The FAO report found that current production levels of meat contribute between 14 and 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of ´CO2-equivalent´ greenhouse gases the world produces every year. It turns out that producing half a pound of hamburger for someone´s lunch – a patty of meat the size of two decks of cards releases as much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere as driving a 3 000 pound car nearly 10 miles.
For the meat-lovers among you, South African meat is not as AGW-criminal as the picture painted here: our cattle and sheep are still largely grass-fed, so they don´t consume feed grown on huge swathes of farmland which is heavily fertilised and heavily sprayed with herbicides and pesticides; and because they eat a natural diet, their production of the disastrous greenhouse gas, methane, through flatulence, is apparently not a problem!
Another reason to be Proudly South African!
Nicola
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