December 24, 2015

Lettuce can be harder on environment than some meat

Independent, UK- Eating a healthier diet rich in fruit and vegetables could actually be more harmful to the environment than consuming some meat, a US study has claimed.

Lettuce is “over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon”, according to researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University who analysed the impact per calorie of different foods in terms of energy cost, water use and emissions.

Published in the Environment Systems and Decisions journal, the study goes against the grain of recent calls for humans to quit eating meat to curb climate change.

Researchers did not argue against the idea people should be eating less meat, or the fact that livestock contributes to an enormous proportion of global emissions – up to 51 per cent according to some studies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Complete moronic nonsense. The agricultural inputs for producing lettuce are practically nil when contrasted with those associated in the production of swine, poultry, or beef.

Anonymous said...

There is so much wrong with the assumption that not eating meat is beneficial to the environment. Bison evolved for a million years on the North American great plains. They left deep rich top soil, that was a huge carbon sink. Removing the bison and replacing them with food crops has degraded the land and released huge amounts of carbon. Humans and the planet would all be better off if the great plains were restored to bison grazing, and we ate roaming bison instead of soy wheat and corn.