Well here is a refreshing statement: "Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat. Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries," said UC Davis Associate Professor and Air Quality Specialist Frank Mitloehner in a press release,
Don't Blame Cows For Climate Change, sent out by UC Davis News Service. Referencing false claims about agriculture's connection to global warming, this is a great article to educate consumers about the rumors they are hearing in the media. Of course, as we already knew and understood, it's not about the cow burps; it's about us. If we want to improve the environment, it is up to us as consumers to renew, reuse, recycle. Read on for an excerpt from this article.
Despite oft-repeated claims by sources ranging from the United Nations to music star Paul McCartney, it is simply not true that consuming less meat and dairy products will help stop climate change, says a University of California authority on farming and greenhouse gases. Mitloehner says that McCartney and the chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored science last week when they launched a European campaign called "Less Meat = Less Heat." The launch came on the eve of a major international climate summit, which runs today through Dec. 18 in Copenhagen.
Mitloehner traces much of the public confusion over meat and milk's role in climate change to two sentences in a 2006 United Nations report, titled "Livestock's Long Shadow." Printed only in the report's executive summary and nowhere in the body of the report, the sentences read: "The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents). This is a higher share than transport." These statements are not accurate, yet their wide distribution through news media have put us on the wrong path toward solutions, Mitloehner says.
To read the entire article, link here. To enter the Cowboy Christmas Photography Contest, link here. Contest closes for judging on Monday, December 14, 2009. Don't miss your chance to win!
BEEF Daily Quick Fact: Leading authorities agree that, in the U.S., raising cattle and pigs for food accounts for about 3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates an estimated 26 percent. (Source: UC Davis)
