In the middle of India’s trenchant debate over beef and religious sentiment, a newspaper article declared in its headline “Beef eating is bad for the environment: experts." Those who didn’t stop at the headline would note that beef has been named “climate-harmful meat” by the United Nations Environment Programme and that emissions from 1 kilogram of beef were equal to emission from a road trip between Delhi and Agra.
However, it isn’t the act of eating beef but the feeding habits of cattle – cows, buffaloes and all ruminant creatures – that contributes to climate change.
The news that the global livestock industry has a huge impact on climate change is not new. The effects of the global livestock industry on global warming have been studied for more than three decades and its effects well documented. The UNEP’s analysis that the world’s cattle contributed to more greenhouse gas emissions than global transport was released in 2006. The international body has been advocating meat-free days to help ease the problem.
All about digestion
It comes down to cattle digestion. A cow is a ruminant animal, which means it extracts nutrition from the plants that it eats by fermenting its food. The cow has a four-chambered stomach. Microorganisms reside in one chamber – the rumen – that functions as a fermentation vat. The bacteria help digest the cow’s food and produce copious amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the process. The cow emits these gases by belching or breaking wind during its waking hours. Estimates peg the amount of carbon dioxide and methane, which are both greenhouse gases causing global warming, at between 132 to 264 gallons every day.
Therefore, a well-fed cow is a climate-harmful cow.
How much methane a cow belches depends on its diet. An assessment of methane emissions from cattle across India’s agro-ecological regions showed that cattle that were on production diets to optimize their breeding, milking or working emitted more methane than those on growth and maintenance diets.
A problem of geography
Global climate’s beef problem depends on geography. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that factors emissions from livestock in its assessments notes that beef production per capita in industrial countries has been falling while that in developing countries has been rising. But developing countries have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to meat supply per person. The average American consumes 322 grams of meat per day, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. A person in Europe consumes a little more than 200 grams per day, one in China about 160 grams per day and in India only 12 grams per day.
Meanwhile, an analysis in 2007 of IPCC emissions data shows that the annual methane emission per head of cattle is among the lowest for non-dairy animals in India making milk drinking more climate harmful than beef eating.
And still, India is fourth on the list of countries with the highest methane emissions due to enteric fermentation because of the sheer bulk of livestock population. India has the largest and most dense bovine population in the world at 512 million out of 1.43 billion globally. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from livestock substantially would involve drastically reducing India’s cattle population.
Climate-harmful rice
While on the subject of greenhouse gas emissions form food, it is also worth pointing out that rice production is a big climate culprit, even though it isn't quite as topical in India as beef is these days. Methane is by anaerobic microorganisms in waterlogged paddy fields. India released as much carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas from its rice paddies in the period between 1990 and 2012 as its non-dairy cattle belched.
Methane production from rice can be curtailed by better water-management practices and solutions are being developed by scientists and agricultural experts. Methane production from livestock can be controlled by tempering beef demand in countries where cattle are primarily bred for meat but also by feeding them right.
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However, it isn’t the act of eating beef but the feeding habits of cattle – cows, buffaloes and all ruminant creatures – that contributes to climate change.
The news that the global livestock industry has a huge impact on climate change is not new. The effects of the global livestock industry on global warming have been studied for more than three decades and its effects well documented. The UNEP’s analysis that the world’s cattle contributed to more greenhouse gas emissions than global transport was released in 2006. The international body has been advocating meat-free days to help ease the problem.
All about digestion
It comes down to cattle digestion. A cow is a ruminant animal, which means it extracts nutrition from the plants that it eats by fermenting its food. The cow has a four-chambered stomach. Microorganisms reside in one chamber – the rumen – that functions as a fermentation vat. The bacteria help digest the cow’s food and produce copious amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the process. The cow emits these gases by belching or breaking wind during its waking hours. Estimates peg the amount of carbon dioxide and methane, which are both greenhouse gases causing global warming, at between 132 to 264 gallons every day.
Therefore, a well-fed cow is a climate-harmful cow.
How much methane a cow belches depends on its diet. An assessment of methane emissions from cattle across India’s agro-ecological regions showed that cattle that were on production diets to optimize their breeding, milking or working emitted more methane than those on growth and maintenance diets.
A problem of geography
Global climate’s beef problem depends on geography. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that factors emissions from livestock in its assessments notes that beef production per capita in industrial countries has been falling while that in developing countries has been rising. But developing countries have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to meat supply per person. The average American consumes 322 grams of meat per day, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. A person in Europe consumes a little more than 200 grams per day, one in China about 160 grams per day and in India only 12 grams per day.
Meanwhile, an analysis in 2007 of IPCC emissions data shows that the annual methane emission per head of cattle is among the lowest for non-dairy animals in India making milk drinking more climate harmful than beef eating.
And still, India is fourth on the list of countries with the highest methane emissions due to enteric fermentation because of the sheer bulk of livestock population. India has the largest and most dense bovine population in the world at 512 million out of 1.43 billion globally. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from livestock substantially would involve drastically reducing India’s cattle population.
Climate-harmful rice
While on the subject of greenhouse gas emissions form food, it is also worth pointing out that rice production is a big climate culprit, even though it isn't quite as topical in India as beef is these days. Methane is by anaerobic microorganisms in waterlogged paddy fields. India released as much carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas from its rice paddies in the period between 1990 and 2012 as its non-dairy cattle belched.
Methane production from rice can be curtailed by better water-management practices and solutions are being developed by scientists and agricultural experts. Methane production from livestock can be controlled by tempering beef demand in countries where cattle are primarily bred for meat but also by feeding them right.