Eating meat good for the environment
Years ago I was told that by not eating meat a vegetarian saved one acre of rain forest per year. I don't know if that's true or not but raising livestock does take its toll on the land. In addition, there are plenty of questionable practices in commercial farming that cause terrible diseases (Mad Cow anyone?). Is a vegetarian diet the best for humans? Is it best for the environment?Cornell University has released its results from a new study saying that a diet consisting of a small amount of meat and eggs uses less land than a 100% vegetarian diet. Using New York as an example, the authors claim that while vegetables are growing one area, cows can graze and fertilize areas unsuitable for planting. As long as people consume only 63 grams of meat and/or eggs (less than half the current average per person), a proper balance can be maintained.This report is provocative and pretty much says that early farmers had it right after all with their use of crop rotation. I don't expect this to be the final word in the debate, however,
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-19-2007 @ 4:28PM
Meghan said...
Most large livestock are grown for large parts of their lives on land unsuitable for farming. The illusion that livestock eat up all of the world's resources is just that. The rainforests are being cut for hardwoods and subsistance farming. Brazil is one of the biggest soy and sugar producers in the world. The sugar is being used as an alternative biofuel source.
Livestock are not the biggest evil in the world, no matter what you have heard. Old growth forest is being cut every day to grow soy, sugar, corn, and bamboo to feed the "green" ideal. Just because something is defined as "green" doesn't mean it is.
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10-20-2007 @ 12:51PM
Jen. said...
That would be true if most farm animals were grazing and their waste was used for fertilizer. As current practices now stand, most animals raised for meat are kept indoors in confined spaces all of their lives, eating grains, being injected with antibiotics and growth hormones, with their wastes polluting water supplies. Cutting back on meat, or eliminating it altogether is one of the best things we can do for the environment (the UN agrees!). At the very least, we should push for an end to factory farming, which is one of the biggest polluters in the US today.
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