People should eat less meat if they want to combat climate change, advises a leading expert for the United Nations. Dr Raj Pachuri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says people should aim for one meat-free day a week before scaling down even further.
“In terms of immediacy of action and the feacibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it is clearly the most attractive opportunity,”says the Nobel Prize winner. “It is relatively easy to change…..compared to changing means of transport.”
The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates that meat production accounts for nearly one-fifth of all global greenhouse gas emission- substantially more than all the cars, trucks, buses and trains in the world combined. These emissions are generated by the production of animal feed, clearing the forested land, making and transportating fertiliser, burning fossil fuels in farm vehicles and by the animals themselves. Cows and sheep belch methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent that carbondioxide.
Agriculture accounts for 49 percent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions- higher than anywhere else in the world. We are also on of the biggest meat-eaters per capita on the planet, consuming double the daily intake of countries like Canada, Usa, Japan and Russia.
Local chef Peter Chaplin says New Zealanders shouls consider eating “better quality meat twice a week, rather than poor quality meat four times a week”. That way, both our health and the health of the planet will be better off.
Article from GOOD- New Zealand’s guide to sustainable living. Issue three, page19.