Go Green and Cut Red Meat

By Terri Coles, Quotes Anna Lappé

Reuters.com

April 24, 2008

Available online at: http://features.us.reuters.com/wellbeing/news/DEBD6496-1236-11DD-99A5-62F58F60.html

TORONTO (Reuters) -- Asthe United States wrestles with its worst bout of food cost inflation since the early1990s, reducing meat in your diet may help stretch your grocery dollars -- andalso protect the environment.

Government figures showthat grocerycosts have gone up 5.1 percent in 12 months. Eggs alone areup a dramatic 25 percent over last year, Labor Department figures show. Withhousehold budgets strained by higher food costs and increased prices at thepump, switching out some of the more-expensive meat protein for cheaper plantprotein can help reduce food budgets.

There's also evidence thatmeat production may be a factor in climate change.

In 2006, the UN's Food andAgriculture Organization said in a report that the ingredients that go intomeat, eggs and dairy production -- including fertilizer, feed, transport andprocessing -- add up to about 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions,more than the greenhouse gases produced by the transportation sector.

"Every step of meatproduction -- and especially modern meat production and factory farming methods-- requires a lot of energy," said Danielle Nierenberg, a senior fellow atWorldwatch Institute, which analyzesenvironmental data.

It's also more efficientto grow grain directly for food than to grow grain to feed livestock, said AnnaLappe, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute,which has launched a website about the connection between food and climatechange, called Take a Bite.For example, it takes 16 pounds of grain or soy to produce one pound of steak,Lappe said.

"I think one of thegreatest things we could do to reduce our personal foodprint would be to reducethe amount of meat we consume," Lappe said, punning on the "carbonfootprint" catchphrase that has become an environmental banner.

Somewhat ironically, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) is advocating for that change by targeting Al Gore, the man responsiblefor making "carbon footprint" a household phrase. Theoften-controversial animal rights organization is asking supporters to pledgeto eatvegetarian for 30 days in order to offset meat consumed bythe Nobel Prize-winning environmental activist.

"It seems that thegreatest inconvenient truth for Al Gore is that the meat in his diet has got togo in order for him to maintain credibility on the global warming debate,"said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt.

A Gore spokesman in a New York Times article last yearwouldn't comment on the former president's diet but pointed out that the bookversion of the climate-change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth"mentions eating less meat.

Last year, the Lancet, a medical journal, said a10-percent drop in global red meat consumption would lead to a cut in thegreenhouse gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats. The greenhouse gas methanereleased by flatulent cows has been cited as a factor in global warming.

Individual cows don'tproduce that much methane by themselves, Worldwatch's Nierenberg said, butbecause we raise so many cows -- about 1 billion ruminants each year -- andbecause livestock production has been growing steadily since factory farmingfirst became popular in the 1960s, the cumulative effect is notable. Now Indiaand China, where wages are rising and a middle class is emerging, areincreasing their meat consumption as well.

"One of the firstthings that people do when they get a little extra money is that they buy moremeat products," Nierenberg said.

The increasing demand formeat is one reason -- along with higher energy prices that raise the cost ofshipping and production, increased costs for corn used in feed due to the demand for ethanol and a weaker U.S.dollar that makes exports more expensive -- why food costs are currentlyrising.

"One of the thingsthat I hear a lot when I talk about food is that people ask me aboutcost," said Lappe, who eats an organic plant-centered diet instead of amore typically Western diet that focuses on meat, dairy and eggs. Although shedoes pay a premium for organic products, she said she still finds that a dietthat depends on foods from plants like vegetables, fruits and beans is lessexpensive than one that includes more foods from animals. She hopes that theTake A Bite campaign will help educate people on how sustainable foodproduction is a step towards a solution to climate change.

"We all know that we need to reduce our emissionsdramatically as a planet," Lappe said. "We also know that we need tosequester carbon in order to be really achieving those emissions reductions,and we're finding that organic farms can be a powerful tool."