Japanese company Idemitsu Kosan Co is currently researching the benefits of oil from cashew nut shells in reducing the amount of methane produced by cows. Apparently, adding the oil to feed can reduce the methane emissions by 90%.

There is an obvious flaw in the plan. There are currently around 1.5 billion cows in the world. If this oil from cashew nuts really works and catches on, can you imagine how much would be needed for so many cows? Cattle ranching, and forest clearing to make way for crops which we predominantly feed to animals, is already the top cause of deforestation. Our current level of consumption of cashew nuts would not provide enough shells to produce the oil to feed 1.5 billion cows, therefore introducing cashew nut oil to feeds will only lead to more destruction as we clear more forest to make way for cashew trees.

Cashew nuts can only be grown in a warm and humid climate: ie the South. Amongst the top 5 cashew producing countries are Indonesia and Brazil - two countries which are already facing devastating levels of deforesation to make way for cattle grazing and crop planatations to feed animals or to produce biofuels. If we increase the demand for cashew nuts, we will see further deforestation.

Besides methane and deforestation, we also have to consider the other impacts of the meat and dairy industry - water use (it takes 990 litres of water to produce one litre of milk, 10,000 to produce 1kg of beef), water pollution, land degradation, ammonia… And these impacts could double by 2050 if we don’t do something about it now (2).

There really is just one ethical, sustainable, realistic answer to the enormous impacts of the livestock sector, and that is to end it. If we carry on consuming meat at the current level, and countries like India and China continue increasing their consumption, we will never be able to stop deforestation, world hunger or climate change.