Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I love good food, and most of my favourite recipes include some from of meat. You can imagine my horror as I casually scroll through science articles online and suddenly see a headline suggesting that climate change is being made worse by meat eaters. I was so shocked my bacon roll almost fell out of my hand! I couldn’t understand it! I try to do my bit when it comes to preventing climate change but I never thought meat had anything to do with it!
The article that interested me was by Weber and Matthews who were researching the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the meals we eat. It also appears that Weber is a strict vegetarian – make of that what you will!
Preconceptions aside, Weber and Matthew’s work is actually quite interesting because instead of just telling you off for eating strawberries from Mexico – because it is not so close to England – they look at greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, transportation and distribution of food consumed, which means (unfortunately for my bacon sandwich) they had quite a convincing argument.
The findings suggest that a household full of people who don’t eat red meat manages to save over five times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions than a household who buys all of their food locally sourced. To put this into perspective, I shall copy their analogy – which involves cars!
Driving a car produces about 4.4 tonnes of CO2 per year which is around 12,000 miles of travel. Now, if we measure the tonnes of CO2 produced by a household by comparing it to miles a car would have to drive then things become a lot easier – apparently.
So, if you imagine this 12,000 miles worth of CO2 building up and your household is to blame, the poor polar bears might start to stare disappointedly at you through the TV adverts. ‘What what can you do?’ I hear you all shout with fear…Well, by eating locally sourced produce you would be saving the equivalent of 1000 miles a year in green house gas emissions in your household compared to most of your neighbours.
Or by eating a diet of chicken, fish and eggs instead of a diet based on red meat and dairy then you could manage to save the equivalent of 1160 miles per year respectively. However those who have managed to shift away from red meat and dairy towards chicken fish and eggs for good can save up to 8100 miles per year of green house gas emissions for their household.
It looks like red meat avoiders everywhere deserve a pat on the back for helping to keep our planet (and polar bears) nice and happy. But it’s OK dedicated meat eaters, you are not bad people! By just cutting back one day a week and having fish instead of meat you too could help to save the planet! Which I think gives you a valid justification for dragging out the cape you used in freshers week and getting your best superhero impression going!
That said, as I look down at my bacon butty (which fortunately Weber and Matthews do not discuss in their article), I can’t help but think…maybe I will start next week!