Staff Blog

Cows or Cars?

Seems like a ridiculous question, until you learn the answer is cows. And it's not because of all the CO2 (the best-known greenhouse gas) in cow burps, since they account for just 9 percent of all CO2 emitted by human-related activities. It's actually the methane and nitrous oxide cows release in their farts and dung. Methane, in their flatulence, is 72 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2, and N2O, part of their manure is an overwhelming 296 times more potent than CO2.

My aim here is not to take the heat off gas-guzzling Hummer drivers, but offer up yet another reason—the first being our health—to cut one's red meat intake by one serving a week (not a huge sacrifice, as chicken, pork and fish remain on the menu). If we each ate a quarter of a pound less red meat every week starting this cookout season, that's about 13 pounds less meat consumed per person over the course of the year. Not a whole lot, but when multiplied by more than 300,000,000 Americans, you've got a lot of red meat not consumed by Americans between now and next Fourth of July.

Just like driving less, eating less meat can help in the fight against global warming. So can choosing meat that's grass-fed. Grazing animals have stomachs that naturally convert grass into food they can digest. Conventionally grown beef comes from cows that are fed grain—primarily corn—in feedlots. Grain is not a good food for cattle, and as a consequence is not good for our health, nor for our shared planet. And it's a slap in the face to the world's poor, who have seen their grain and vegetable oil prices nearly double, putting the most basic of foods out of reach.

Beyond improving animal diets, and our own, there are other initiatives to control the harm conventional cattle-rearing causes to air, land, water and people. Recycling cow manure at biogas plants may help, by converting dung into electricity to power our hybrid electric cars. Hey, it's better than vegetable grease—but that's another story.

For great tasty ideas with less meat, click here.

© The Green Guide, 2008

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