Wednesday 7 January 2015

Your burger is bad for the climate: Editorial

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board 


Despite the recent recession, Americans still consume more beef than the citizens of nearly any other country in the world — and if they worry about this at all, it’s usually just for the sake of their own arteries.

But never mind coronary heart disease. Whether or not you drop dead from eating too much red meat, your double burger isruining the planet for the rest of us.

Beef is not only the worst meat for your health, it’s also the worst for the environment. Grazing bovine may be a picturesque part of the American pastoral landscape, but they are guzzling up a major portion of the world's food supply: 28 times the land and 11 times the water needed for pork or chicken, while scientists wonder how we will ever sustain the extra 2 billion people expected to be alive by 2050.

And as we expend a huge and growing percentage of the world's resources on fattening the cattle that make Americans fatter, they are busy stink-bombing our atmosphere. Cow burps, flatulence and defecations are laced with methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

All of which goes to show why our federal government is absolutely right to push harder than ever to wean Americans off beef, in the latest version of its nutritional guidelines this year. Currently, these tips recommend eating lean meats instead of reducing meat altogether. But a new draft released last month would go a significant step further, advising Americans toactually reduce red and processed meats, in the interest not just of nutrition, but of protecting our climate.

Not everyone is cheering this new alliance between nutritionists and environmentalists. The American Meat Institute says the panel of experts advising the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t have the “expertise to take on environmental questions.”

Nonsense. It makes perfect sense for them to consider the environmental impact of beef, which also affects the health of humans on earth. Our government has spent hundreds of billions on subsidies that support the meat and dairy industries, and doesn’t make them pay for the environmental damage they cause. This is just one small correction.

A more effective fix might be impose a meat tax to discourage consumption. But at the very least, we must encourage Americans to eat in a way that is healthier not just for themselves, but for the future of all humans on the planet.


http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/01/your_burger_is_bad_for_the_climate_editorial.html

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