Animal-rights groups say meat-eating worse for climate than driving

Driving Us to Vegetarianism

With which instrument do you cause more greenhouse-gas emissions: your car key or your fork? It's a question asked in an advertising campaign by the Humane Society, which, along with other big animal-rights groups, is striving to open consumers' eyes to an oft-overlooked connection: the climatic impact of eating meat. Bolstered by a recent United Nations report stating that the livestock business spews more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined, animal-rights groups say greens aren't stressing the point enough. "Environmentalists are still pointing their fingers at Hummers and SUVs when they should be pointing at the dinner plate," says a campaigner for PETA. "You just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist."

straight to the source: The New York Times, Claudia H. Deutsch, 29 Aug 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

Comments: (14 comments)

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Two Different Isms

"You just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist."

It's statements like this that make many Americans feel like they cannot be environmentalists and that caring for environmental well-being is "just not for them," or only for elite, city-dwelling liberals. This is like saying you can't be an electricity-using environmentalist.

It's too bad, because PETA makes a good point. Americans should be eating less meat for our environmental health as well as our physical health. But when you wrap a solid message in outlandish rhetoric, all people hear is the noise.

by davidconnell at 10:49 AM on 30 Aug 2007

Veggie-Might

This is a clever campaign about an important issue, but one that unfortunately takes us in the wrong direction. Yes, what you eat makes a big difference in your environmental footprint, but pitting Hybrids against Hummus as the solution to global warming isn't the answer.

In the end, this effort will likely produce more confusion and disempowerment than it does new vegetarians. There are other ways to skin this carrot.

For more:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jcoifman/go_pluck_yours ...

Jon Coifman NRDC jcoifman@nrdc.org

by Jon Coifman at 10:51 AM on 30 Aug 2007

Driving Us to Vegetarianism

It continues to amaze me that environmentalists of all stripes don't ever point their finger at the real problem, GLOBAL HUMAN OVERPOPULATION. Humans have doubled their numbers in the last 50 years, less than the average lifetime of a single individual! After all, who's doing all the meat-eating? Who's doing all the driving? Maybe no one's doing anything wrong, maybe there are just too many of us doing it!!

by Jeff Lawrence at 11:40 AM on 30 Aug 2007

It's hardly the same...

There are ways to reduce the impact of 'meat'. I'm not sure why I put that in quotations... Anyway, buy local, organic - heck visit the farm, go fishing and get to know your slab of meat then kill it and prep it yourself.

I don't want to get into the whole "Are Human's meant to eat meat?" But I will say we must have incisors for a reason...

ANYWAY - That's my food them folks is messing with. Not my only food, but some of it and danged if I'm going to eat 5lbs of peanuts every day so I have enough stamina and protein to commute 16 miles on my bicycle.

Preposterous, and I agree with the comments that statements like "You just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist" are more harmful than not.

That's it - If I can't have a fishing license and eat my own trout, have an omelette on Sunday, broil a chicken breast on Thursday nights and indulge in the occaisonal New York then I don't want to be an environmentalist. Carry on without me. However, I'm still going to recycle, compost, live car free, and let my pesticide/herbicide free yard 'die' in the summer.

Take home message: Don't mess with my food or I quit. Tofu sucks.

beelnite

by beelnite at 11:54 AM on 30 Aug 2007

I think you all are missing the point

It's not so much that you should stop eating meat as that you should open your eyes and pay attention to where it came from, how it was produced and what affect that production is having on the environment. The fact of the matter is that meat and poultry production in this country is done in a non-sustainable way and that it is in fact generating more greenhouse gases than automobiles! That's not necessary. You don't have to stop eating meat (although I did and I feel spectacular and I don't have to worry about my protein content, that's naive) -- just eat less of it!

Cory

by cmbryant1 at 1:42 PM on 30 Aug 2007

Why is it all or nothing?

First of all, I'm a Vegan.

That said, I think that a good message would be... hey, eating meat is this bad (for instance, the average US meat-eater requires 4200 gallons of water per day to support that diet; the average US Vegan requires 300 gallons per day to support that diet). So, by cutting out meat eating one day a week, you save this much.
Maybe you can do without meat twice a week. That's this much water/land/world saved.

So, every day you don't eat meat, your foodprint (term I am shamelessly stealing from someone else) is 3900-gallons-of-freshwater smaller. And, that's just water! Over time, that adds up to a HUGE impact of GOOD for our world.

Another thing to try, is reduce that foodprint by having only half as much meat per meal. Most of the world uses meat as flavor, not the main part of the meal. If you just cut out half the meat, you would be saving 2100 gallons of fresh water, every single day!

