- Around 30% of the crops we grow are fed to animals.
- Livestock is proabbaly responsible for around 14.5% oof man-made greenhouse emissions.
- Cattle digestive system produces methane as a by-product of digesting grass. (Similar, though slightly less with sheep.)
- Intensively reared cattle in the US (fed pellets, kept in fenced in yards with no grass) grow faster and produce up to 40% less methane.
- Environmental impact highest for cattle and sheep, then pigs, then chickens, then mussels.
- To be environmentally friendly, best bet is to stick to less than 100gms (3oz) of meat per day. (That's half what we currently eat.)
Dr Michael Mosley Should I Eat Meat? Documentary on BBC2 (August 2014)
Can eating meat be eco-friendly? BBC News website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28858289
