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This week's climate change brouhaha centers around remarks by Lord Stern, author of the influential 2006 Stern Review, on the impact of eating meat. This in turn aroused fears in certain quarters that those damned vegetarians were at it again, trying to impose their new world meatless order on the rest of us.I think it is important to note that Lord Stern is not talking about African tribesmen raising a few beef cows in the back savannah. And the problem is not limited to the enormous amount of methane released into the atmosphere via the back ends of ruminants.
We are talking about vast areas of the Amazon where trees have been cut down to make pastures for grazing cattle. We are talking about the energy costs of transporting, slaughtering, and processing meat into meat products.
My point here would be to not stop eating meat. We all know that isn't going to happen. But we do need to be more aware of what it takes to get that hamburger to the plate. If I switch to a salad, that isn't totally without energy costs, but the overall impact of a plate of lettuce is much less than an ounce of steak.
And remember this. If beef is the solar system, poultry is the galaxy. In 2008, 23.2 million head of cattle were slaughtered. For the same period, 6.1 billion chickens were slaughtered in the U.S. Think about that the next time you order that chicken salad sandwich.
This essay first appeared in PlanetRestart.org
