A new study which analysed the economic costs of meat-based diets concluded that a reduction in beef and pork consumption could cut $20 trillion off the cost of fighting climate change.

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, who conducted the study, said that reducing beef and pork consumption would result in more land being available for vegetation to grow which would result in a ‘carbon sink’. There would also be millions of tonnes less methane.

If people continue to eat meat at the current level, the study estimate that emissions would have to be cut by two-thirds by 2050 at a cost of $49 trillion. However, if people ate a low meat-diet (70g of beef and 325g of chicken and eggs per week) this would free up 15 million square kilometres of farmland to grow vegetation which would absorb carbon dioxide. Alternatively, the land could be used to grow biofuels. Greenhouse gas emissions would also be reduced by 10%.

With a diet free of all animal produce, we could achieve even more for the environment!

Simon Fairlie, co-editor of the Ecologist, made an analysis of different agricultural systems in his article ‘Can Britain Feed Itself?’, published in his magazine The Land. He calculated that with a vegan permaculture system, 8.8 million hectares of UK land would be spare. For organic vegan, 11.2 million hectares. He said “I have so far failed to find any vegan land-use vision that maps out in detail what might be done with the large areas of UK land that would be liberated or abandoned, depending on your viewpoint, if we all turned vegan”. The answer is simple, let it join the fight against climate change!

Following Jamie Oliver’s latest programme ‘Jamie Saves our Bacon‘, which aired 29 January and was watched by 2 million people; supermarkets are already reporting increased sales in pork. The programme revealed the appalling conditions of pigs raised in factory farms in Europe, the meat from which is imported to the UK. Jamie urged people to buy British pork due to higher welfare standards. He also promoted cheaper cuts of pork.

According to The Telegraph, “sales of pork belly joints have risen by 66 per cent and shoulder joints by almost 270 per cent”.

Jamie is perhaps best known for his school dinners project, which aims to get rid of the junk food served in schools and replace them with healthy meals. Through the campaign Jamie raises awareness of the huge issue of obesity in the UK, noting that “one quarter of teenagers are already obese”.

Regarding his new pig campaign he says on his website “The list of pork products stocked by the average supermarket is huge; bacon, sausages, ham, pies, gammon, Scotch eggs and even ice cream!”. This is where it becomes very confusing. How can a chef who claims to be concerned with the nation’s health promote foods which are strongly linked to heart disease, obesity and cancer? In particular, sausages, bacon and other processed meats are extremely damaging to health, so much so that the World Cancer Research Fund have warned that there is no safe level of consumption.

The environmental impact of pig farming can also not be ignored, as reported by DEFRA, the impacts include; soil compaction and erosion, toxic levels of zinc in soils, soil and water contamination with heavy metals and antimicrobial drugs, leaching of manure heaps leading to nitrate pollution and pathogen transfer, methane emissions from manure, adverse affects on biodiversity due to pigs destroying outdoor spaces and ammonia emissions which can acidify the surrounding area, and for those living close to the pigs, issues of noise and odour.

Whilst Jamie’s efforts to lessen suffering and support local farmers is commendable, his claim that pigs are raised under better conditions in the UK than in Europe and his plea to buy British pork has no doubt resulted in people buying pork who would not normally do so. Unfortunately, the reality is that British pig farms are far from being ‘high welfare’, as numerous investigations have shown, but not only that, by promoting pork Jamie is also promoting disease and environmental destruction.

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Forget China and India for a minute; we also need to keep an eye on Russia. As the Russian economy goes from strength to strength, so, predictably, does it’s desire for meat.

As per the Customs Committee of Russia, in the first quarter of 2007 Russia imported 108,900 tonnes of pork, this year the figure for the same period is 152,600 tonnes; an increase of 40%.  Imports from the EU have more than doubled with countries such as Denmark and Germany profiting most from this increase in demand. These two countries, along with the Netherlands, Spain and France, rely heavily on the cheap import of soy to feed their factory-farmed animals, the intensive production of which is causing devastation in Latin America.

As the pig farmers, corporations and governments who benefit from Russia’s new taste for cheap meat rub their hands together, we all suffer the consequences; deforestation, climate change, pollution…

It’s always the same problem though. How can we tell Russia to consume more responsibly if we are not prepared to do so ourselves. It’s time to set a good example.

Here is a chart using the figures from Waterfootprint.org to show you how much water is used for animal products. The chart shows how many litres of water are used for every 1kg of product.

16,600 litres = 1 kg of leather
15,500 litres = 1 kg of beef
5,000 litres = 1 kg of cheese
4,800 litres = 1 kg of pork

Let’s compare this to water usage when we eat foods directly:-

1,300 litres = 1 kg of wheat
1,300 litres = 1kg barley
1,800 litres = 1 kg of soybeans
900 litres = 1kg maize
700 litres = 1kg apples
500 litres = 1kg oranges

The figures speak for themselves; if we are to provide enough fresh water for the world, we need to be sustainable by using it as efficiently as possible, and that means moving towards a plant based diet.

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Yet another meat recall in the US…

This time 286,320 pounds of fresh and frozen meat and poultry have been recalled after regulators found it might be contaminated with potentially fatal listeria germs. The company Gourmet Boutique, have been forced to recall products containing chicken, turkey, beef and pork.

They might want to amend the description of themselves on their website ‘Gourmet Boutique is a USDA approved manufacturer of high quality, preservative-free specialty foods and is the natural choice in offering your customers the absolute finest foods available’. Not quite accurate is it?