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THE PROBLEM
KICK THE HABIT
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Increasing numbers of livestock in modern energy intensive farming
systems are given high-energy feed like soya, often produced in devel-
oping countries (and often used in developed ones). To find the land to
grow it ranchers will sometimes turn forests to pasture. So our meal of
choice has direct consequences for the climate. A report by the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organization found that, globally, livestock ac-
counts for 18 per cent of GHG emissions (37 per cent of human-related
global methane and 65 per cent of global nitrous oxide emissions), a
figure that includes deforestation to clear land for animals, and associ-
ated emissions.
Agriculture is only one of the reasons for deforestation. Activities that result
in land disturbance such as opencast mining or the building of sprawling
cities are other pressures on virgin forests. Destruction of wetlands and
peat bogs also destroys carbon sinks.
1 740
3 500
370
320
230
Annual methane
emissions from the farts
and burps of a
cow
... of a
goat
... of a
sheep
... of a
pig
... of an
ox