The true costs of supermarket meat

Another great article from the New York Times on the costs of industrial production of meat to the environment and our health. Much of this information can be found in The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (see earlier post), and the author also quotes Michael Pollan's new book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (which is on my reading list for this year).

Excerpts from Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler Published New York Times: January 27, 2008

"...an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation...

...if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius....

...Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens

...about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption...It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States...

...We each consume something like 110 grams of protein a day, about twice the federal government’s recommended allowance; of that, about 75 grams come from animal protein. (The recommended level is itself considered by many dietary experts to be higher than it needs to be.)..."

...Perhaps the best hope for change lies in consumers’ becoming aware of the true costs of industrial meat production...