It would be nice if everyone would just what they can, and not think that they can't do it all.

by raevynn at 2:28 PM on 30 Aug 2007

overpopulation is beside the point

In a sense it is true that overpopulation is the root of our problems but there is little we can do about it. Are we going to force people to have less children like they did in China? It would be exceedingly unpopular. And if one group drastically cuts its birth rate, that just means that other groups such as the fundamentalists can have tons of babies and fill in the gaps. The same goes for individual countries.

We used to be encouraged by the correlation between the rise in per capita GNP and the fall in the birth rate but we know that we can't wait for the rest of the world to reach our standard of living. And that's the real problem. There isn't enough time for us to cut our population even if we wanted to.

We really have no choice but to let nature cut our population for us and it will do so with a vengence sometime this century. We know that our industrial lifestyle is leading us to global warming and to pollution and overextraction of resources. Our task is to learn to live within our means and hope that whatever remnant of humanity survives also gets the message.

by charlesjustice at 10:22 PM on 30 Aug 2007
[ Parent ]

Hunting and fishing

I know everyone can't get their meat this way but up here in northern BC a lot of people fill their freezers with moose, deer, and salmon. You can eat game meat without increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere so the connection between meat and global warming is not as absolute as the vegans would like us to believe. It's really industrial agriculture that is the culprit and industrial cattle farming that is the most intense creator of GHG's, as well as overutilizer of water.

by charlesjustice at 10:35 PM on 30 Aug 2007
[ Parent ]

PETA, Talk to us about alternative meats!

I found the comment "You can't be a meat-eating environmentalist." somewhat infuriating, and I am on the same wave as beelnite. I think PETA is making more enemies than friends by marketing vegetarianism in such a black and white manner. Several other people in this thread have mentioned alternative ways of obtaining meat that do not contribute carbon to the atmosphere.

I recently visited a sheep farm of a climate change scientist, and she noted that the carbon exchange between her operation and the atmosphere may be a net decrease, meaning the high quality grass she grows in her rotating fields may use more carbon dioxide than her sheep produce. There are a number of farmers out there who are wholistically managing their farms to manage for carbon output.

Well, I could go on, but my point is that PETA's message shouldn't be "NO MEAT!", but rather "FIND OUT WHERE YOU MEAT COMES FROM and LEARN ABOUT IT." These blanket messages and solutions only serve to either annoy or lay guilt-trips on people. Is that how we should go about saving the environment? I would like to see PETA's leaders discuss alternative meat growing methods on Grist.

northerncanopy

by northerncanopy at 10:13 AM on 31 Aug 2007

Extremist Rhetoric Counterproductive

This "You Just Can't Be a Meat-Eating Environmentalist" rhetoric will turn off far more people than it will ever persuade. It is an obviously opportunistic attempt to coopt those who want to reduce global warming into supporting an extremist animal rights position they would not ordinarily support.

Bucks County PA

by Christine2007 at 9:03 AM on 04 Sep 2007

Toothbrush or Broom?

There is one point that I see is RIGHT not only in regard to eating meat:

If you do not change the most damaging habits in your life, you might as well change nothing because it will not make a difference! It might actually be that doing very little (and feeling oh-so-good about it) is viewed as being enough by others who then do just as little (=not enough) and the movement changes nothing while everyone feels great. The environmental changes that need to happen will only be sufficient if enough people begin doing MORE and do it NOW.

Stop feeling good because you are doing something. Don't rest until you have reduced your life-style to a level that is significantly below average! It is hard, it is inconvenient, and it will not be as much fun. You will sweat more and live less long. You may not be main-stream any longer, but you can be proud.

Expecting and supporting the production of a reliable supply of cheap meat and consuming it every day while (e.g.) changing to energy-saving light bulbs makes not sense because it makes no difference.

If you want to clean a mess get the broom first, the toothbrush later.

Karsten PolluteLessDotCom

by PolluteLessDotCom at 12:32 PM on 04 Sep 2007

STOP EATING!!!

You know, come to think of it -- even organic produce has an impact on the earth. I don't think one can be considered an environmentalist unless they give up agriculturally produced foods altogether.

Foraging is not an answer - thanks to overpopulation - that would be too destructive to demand of 'everyone.'

I think by logic the only way one could be a true environmentalist is to simply stop existing.

I don't agree that "the whole point was to make us look at where our food comes from..." is a viable response to our rants in this thread.

This is the chior, we know. Right?

beelnite

by beelnite at 11:48 AM on 11 Sep 2007

The Global Meat Culture and the Environment

Links to studies
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet, Energy and Global Warming - University of Chicago report:
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutriEI.pd ... ... ...

Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment
by David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/78/3/660S#FN2

Livestock's Long Shadow - U.N. report
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/ ... ... ...

The far ranging environmental impacts of global meat consumption -
WorldWatch Institute report
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1670

World Wildlife Fund: Environmental Impact of Beef

Facts About Beef Inputs & Protein Outputs - Cornell report
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs. ...

EarthSave Report: A New Global Warming Strategy:
How Environmentalists are Overlooking Vegetarianism as
the Most Effective Tool Against Climate Change in Our
Lifetimes by Noam Mohr
http://www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

Humans' beef with livestock: a warmer planet
American meat eaters are responsible for 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide per person than vegetarians every year
By Brad Knickerbocker, staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the February 20, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0220/p03s01-ussc.htm

Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links

---------------------------------------------------------------
Links to websites and articles

Eco-Eating: Eating As If the World Matters:
http://www.brook.com/veg/

The Poor Get Stuffed by George Monbiot
We cannot feed the world's livestock and the world's people:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2002/12/24/the-poor-get-s ... ... ...

Meet Your Meat (Narrated by Alec Baldwin)
http://www.meat.org/

Rainforest Destruction: What's Meat Got to Do With It? by Steven Best:
http://www.drstevebest.org/papers/vegenvani/rainforest.ph ... ... ...

Beyond Beef
http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/reports/beyond.html

Save the World With Your Fork
http://www.celsias.com/2006/11/22/save-the-world-with-you ... ... ...

Global Warming and Meat Overconsumption: A Few More
Inconvenient Truths by Kathy Freston
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/a-few-more-in ... ... ...

The Coming Crisis: Environmental Disaster, The Global Meat Culture,
And Your Health by Steven Best:
http://www.drstevebest.org/papers/vegenvani/crisis.php

The Case Against Meat: Evidence Shows that Our Meat-Based Diet is
Bad for the Environment, Aggravates Global Hunger, Brutalizes Animals
and Compromises Our Health by Jim Motavalli, E Magazine
http://extreme.trailfire.com/espressoemily/marks/52446

Meat is a Global Warming Issue by Dan Brook, E Magazine
http://www.alternet.org/story/40639/

Warrior for a Healthy Planet by James Faber
http://www.consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc116/howardlyman. ...

Boss Hog: Rolling Stone report on Smithfield and the pig factory industry
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/boss_hog_rollin_1 ... ... ...

Energy Justice Network: Toxic Hazards Posed by Poultry Litter Incineration
http://www.energyjustice.net/fibrowatch/toxics.html

Veganism in a Nutshell - Bruce Friedrich:
http://www.drstevebest.org/papers/book_reviews/vegannutsh ... ... ...

Q: Who is behind the rapid extermination of the Amazon forest?
A: American agrobusiness giants, ADM, Bunge, and Cargill are. See
http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/patzek/BiofuelQA/Materials/ ... ... ...

The True Cost of Food:
http://www.truecostoffood.org/leaders.asp

So You're an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating Meat?
Short version by Jim Motavalli, E Magazine
http://www.creationsmagazine.com/articles/C84/Motavalli.h ... ... ...

So You're an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating Meat?
Full version by Jim Motavalli, E Magazine
http://www.alternet.org/story/12162/

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Vegan & Vegetarian Diets:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell, II:
http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat:
http://www.madcowboy.com/

The Global Leather Trade and the Environment:
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/US_indian_leather?sour ... ...

Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe'
http://www.smallplanetinstitute.org/

by Karen Lee Orr at 1:52 PM on 14 Sep 2007

Livestock Industry - time to move over

It's interesting to see the powerful attachment people have to food that they have been conditioned to eat since babies and the level of denial they have as adults when the facts of how polluting the livestock industry is. The question is this: If you truly believe that the earth is dying (it is) and are sincerely concerned for your children's future what would you be willing to do? Would you be willing to stop eating all animal products (which includes meat, dairy, eggs, fish)?
People want their "cake and eat it too" but unfortunately it doesn't work like that. We are in a crisis and the fact is, it's time to change or humans simply won't have a future.
How tragic for a beautiful planet with ecosystems that have been evolving for millions of years in perfect balance to be destroyed just because one species is attached to the taste of something that is incredibly detrimental to the whole ecosystem and in fact unnatural.
Stop defending your bad habits, open your mind and research the other side, it will be good for you, the animal, the planet and your child will have a life - hopefully if it's not too late. It is the midnight hour but I do not see a mature response, only 2yr olds kicking and screaming because they can't get what they want.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

by Ocheyan at 1:13 AM on 17 Apr 2008

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