Soaring Meat Consumption Bigger Problem Than Thought: Study

Posted on October 14, 2020 by HelenAtAmarIt

Eating meat is turning up the heat.

That’s the message from a team of international researchers whose just-published study shows that the raising of livestock and consumption of meat—especially beef—is becoming an increasingly aggressive driver of planetary global warming and climate change.

Published this week in the journal Climatic Change and posted in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research reveals the alarming increase in global consumption of meat from raised livestock and discovered that beef cattle in particular are releasing more methane and nitrous oxide, both potent greenhouse gases, than previously thought.

Carbon dioxide is the most-prevalent gas when it comes to climate change. It is released by vehicles, industry, and forest removal and comprises the greatest portion of greenhouse gas totals. But methane and nitrous oxide are also greenhouse gasses and account for approximately 28 percent of global warming activity.

As Damian Carrington reports for the Guardian:

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According to one of the lead researchers, in order to mitigate the threat posed by this rise in meat consumption, world government’s should end the pattern of subsidizing the mass production of beef.

“The big story is just how dramatically impactful beef is compared to all the others,” said Professor Gidon Eshel from Bard College in New York.

“I would strongly hope that governments stay out of people’s diet,” Eshel continued, “but at the same time there are many government policies that favor the current diet in which animals feature too prominently. Remove the artificial support given to the livestock industry and rising prices will do the rest. In that way you are having less government intervention in people’s diet and not more.”

According to the research, livestock emissions in the world’s more developed countries peaked in the 1970’s, but the proliferation of meat-based diets—fueled by a growing global middle class and aggressive expansion and marketing by the beef industry—has led to soaring overall emission rates.

This consumer trend—the study notes—is expected to increase further going forward, as demand for meat, dairy products, and eggs is predicted by some scientists to double by 2050.

“The developing world is getting better at reducing greenhouse emissions caused by each animal, but this improvement is not keeping up with the increasing demand for meat,” said Professor Dario Caro, a member of the research team at the University of Siena in Italy. “As a result, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock keep going up and up in much of the developing world.”

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