The global beef demand has been leading to further deforestation and is contributing to global warming, according to a report released Thursday from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
The report, Grade A Choice? Solutions for deforestation-free meat,
highlights the inefficiency of producing beef: it uses 60 percent of
the world's agricultural land yet provides less than two percent of the
global calories consumed.
The raising of beef requires large areas of land, often coming at the
expense of large-scale clear cutting such as in Brazil. The report
notes that though this clear-cut land is poor in crop productivity, it's
bought for little money.
The group underscores that this clearing of forests has real impacts
for global warming. "Tropical deforestation is responsible for about 15
percent of the world’s heat-trapping emissions," UCS states.
Further contributing to global warming, cows release methane, which has "23 times the warming effect of carbon."
“We have a big beef with beef,” said Doug Boucher, director of UCS’s
Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative and a co-author of the report.
“Because of the way it is produced, the more beef we eat, the worse
global warming gets.”
(photo: By jai Mansson's photography)
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