Comments on: Go green, go vegan http://www.carboncommentary.com/2009/10/29/816 A critical appraisal of issues in the move to a low-carbon economy Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:02:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Mike http://www.carboncommentary.com/2009/10/29/816/comment-page-1#comment-2852 Mike Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:42:04 +0000 http://www.carboncommentary.com/?p=816#comment-2852 Our dietary obsession with regular meet is nothing more than habit - people who are used to a western diet of meat with every meal simply expect to have meat readily available. Combine that with the unspoken belief that 'beef is best' and you get intensive farming of a highly inefficient (in terms of conversion of feed to meet) and polluting (green house gases such as methane) animal. Perhaps rather than encouraging people to cut out meat entirely we should be suggesting more alternatives - rabbit meat is out of vogue in part because it is seen as a 'cheap' meat. But it is exceptionally tasty, they convert food well to meat and are lean animals so the meat tends to be healthier. Totally transforming western diets is unlikely to be achieved in the short term, but substituting beef for alternatives should be much more plausible. Our dietary obsession with regular meet is nothing more than habit – people who are used to a western diet of meat with every meal simply expect to have meat readily available. Combine that with the unspoken belief that ‘beef is best’ and you get intensive farming of a highly inefficient (in terms of conversion of feed to meet) and polluting (green house gases such as methane) animal.

Perhaps rather than encouraging people to cut out meat entirely we should be suggesting more alternatives – rabbit meat is out of vogue in part because it is seen as a ‘cheap’ meat. But it is exceptionally tasty, they convert food well to meat and are lean animals so the meat tends to be healthier.

Totally transforming western diets is unlikely to be achieved in the short term, but substituting beef for alternatives should be much more plausible.

]]> By: Aleksandra Lange http://www.carboncommentary.com/2009/10/29/816/comment-page-1#comment-2627 Aleksandra Lange Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:57:08 +0000 http://www.carboncommentary.com/?p=816#comment-2627 Dear Chris, I like your take on the importance of reducing meat consumption globally to minimise the effects of climate change. I work for an energy and environment forum called Comment:Visions (www.commentvisions.com) that is currently discussing the question: How must society adapt to rapid climate change to minimise severe upheaval? Do you think that giving up on meat consumption would be a factor we should seriously consider on a global scale in terms of minimising climate change upheaval? Kind regards, Aleksandra Lange Dear Chris,

I like your take on the importance of reducing meat consumption globally to minimise the effects of climate change. I work for an energy and environment forum called Comment:Visions (www.commentvisions.com) that is currently discussing the question: How must society adapt to rapid climate change to minimise severe upheaval?

Do you think that giving up on meat consumption would be a factor we should seriously consider on a global scale in terms of minimising climate change upheaval?

Kind regards,
Aleksandra Lange

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