At the recent American Chemical Society National Meeting, a report from University of California-Davis, Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change, was presented and soundly refuted the claims of Livestock’s Long Shadow, the controversial U.N. report that stated livestock production is responsible for 18% of GHG emissions annually. According to Frank Mitloehner, Ph.D, (pictured) presenter at the meeting, “giving cows and pigs a bum rap is not only scientifically inaccurate, but also distracts society from embracing effective solutions to global climate change.” As it turns out, the actual percentage of GHG’s contributed by livestock is a mere 2.8%. Mitloehner, associate professor at U.C. Davis, also stated that “producing and consuming less meat and milk will only contribute to more hunger in poor countries.”
Clearing the Air has been receiving tons of great media attention and has been highlighted in articles in The Washington Times, The Register (UK), The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Des-Moines Register and has had postings on Yahoo! News online and broadcast reports on FOX news and BBC. To add to the good news, the U.N. admitted that the figures concerning livestock in Livestock’s Long Shadow were exaggerated in comparison to transportation. Pierre Gerber, Policy Officer for the U.N’s FAO, replied to Mitloehner’s criticisms after Clearing the Air came out: “I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport.”
Click to read more about Clearing the Air.
This a great triumph for the agriculture industry — people are paying attention to the facts about livestock production. Hopefully, The NY Times will follow suit and print an article highlighting the hard facts from Clearing the Air.
Until next time,
~Buzzard~