I have a beef with meat eaters
Farming beef is killing the planet.
So, it turns out that beef farming contributes to massive deforestation. See More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand.
In addition, Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production.
Greenhouse gases = warming planet = disruption and death.
There are a lot of ways that ‘disruption and death’ occur, including starvation due to crop loss, drought, fires (poor air quality takes years off life expectancy), floods, mass migration (of humans and animals), sea level rise, and more.
It’s hard to change habits even when we know it’s bad. Smoking is a classic example. For years, even after the toxic effects of smoking were known, a lot people still lit up. Smoking is incredibly unhealthy for the smoker, but it’s also toxic for people nearby. And yet, even though a lot fewer people choose to smoke these days, some people still choose to do it even knowing how bad it is for them and for others.
Something similar is happening with meat eating, particularly beef. It’s taking some time for information to get out, but it’s increasingly clear that the beef production causes massive greenhouse gas emissions. Beef production accelerates climate change.
What can we do? We can choose to reduce the demand. Typical Europeans and North Americans could cut back one-quarter of their annual average greenhouse gas emissions if they switch to plant-based foods.
The beef industry will resist, just like the tobacco industry did for smoking, and the fossil fuel industry did (and continues to do so) with smear campaigns against climate science.
It’s hard to change a habit, but I’ve stopped eating beef except on rare occasions. If you care about children and future generations, you should do the same.
Here are a few more articles for reference: