Sludge Watch ==> Organic Meat-40 less Greenhouse Gas - needs 85% less energy

[Maureen Reilly]

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-
murder-on-the-environment.html

Meat is murder on the environment

    * 18 July 2007
    * NewScientist.com news service
    * Daniele Fanelli

A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions
and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the
lights on back home.

This is among the conclusions of a study by Akifumi Ogino of the
National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba,
Japan, and colleagues, which has assessed the effects of beef
production on global warming, water acidification and eutrophication,
and energy consumption. The team looked at calf production, focusing
on animal management and the effects of producing and transporting
feed. By combining this information with data from their earlier
studies on the impact of beef fattening systems, the researchers were
able to calculate the total environmental load of a portion of beef.

Their analysis showed that producing a kilogram of beef leads to the
emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to
36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. It also releases fertilising
compounds equivalent to 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of
phosphate, and consumes 169 megajoules of energy (Animal Science
Journal, DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-0929.2007.00457.x). In other words, a
kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of
CO2 emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometres, and
burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

The calculations, which are based on standard industrial methods of
meat production in Japan, did not include the impact of managing farm
infrastructure and transporting the meat, so the total environmental
load is higher than the study suggests.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions are in the form of methane
released from the animals' digestive systems, while the acid and
fertilising substances come primarily from their waste. Over
two-thirds of the energy goes towards producing and transporting the
animals' feed.

Possible interventions, the authors suggest, include better waste
management and shortening the interval between calving by one month.
This latter measure could reduce the total environmental load by
nearly 6 per cent. A Swedish study in 2003 suggested that organic
beef, raised on grass rather than concentrated feed, emits 40 per
cent less greenhouse gases and consumes 85 per cent less energy.

"Methane emissions from beef cattle are declining, thanks to
innovations in feeding practices," says Karen Batra of the National
Cattlemen's Beef Association in Centennial, Colorado. "Everybody is
trying to come up with different ways to reduce carbon footprints,"
says Su Taylor of the Vegetarian Society in the UK: "But one of the
easiest things you can do is to stop eating meat.


Eric Darier
GMO Campaigner
Greenpeace