Climate Change & Food Security [ PDF ]

In this Newsletter:

Focus: Moving Down the Food Chain

If the U.S. is to undertake a comprehensive attempt to reduce climate change, Americans will have to take a hard look at their eating habits. In 2002, the United States population consumed 275 pounds of meat per capita, up 17 pounds from the previous decade. This protein-heavy diet is staggering when compared with the 88 pounds of meat consumed per capita on average worldwide in 2002. The environmental consequences of meat consumption are farreaching: every cow, pig, or chicken requires grain, water, land, and energy inputs to convert into protein and the process of raising, feeding, slaughtering, packaging, and transporting meat consumes energy and emits greenhouse gasses.

Grain

Producing meat, and especially beef, requires a great deal of grain. For every kilogram of meat protein output, a cow must eat thirteen kilograms of grain. Collectively, the
seven billion livestock animals in the U.S. devour five times more grain than the human population eats directly. Energy – When considered in its entirety, meat production is a high-input, multi-staged, transport-intensive process. That all adds up to a lot of energy expenditures and, consequently, fuel use. Every calorie of beef produced requires 40 calories of fossil fuel energy; for a calorie of lamb, make it 57 calories.

Land

Livestock production is easily the greatest anthropogenic use of land, accounting for 30% of Earth’s land surface. In the U.S., more than 302 million hectares of land are devoted to producing feed for the livestock population. In Latin America, where the conversion of forests to feedlots is especially high, 70% of Amazon deforestation is for
livestock pastures, and much of the remaining 30% is for land to grow feedcrops.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Livestock activities contribute 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions including 9% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, 35-40% of global anthropogenic CH4 emissions, 65% of global anthropogenic NO2 emissions, and 64% of global anthropogenic ammonia emissions.

Adaptation

The environmental effects of consuming meat are on par with those of driving a car, and the possibility of reducing one’s individual impact is just as tangible. By moving down the food chain from beef to chicken to vegetables, we can reduce the land, water, grain and energy necessary to feed our population.

Summer 2008 Climate Alert