December 11, 2009

 

Smarter farming is the real answer to climate change

 

 

Consuming less meat and dairy products will not help stop climate change, but smarter farming will.

 

UC Davis Associate Professor and Air Quality Specialist Frank Mitloehner said musician Paul McCartney and the chair of the UN'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 December 18 in Copenhagen.

 

Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will lead to less heat, said Mitloehner, adding that producing less meat and milk will only cause more hunger in poor countries.

 

In a 2006 United Nations report titled "Livestock's Long Shadow", the executive summary said the livestock sector responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2e, a higher share than transport. 

 

Mitloehner said those statements are inaccurate but their wide distribution through news media has put them on the wrong path toward solutions. He said leading authorities in the US agree that raising cattle and pigs for food accounts for about 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates an estimated 26%.

 

Instead of consuming less meat and milk, developed countries should focus on cutting the use of oil and coal for electricity, heating and vehicle fuels. Developing countries should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices to make more food with less greenhouse gas production, Mitloehner said.

 

As such, developed countries should not focus on reducing meat and milk consumption but should increase efficient meat production in developing countries, where growing populations need more nutritious food.

 

Mitloehner is against the UN's statement that livestock accounts for more greenhouse gases than transportation, when there is no generally-accepted global breakdown of gas production by industrial sector.

 

He said the UN report produced its numbers for the livestock sector by adding up emissions from farm to table, including the gases produced by growing animal feed; animals' digestive emissions; and processing meat and milk into foods.

 

But its transportation analysis did not similarly add up emissions from well to wheel; instead, it considered only emissions from fossil fuels burned while driving, which is unfair and confuses the issue, according to Mitloehner.