{"id":39166,"date":"2013-02-21T17:19:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T22:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=34839"},"modified":"2013-02-21T17:19:12","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T22:19:12","slug":"correcting-myths-about-recent-french-study-meat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/correcting-myths-about-recent-french-study-meat\/","title":{"rendered":"Correcting Myths About Recent French Study & Meat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Goodland, who has extensively studied the relationship between food and global warming, recently posted the article below on Free From Harm’s website<\/a>. I’m reposting it in full to help counter some of the major misconceptions that have surfaced after the publishing of a recent French study on these matters. Check it out<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"cow<\/a>
Cow<\/a> via Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Robert Goodland<\/p>\n

\u201cPlant-based diets may not be environmentally friendly\u201d was the surprising headline above an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0about a new\u00a0French study<\/a>\u00a0(first published January 13, 2013). More surprising was the publisher of that headline \u2014 Occupy Monsanto \u2014 which would normally be skeptical of such a study. Hundreds of other publications have published similar breathless headlines. But the French study doesn\u2019t assert what most have said it does.<\/p>\n

The French study actually compares greenhouse gas said to be attributable to livestock products versus greenhouse gas attributable to vegetables and fruits \u2014 and it concludes that a meal consisting of fruits and vegetables low in caloric density could be responsible for as much greenhouse gas as a meal consisting of meat.<\/p>\n

Yet fruits and vegetables are rarely eaten instead of meat. The French study failed to compare similar products, such as chicken versus one of its many plant-based substitutes, which normally consist mainly of calorie-dense grains and legumes, rather than fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moreover, the French study relied entirely on estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that livestock are responsible for up to 18% of worldwide human-induced greenhouse gas, while other food production is responsible for up to 12% of human-induced greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

Free From Harm, like other groups, has publicized a range of environmental perspectives on food<\/a>. It\u2019s understandable that there are so many perspectives on food, let alone the range of views on climate change. Given various controversies over food on its own, and climate change on its own, it\u2019s even harder to tell what the truth is when they\u2019re linked.<\/p>\n

For example, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has garnered a lot of publicity for its \u201cMeat Eaters\u2019 Guide,\u201d which pegs greenhouse gas attributable to livestock at about 5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas.\u00a0Yet the EWG\u2019s estimate fails by giving far too much weight to methane attributable to ruminants and not enough weight to deforestation for\u00a0ranching<\/a>, and omits to count other amounts of greenhouse gas attributable to all livestock products.<\/p>\n

Those mistakes could be explained by a view that apparently preceded development of the \u201cMeat Eaters\u2019 Guide,\u201d and which was written into it, stating that most people simply \u201caren\u2019t going to give up meat.\u201d It\u2019s phrased as a fact \u2014 but it\u2019s actually an opinion, and it\u2019s as misplaced as a similar opinion would be in a professional environmental assessment of chlorofluorocarbons or coal<\/a>. One way to tell that it\u2019s not a fact is by viewing a\u00a0video featuring Bill Gates<\/a>\u00a0making a prediction that a large-scale replacement of livestock products with better alternatives could occur within the next five years.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the FAO\u2019s widely-cited estimate of greenhouse gas attributable to livestock was published in an FAO report that didn\u2019t include any analysis of alternatives, which is a standard tool in environmental assessment. Instead, the FAO report simply prescribed more\u00a0factory farming<\/a>\u00a0(see p. 236): \u201cThe principle means of limiting livestock\u2019s impact on the environment must be\u2026 intensification.\u201d<\/p>\n

That FAO prescription was made even though one of its co-authors, Cornelius de Haan, was lead author of the\u00a0World Bank\u2019s 2001 strategy<\/a>\u00a0that advised institutions (see p.65<\/a>) to \u201cavoid funding large-scale commercial, grain-fed feedlot systems and industrial milk, pork, and poultry production.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leap from the World Bank\u2019s recommendation to avoid factory farming<\/a> over to the FAO\u2019s recommendation to expand it seems baffling, given that the FAO report pegged environmental risks and impacts of livestock at a higher level than the World Bank report. Maybe the best explanation is that the FAO report was authored by livestock specialists, rather than by environmental specialists. Normally, environmental assessment is considered most reliably performed by environmental specialists, particularly where environmental risks and impacts are significant.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, reports published by the FAO are normally considered authoritative, in light of its status as a UN specialized agency. Yet countless sources, including\u00a0Forbes<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0A Well Fed World<\/a><\/em>, have cited an assessment that\u2019s starkly opposed to the FAO\u2019s \u2014 and which has been written by environmental specialists employed by two other UN specialized agencies, the World Bank and IFC. I\u2019m one of those specialists, and the New York Times<\/em> has published\u00a0my critique<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0the FAO\u2019s partnership with global meat, dairy, and egg industry associations.<\/p>\n

Before my critique was published by the New York Times<\/em>, the FAO actually invited Jeff Anhang and me to present in both Rome and Berlin. Those presentations are on\u00a0our website<\/a>, as well as links to prominent citations of our analysis. Our analysis has been cited in such languages as\u00a0French<\/a>,\u00a0German<\/a>,\u00a0Chinese<\/a>,\u00a0Italian<\/a>and\u00a0Spanish<\/a>, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

The latest version of our analysis is in\u00a0Nature Climate Change<\/a><\/em>. We\u2019ve cited there the warning from both the\u00a0Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0International Energy Agency<\/a>\u00a0(IEA) that the next five years may be the last real chance to reverse climate change before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also cited the IEA\u2019s estimate that\u00a0US$18 trillion<\/a>\u00a0of spending is needed in the next 20 years to reverse climate change by replacing fossil fuel infrastructure with renewable energy infrastructure. As a result, focusing mainly on energy usage while neglecting food and agriculture could end up guaranteeing climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n

In fact, we\u2019ve proposed in our latest editorial, “Lifting Livestock\u2019s Long Shadow<\/a>,” that reforestation and regeneration of forests could absorb all of today\u2019s excess atmospheric carbon \u2014 while sufficient land can be freed up by replacing at least 25% of today\u2019s livestock products with better alternatives. That\u2019s because an astonishing 45% of all land on earth is now used for livestock and feed production.<\/p>\n

So, we propose that,\u00a0contrary to popular belief, the key to reversing climate change in the next five years \u2014 as needed \u2014 is actually the food industry. It is more exposed to climate change\u2019s risks than any other industry. Yet food companies develop better foods as a matter of course. They control lots of land on which livestock and feed production can (and should) be reduced, and they can sell carbon credits from reforesting land.<\/p>\n

One wouldn\u2019t know it from most reports on the new French study, but according to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a><\/em>, promising activity is actually underway in the food industry to replace livestock products (that is, meat, dairy, and egg products) with\u00a0better alternatives<\/a>. Consumers have an equal role in their capacity to act themselves to replace livestock products with better alternatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Goodland, who has extensively studied the relationship between food and global warming, recently posted the article below on Free From Harm’s website. I’m reposting it in full to help counter some of the major misconceptions that have surfaced after the publishing of a recent French study on these matters. Check it out: By Robert 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I’m reposting it in full to help counter some of the major misconceptions that have surfaced after the publishing of a recent French study on these matters. Check it out: By Robert…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}