat is your choice. Considering how important these matters are, now is the time to start to make healthy choices. Each of us can quietly do our part—in our kitchens, grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and backyard gardens.

To download your free copy of "Six Arguments for a Greener Diet" visit www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen