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[...] Agricultural data from 38,700 farms plus details of processing and retailing in 119 countries show wide differences in environmental impacts — from greenhouse gas emissions to water used — even between producers of the same product, says environmental scientist Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford. The amount of climate-warming gases released in the making of a pint of beer, for example, can more than double under high-impact production scenarios. For dairy and beef cattle combined, high-impact providers released about 12 times as many greenhouse gases as low-impact producers, Poore and colleague Thomas Nemecek report in the June 1 Science.
[...] The greatest changes in the effect of a person’s diet on the planet, however, would still come from choosing certain kinds of food over others. On average, producing 100 grams of protein from beef leads to the release of 50 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions, which the researchers calculated as a carbon-dioxide equivalent. By comparison, 100 grams of protein from cheese releases 11 kg in production, from poultry 5.7 kg and from tofu 2 kg.
[...] Producing food overall accounts for 26 percent of global climate-warming emissions, and takes up about 43 percent of the land that’s not desert or covered in ice, the researchers found. Out of the total carbon footprint from food, 57 percent comes from field agriculture, livestock and farmed fish. Clearing land for agriculture accounts for 24 percent and transporting food accounts for another 6 percent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @09:42AM (3 children)
Plant matter ferments in cow guts, cow farts methane.
Plant matter ferments in human guts, human farts methane.
Let's all turn vegetarians and outstrip the cattle in fart production, yessss!
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:07AM (2 children)
Except that humans produce much less methane, due to more varied sources of food.
Cows need to use a lot of bacteria to break down the cellulose, because the cows won't get too much of simple sugars and lipids and proteins from other sources.
Look, there's very little fat in the grass they eat - and yet the more marbled the beef meat, the better the taste/price. Ever wondered where that fat comes from? (a good part of it comes from the phospholipidic membranes of the bacteria in cows guts).
Humans eat fruit and cereals/tubers and nuts and pulses etc, something you won't find in ruminant's diet. Much less a need for anaerobic bacteria to break down cellulose - you, as a human, will actually shit that cellulose entirely (the nutritionists use to call it "dietary fibers") - thus much less methane.
Same goes for poultry and pork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 07 2018, @12:21PM (1 child)
Bacteria don't care much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence#Cause [wikipedia.org]
BZZT wrong. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1432575/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday June 07 2018, @11:35PM
Humans eliminate methane through farts:
Typical composition of human fart [fartshare.com]
Nitrogen and oxygen will come mainly from aerophagia (air swallowed), the rest is decomposition of organic matter from food.
And the typical volume a human farts in a day? a bit over half a litter/day [scientopia.org] - with 20%, greenhouse gases emission = 0.5 x .2 = 0.1 litre/day
Ruminants eliminate methane mainly on burps (primary fermentation in rumen). How much methane? Some estimates: [gizmodo.com.au]
Well, that between 120 to 190L/day of methane/day. Something tells me that the cows and human digestive systems are very different in regards with the amount of greenhouse gasses they produce, no matter how much you claim that the bacteria don't care.
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For the bottom line, we need the populations: the humans ,- about 7.5B; the cows about 1B. I trust you can do the math from here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford