Low Impact

News.com.au had an interesting story today, titled “Eat a steak, warm the planet“. It discusses a new study that backs up the fact that, other things being equal, a diet involving meat is more damaging to the environment than a vegetarian diet.

There’s a couple of reasons for this. One is the fact that cows, like many other farm animals, release a lot of methane from digesting all that grass. Not only is this a good reason not to invite them to a party, but methane turns out to be 30 times as bad as CO2 in terms of its greenhouse gas potential. The other reason is efficiency.

Its obvious when you think about it, but there are big losses when producing a kilo of meat. If you grow a kilo of grain, you have a kilo of food right there. But you might need to grow (for instance) 10 kilograms of grain to feed the cattle for each kilogram of meat. This is because a lot of the energy in that grain is lost in the inefficiency of digestion, as well as going towards keeping the animal alive.

In fact, according to the study, it takes energy equivalent to running a 100 watt light globe for 20 days to produce and transport the feed necessary to produce 1 kilogram of meat!

Giving up meat can seem like a big ask - especially in Australia where “a steak and 3 veg” is close to our national dish! But it is doable - around 20-40% of Indians are vegetarian, as are 1-2% of Americans. The Internet is also full of useful information, and recipes.

But if going “cold turkey” (forgive the pun) seems too hard, why not try having just one or two vegetarian meals a week? Even with this small step, you’ll save a bundle on your grocery bill (meat is usually the most expensive item on your plate, for exactly the reason why its bad for the environment - it takes a lot to produce!), as well as helping lower your impact on the environment. Plus the cows will probably be grateful too!

Categories: efficiency, environment, green, reduce, vegetarian