4 ms·

Reduce your meat consumption or go vegetarian or vegan. A major cause of deforestation is to grow corn / soybeans to feed to livestock. The forests, natural ca

Reduce your meat consumption or go vegetarian or vegan. A major cause of deforestation is to grow corn / soybeans to feed to livestock. The forests, natural carbon sinks, are lost, and the livestock increase the amount of methane in the atmosphere. It takes 9 times the amount of land to make beef vs. growing plants. It uses a lot more freshwater to grow the food, and much more to give to the animals.

y3k 8y ago
Thank you for your advice. We're already doing that. Not gonna lie, we love meat, but understand it isn't the best choice for the planet, so far we've reduced our meat consumption about 50%.
- piocho 8y ago
  We love meat too. What I do is trying to not go to McDonalds or fast food so often where meat are mostly sh*t, but rather go to a local farmer and buy fresh meat. Maybe twice a week.
  - ppseafield 8y ago
    Local meat and McDonalds factory farm meat still require the same amount of cow. Buying the same amount of meat from a different source incurs the same environmental costs.
- ahje 8y ago
  Chickens and rabbits are excellent sources of meat and if you have room for it then you can easily produce meat with a very low carbon foot print. If you have children, it is also an excellent opportunity to teach them that meat doesn't come from the store, and to help them gain some respect for all the work that goes into getting food on the table.
glastra 8y ago
What about environmentally conscious farming? I mean pastured, free-range, etc. Also, what would you say is the difference between massive industrial plantations intended to feed livestock vs those intended to feed humans with a less than ideal diet?
- ppseafield 8y ago
  There's literally not enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'd be 9x less of them. And what does "ideal" mean?
  - glastra 8y ago
    From your first sentence, I understand that feeding everyone in the planet is a priority. You also assert that, if we move to a plant-based diet, we would need 9x less plantations^. Do you believe those plantations will be abandoned? Or, rather, that they will be used to feed humans and thus lead to an overabundance of food and a 9x population growth? I believe that "ideal" is nowhere near a diet requiring supplementation and leading to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. ^: I see this "fact" touted around quite a lot. Could I get a source? Here you can actually see a figure of 67% of global crop yield by weight used to feed humans: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/0340...
    - abainbridge 8y ago
      9x less plantations: 0.58 cows per hectare - http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 274 kg meat on a cow - https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html 10470 kJ of food energy per kilo of beef - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef 1000 days to rear a cow - https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml Therefore 0.58 * 274 * 10470 / 1000 = 607 kJ of cow, per day, per hectare. In comparison, wheat yields 3120 kg per hectare per year - https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-production/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-prod... 1368 kJ per kg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat Therefore 3120 * 1368 / 356 = 11989 kJ of wheat, per day, per hectare. So, by my calculations, you need 19.75x more land to grow a kJ of beef than a kJ of wheat.
bjourne 8y ago
I've been wanting to become a vegetarian for some time to reduce my carbon footprint. But it is so hard. Do you or any other vegetarians have some tips for lazy hackers like me? Thing is, it is really easy to eat two burgers for lunch (costs 2€ at McD) and it is quite healthy. I have not found any vegetarian options that are similarly convenient, cheap and arguably healthy.
- user7878 8y ago
  I am Vegetarian. It is all about the local food tradition and balancing. We must follow local food tradition to survive and healthy. I am belong to India where there are people have different food habits region and religon wise. Best of vegeterian food habits are followed by Jain fellows (https://www.jainworld.com/education/level1/lesson07.htm https://www.jainworld.com/education/level1/lesson07.htm)

y3k 8y ago

Thank you for your advice. We're already doing that. Not gonna lie, we love meat, but understand it isn't the best choice for the planet, so far we've reduced our meat consumption about 50%.

piocho 8y ago
We love meat too. What I do is trying to not go to McDonalds or fast food so often where meat are mostly sh*t, but rather go to a local farmer and buy fresh meat. Maybe twice a week.
- ppseafield 8y ago
  Local meat and McDonalds factory farm meat still require the same amount of cow. Buying the same amount of meat from a different source incurs the same environmental costs.
ahje 8y ago
Chickens and rabbits are excellent sources of meat and if you have room for it then you can easily produce meat with a very low carbon foot print. If you have children, it is also an excellent opportunity to teach them that meat doesn't come from the store, and to help them gain some respect for all the work that goes into getting food on the table.

glastra 8y ago

What about environmentally conscious farming? I mean pastured, free-range, etc. Also, what would you say is the difference between massive industrial plantations intended to feed livestock vs those intended to feed humans with a less than ideal diet?

ppseafield 8y ago
There's literally not enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'd be 9x less of them. And what does "ideal" mean?
- glastra 8y ago
  From your first sentence, I understand that feeding everyone in the planet is a priority. You also assert that, if we move to a plant-based diet, we would need 9x less plantations^. Do you believe those plantations will be abandoned? Or, rather, that they will be used to feed humans and thus lead to an overabundance of food and a 9x population growth? I believe that "ideal" is nowhere near a diet requiring supplementation and leading to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. ^: I see this "fact" touted around quite a lot. Could I get a source? Here you can actually see a figure of 67% of global crop yield by weight used to feed humans: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/0340...
  - abainbridge 8y ago
    9x less plantations: 0.58 cows per hectare - http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 274 kg meat on a cow - https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html 10470 kJ of food energy per kilo of beef - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef 1000 days to rear a cow - https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml Therefore 0.58 * 274 * 10470 / 1000 = 607 kJ of cow, per day, per hectare. In comparison, wheat yields 3120 kg per hectare per year - https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-production/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/237705/global-wheat-prod... 1368 kJ per kg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat Therefore 3120 * 1368 / 356 = 11989 kJ of wheat, per day, per hectare. So, by my calculations, you need 19.75x more land to grow a kJ of beef than a kJ of wheat.

bjourne 8y ago

I've been wanting to become a vegetarian for some time to reduce my carbon footprint. But it is so hard. Do you or any other vegetarians have some tips for lazy hackers like me? Thing is, it is really easy to eat two burgers for lunch (costs 2€ at McD) and it is quite healthy. I have not found any vegetarian options that are similarly convenient, cheap and arguably healthy.

user7878 8y ago
I am Vegetarian. It is all about the local food tradition and balancing. We must follow local food tradition to survive and healthy. I am belong to India where there are people have different food habits region and religon wise. Best of vegeterian food habits are followed by Jain fellows (https://www.jainworld.com/education/level1/lesson07.htm https://www.jainworld.com/education/level1/lesson07.htm)