animal. agriculture

Livestock And Sustainable Food Systems | Earth Wise

February 10, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Animal-based agriculture has endured a great deal of criticism with regard to its contributions to climate change and its other environmental impacts. But its contributions to a sustainable food system are by no means all bad. In fact, livestock play important roles in sustainable, regenerative agro-food systems.

Animals’ natural biological processes enable them to consume plant and food residues that are either indigestible by humans, unpalatable to people, or are no longer sellable for various reasons, all referred to as IUUB biomass. There are many examples.

One dairy farm receives daily deliveries of apple waste from a processing facility that supplies apple slices for school lunches. Another local dairy gets three truckloads of vegetable and fruit discards, along with expired bread products, each week. No longer useful for consumers, these foodstuffs become feed for cattle rather than going to a landfill. Even the booming market for plant-based foods like artificial meat for consumers has generated a surge of processing byproducts that can be consumed by livestock.

On a national scale, livestock are consuming millions of pounds of otherwise unusable IUUB created in the production of products like soybean and canola oils, orange juice, ethanol, and more.

While the livestock industry needs to keep working to minimize its environmental impact and there are many reasons to eat less meat, livestock farming is an integral part of our agro-food systems. Farmers are embracing techniques to produce meat, milk and eggs as efficiently and sustainably as possible, minimizing agriculture’s climate-contributing footprint in the process.

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Amazing Cows Hold Promise in Pioneering Sustainable Food Systems

Photo, posted May 11, 2019, courtesy of Theo Stikkelman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Whopping Change

April 10, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Burger King, the global hamburger fast food giant, recently made a huge announcement: Customers will soon have the option to select either a beef patty or a plant-based patty when ordering the iconic Whopper sandwich.

Burger King’s plant-based patty will be made by Impossible Foods, a California startup founded in 2011 with the explicit goal of decreasing the world’s reliance on animal agriculture. Impossible Foods signature product, the Impossible burger, has already debuted as a slider in White Castle’s 380 or so stores. It’s also being added to the menu at all 570 Red Robin locations. Other plant-based innovators, such as Beyond Meat, have also found some mainstream success. But the Impossible Whopper and the planned national roll-out at Burger King’s 7,200 locations is the biggest deal to date.

Impossible Foods’ major innovation comes from its use of heme, which is an iron-rich protein that in essence is what makes meat taste like meat. Impossible Foods cultivates heme directly from plants – soybean plant roots to be exact – and then mass produces it using yeast. This is then mixed with other plant-based ingredients to achieve the nutty texture of ground beef.

Meat production is one of the biggest single contributors to climate change. The Impossible burger represents a better choice for the environment. It requires 87% less water, 96% less land, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions when compared with beef burgers. At Burger King, the Impossible Whopper will have the same amount of protein as the regular Whopper, but 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol.

Meatless continues to push into the mainstream.

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Behold the Beefless ‘Impossible Whopper’

Photo, posted November 27, 2018, courtesy of Sarah Stierch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fast Food And Climate Change

March 1, 2019 By EarthWise 1 Comment

A coalition of global investors is urging some of the largest fast food companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The group, which has approximately $6.5 trillion under management, wants the fast food chains to reduce the carbon footprint of their meat and dairy supply chains.

The global fast food sector is reportedly worth a whopping $570 billion annually. The coalition has targeted some of the most notable contributors to that figure, including McDonald’s, KFC, Domino’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle.

According to the investors, animal agriculture is one of the world’s highest-emitting sectors without a low-carbon plan. If left unchecked, emissions from animal agriculture alone would contribute 70% of the total worldwide target for emissions in 2050 that would keep the global rise in temperature below 2C. Animal agriculture also uses an estimated 10% of annual global water flows.

In their letter to the fast food giants, the investors are calling on the companies to implement clear requirements for suppliers of animal proteins to report and reduce their greenhouse gas and freshwater impacts. They want fast food companies to publish quantitative, time bound targets for reductions, and commit to publicly disclose the progress on these targets.

Climate change is increasingly a factor for investors when evaluating market risk. This investor letter comes just weeks after the EAT-Lancet commission report was published, in which their experts suggest that a sustainable diet for the planet by 2050 will require a 90% reduction in red meat and milk consumption.

Fast food may need to slow down.

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Fast food giants under fire on climate and water usage

The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health

Photo, posted May 19, 2014, courtesy of Mike Mozart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Food Production And Climate Change

January 29, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a University of Oxford study recently published in the journal Science, food production is a major driver of climate change as it’s responsible for 26% of all greenhouse gas emissions. But the research team found that the environmental impact of different foods varied greatly.

Meat and other animal products are responsible for 58% of all food-related greenhouse gas emissions, despite only providing approximately one-fifth of the calories we consume. The researchers found that beef and lamb in particular have the most damaging effect on the planet, responsible for half of all greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture.

These findings echo recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about how individuals can reduce their carbon footprint through diet. The IPCC suggests we consume less meat and dairy products, consume more locally-sourced seasonal foods, and throw less food in the trash.

Avoiding meat and dairy products can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by two-thirds. The effects of doing so include everything from conserving water and preserving biodiversity to reducing pollution and deforestation.

Interestingly, the same food can have major differences in terms of environmental impacts. For example, beef raised on deforested land is responsible for 12 times as many greenhouse gas emissions as that raised on natural pastures. But even the most climate-friendly meat options are still responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the highest-impact vegetable proteins, like beans and nuts.

Big differences can also be made by avoiding chocolate and coffee produced from deforested lands.

To learn more about the climate impact of your diet, follow the link to the ‘Climate Change Food Calculator’ on our website: Earth-Wise-Radio.org.

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Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers

Climate change food calculator

Photo, posted June 21, 2011, courtesy of USDA NRCS Montana via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hopeful Climate Trends

December 27, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In November, Syria joined the Paris Climate Accord. As a result, the United States is now the only country in the world that has rejected the global pact. Despite this embarrassing news, there is reason for optimism in the effort to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. In particular, 7 major trends provide hope that things could move in the right direction.

Americans And Beef

May 5, 2017 By EarthWise

There’s ample evidence over the past decade or so that Americans are gradually changing their diets, driven by health concerns among other factors. But there’s one change that really stands out. According to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans have sliced their beef consumption by 19% between 2005 and 2014.

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