Meat and Dairy, Quite Contrary

Cutting meat and milk consumption cuts CO2 emissions, study says

Posted at 6:41 AM on 01 Oct 2008

Happy World Vegetarian Day! Just in time for the festivities, a new study from the Food Climate Research Network finds that cutting down on meat and milk consumption can help cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The four-year study focused mainly on the U.K., concluding that dramatically cutting the average Briton's weekly meat and milk intake could help reduce emissions since about 8 percent of the country's greenhouse gases come from meat and dairy production. The study also boldly recommends citizens cut alcohol from their diet -- which has little nutritional value but contributes some 1.5 percent of overall emissions -- as well as sweets and chocolate that also contribute unnecessarily to the GHG intensity of British diets. But the report also points out that voluntary personal actions are not terribly effective at reducing emissions and, anyway, people like to eat what they want. "Food is important to us in a great many cultural and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit, and other influences," the report says. "Study upon study has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more difficult changes."

sources:  The Guardian, The Telegraph