Reducing Consumption Is Not A Viable Method To Tackle GHGs

UK - Significantly reducing meat and dairy consumption alone does not offer a viable solution to climate change, is the response of EBLEX, the English beef and lamb levy board, to a German report published earlier in the week.
calendar icon 30 June 2010
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EBLEX

"Reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products and improving agricultural practices could decrease global greenhouse gas emissions substantially," according to researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Dr Duncan Pullar, Head of Research and Development at EBLEX says that in actual fact, reducing consumption of meat would make a marginal difference to greenhouse gas emissions and would do little to alleviate the challenge of feeding a growing world population. Sustainable use of land resource is the key issue.

“Around 60 per cent of UK farmland is only suitable for growing grass; it would not support a crop directly consumable by humans. Without grazing animals this land resource could not be used to produce food. Globally, the same story is repeated. Therefore the challenge is to get the best food returns from the available land while minimising environmental impacts such as GHG emissions," Dr Pullar told TheCattleSite.

“It is important that we keep livestock's contribution to climate change in perspective. Most of the GHG problem stems from fossil fuel burning so alternative green energy is going to make the biggest impact on changing the direction of travel.

Dr Puller concluded saying that the industry is investing heavily in improving agricultural practices that could substantially reduce global greenhouse gases.

Last year, EBLEX published Change in the Air, which focuses on how individual producers can make an impact in reducing emissions.

Further Reading

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