The reality of livestock and climate change

Livestock are often said to be unfriendly to the environment, costing a huge amount of feed and water to produce. However, these statements are largely inaccurate

-  Janine Ryan

According to some sources, as of January 2021, around 1% of the world’s population followed a vegan diet. This is expected to increase to around 10% by 2031, if the current trend is anything to go by. One of the trends driving this is animal activism, but the largest trend, by far as it would appear, is climate activism.

The climate is changing, and much of this is due to agriculture, or so many climate-change activists believe. Livestock agriculture, in particular, is to blame for increasing levels of methane in the atmosphere, causing global warming as a result of climate change, according to these activists.

Kurzgesagt, an animation and design studio founded by Philipp Dettmer, for example, posted a video on YouTube about how it takes 25kg of grain to produce only 1kg of beef. By simply feeding people the grains we feed cows, the narrator says, we can feed an additional 3,5 billion people.

Another YouTube page, Cowspiracy, claims that producing a McDonald’s quarter-pounder (with 113g of beef) requires 660 gallons climate change is for everyone to adopt a vegan diet, which is entirely plant-based.

But this information is misleading, as discussed by another YouTuber, Joseph Everett, who spoke to Dr Frank Mitloehner, a professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California Davis.

Mitloehner specialises in sustainable livestock production. He told Everett that animals’ impact on the environment cannot be ignored, but that it is highly overstated by climate-change activists.

WATER