Don't blame meat producers
By: David Martosko
Newspaper: St. Paul Pioneer Press
By: David Martosko
Newspaper: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Jason Hill should have done a bit more climate change research before indicting meat producers for the state of the planet ("Cows, Congress and climate change," August 13).
The Environmental Protection Agency writes that the entire agriculture sector produces just "6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions" - not the ridiculous 30 percent Hill claimed. And EPA data also show that domestic livestock production is only responsible for 2.4 percent.
In any event, blaming meat producers for greenhouse gas output is a silly exercise. If livestock production disappeared tomorrow, we would just be transporting more tofu around, and plowing and fertilizing the land to supply a new vegetarian utopia. There wouldn't be a significant environmental benefit.
It's only natural that advocates of a slide toward vegetarianism are trying to hitch their cause to the global warming bandwagon. But the facts just aren't on their side.
David Martosko, Washington, D.C. The writer is director of research for the Center for Consumer Freedom.